The recent announcement by Education Secretary Justine Greening that there would be amendments to the Children’s Work and Social Bill which would require all children from the age of four to be taught about safe and healthy relationships while all secondary schools pupils would learn about sex and relationships, has received generally positive feedback from local authorities and children’s charities.

The Education Secretary explained that these amendments would ensure that schools taught, “children and young people how to stay safe and healthy, and how to negotiate some of the personal and social challenges they will face growing up and as adults.”

The new curriculum could be taught to students in all school including academies, independent schools and religious free schools by 2019. Previously Sex Education had only been compulsory in council-run secondary schools, as part of the science curriculum but this had focused on the biological aspects of reproduction and did not cover relationships, while academies and free schools were free to chose whether or not they taught sex education.

However, the new amendment does afford academies and free schools some flexibility on how to best teach these subjects, so they can implement the new curriculum in accordance with the needs of the local communities and religious perspectives.

Gov.uk explained that relationships education (RSE) is, “designed to ensure pupils are taught the knowledge and life skills they will need to stay safe and develop healthy and supportive relationships, particularly dealing with the challenges of growing up in an online world.”

The intentions are that as students mature, their relationship studies will gradually incorporate aspects of sexual education, appropriate to the age of the students. Policy makers hope the new curriculum will teach students how to stay safe and smart in an ever-increasing online world and lessons will cover things like sexting, pornography and cyber bullying.

Commenting on the curriculum changes, General secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, Russell Hobby, said, “We welcome the announcements made today…We have long advocated age-appropriate sex education and PSHE, for all pupils in all schools, to help prepare young people for the challenges they will encounter in their adult lives and the current challenges they face beyond the school gates.”

Many who welcome the changes believe that they are long overdue. Last year the Local Government Association warned that students in England were at risk of contracting sexually transmitted infections because they were not being properly prepared.

Furthermore, Britain remains an unenviable world leader in family breakdown, with 60% of children born to unmarried parents experiencing family breakdown before their teenage years. It’s hoped that by including RSE in the school curriculum, young people will be better equipped to build successful relationships in the future.

Prior to these changes the general public had also recognised the country’s approach to sex education was outdated and insufficient to help young people deal with the challenges they now face in the digital age.

A recent survey of 2,000 adults, which was conducted Plan International UK, revealed that; 70% of men and 79% of women thought the “impact of pornography” should be taught in schools, 65% of men and 77% of women believed sexting awareness lessons should be introduced in schools, 79% of men and 86% of women answered that violence and abuse should be covered in these lessons, and 86% of adults also wanted sexual consent to be covered by the school curriculum education. While a YouGov survey discovered that 78% of adults were concerned about teenages sexting and 90% believed there should be more education on the issue.

Javed Khan, Barnardo’s Chief Executive, explained how he believed the recent amendment had potential to address many of these issues, explaining, “We are thrilled the Government has listened to our campaign to provide all school children with age-appropriate school lessons on sex and healthy relationships to help keep them safe.

“Barnardo’s has long campaigned for this vital education so children can better understand the dangers in the real world and online. We believe this will give children the knowledge and skills they need to help prevent them being groomed and sexually exploited.”

The Girlguiding Advocates also spoke positively of the changes, commenting, ““For three years Girlguiding’s young members from across the country have asked for a school curriculum that includes sexual consent, LGBTQ, tackling violence against women and girls, online safety, and healthy relationships. We have shared our personal and difficult experiences of sexual harassment at school, and time and time again we have pointed to the hard evidence of the urgent need for compulsory SRE.

“In 2015, only half of girls age 11 to 21 told Girlguiding that they were taught about their choices should they become pregnant, about violence against women and girls, or that girls and boys their age understand that sexual consent is about getting AND giving permission.

“It’s amazing that Parliament has shown that it has listened to girls and made a decision that will improve the lives of all young people, enabling them to make safe and informed decisions.”

The Women’s Equality Party, has also been campaigning for an overhaul to how sex education is delivered in school, as Charlotte Mead explains, “This update of SRE is long overdue. It’s been 17 years since sex education guidance was last updated and things have changed greatly for our young people in that time meaning that it is vital that their education covers issues such as sexualised bullying via mobile phones and the internet, respect and consent.

“I believe that all children have a right to be taught the skills which allows them to navigate their relationships and sexuality. There is still further work to be done to ensure that all children get the right to this and that LGBT+ issues are included. We will continue to press the government but this is a welcome step forward.”

Despite the overwhelmingly positive reaction to the government’s plans, there remained some concerns about how these measures will actually be introduced in the classrooms to ensure they are genuinely age appropriate and the lessons take account of young children’s level of emotional development and their readiness to cope and understand these delicate issues. Previously sex education was usually taught by educators skilled and trained to deliver this content, but now it is likely that all primary school teachers will be given the responsibility of delivering this delicate content. These concerns were raised by the Safe at School Campaign which described the announcement as a “tragedy”. National co-ordinator Antonia Tully explained, “Parents will be absolutely powerless to protect their children from presentations of sexual activity, which we know is part of many sex education teaching resources for primary school children.”

Hopefully, local authorities and school leaders will be providing training and support for all teachers who are given this new responsibility to ensure this well intentioned initiative can equip young people to successfully negotiate the challenges of live in the 21st Century

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An ammusing Gif about how sex education was previously taught –
https://media.giphy.com/media/3o7aTDP5aDFogC5KmY/giphy.gif

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