There were fireworks in and around Westminster and subsequently up and down the country on Thursday 5th November when, remember remember, the current Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, Ed Balls, announced that from 2011 sex education will be a compulsory part of the curriculum in both primary and secondary schools, with parents unable to withdraw their children from the age of fifteen. This undoubtedly controversial move is in response to a recently completed independent review of the provision for the teaching of sexual health, values, etc within the current education framework.
"Under the new curriculum, pupils as young as 7 will learn about puberty and the facts of life and 5-year-olds will be taught about parts of the body, relationships and the effects of drugs on the body.
When they reach secondary school, pupils will learn about contraception, HIV and Aids, pregnancy and different kinds of relationships — including same-sex unions and civil partnerships."
As a secondary school teacher at a tough, fairly typical comprehensive school on the outskirts of London, this is a topic relevant to my job that has long since held my interest and I have previously included a post on this blog about sex education for four year olds.
Sarah Ebner over at School Gate Times Online is one of many well-respected voices in the public domain who has written about this issue during the past few days. The comments section following her post gives an interesting indication of the wide-ranging opinions the issue of sex education at school always seems to provoke.
As things stand at the moment, students must be taught the basic biological and scientific reproductive facts. This normally takes place in general science lessons or in specialist biology lessons, depending on the school. In my experience, as a student and as a teacher, this tends to involve a nervous teacher shuffling at the front as (s)he talks to a group of sniggering and often equally uncomfortable kids about things that many of them are already far too familiar with. There is no requirement at the moment for schools to deliver lessons on relationships and the non-physical side of sex, namely the social and emotional consequences and responsibilities that go along with being sexually active. Some schools do make an autonomous decision to teach this sort of thing, often under the umbrella of PSHE (Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education).
This contentious issue continues to be highly-debated because it seems that those with different opinions will always be poles apart with no hope of being reconciled. For example, under the new agreement faith schools will be obliged to provide information about contraception. On the contrary, though, family groups have welcomed the proposed changes because, understandably, they believe that education about - and perhaps a certain level of promotion of - birth control may eventually lead to an undeniably much-needed reduction in pregnancy rates among British teenagers.
As a teacher with a reasonable amount of experience, I always voice two main concerns whenever I discuss or write about sex education in schools. Firstly, it is yet another example of too much responsibility being placed on schools and their staff, with even more emphasis therefore being removed from already irresponsible parents. Secondary school teachers are specialists who choose to and are trained to teach subject-specific lessons. We do not receive the necessary training that would allow us to deliver proper, well-informed sex ed lessons. There needs to be an agreed balance between home and school, with a shared responsibility between the two. This should not be viewed as an excuse for parents to ignore their role in educating their own kids about sex and reltionships, as is often the case. Those parents who are so irresponsible that they leave the teaching of sex, sexual health and relationships exclusively to the school have no right to comlain about what the kids subsequently learn. In addition to all of this, kids and their parents must receive non-judgemental help and advice relating to the social and emotional circumstances that frequently lead to young people having irresponsible (and often illegal) sex without giving sufficient consideration to the potentially devastating consequences of their chosen behaviour.
The other, often ignored issue that the general public seems to be unaware of is that PSHE is usually considered by most teachers - and by extension their students - to be a waste of time. This opinion is fostered by the fact that no training is provided for staff, schemes of work and resources are either unavailable or sorely inadequate, and nobody within each individual school takes ultimate responsibility for what is/isn't taught. I realise and appreciate that there will of course be schools where this not the case but, without exception, this has been true for every school that I have worked in. In fact, at my current school, all Key Stage 3 students (Years 7 - 9) do not have any PSHE lessons on ther timetables.
Although I could never be described as a fan of Ed Balls, I believe that this proposal is a positive step in the right direction. (Genuine consultation with teachers and parents would have made it even better!). In order for it to be successful, teachers, parents and the government will need to work together to ensure that PSHE and SRE (Sex and Relationships Education) provide helpful, relevant and non-biased information to the children in our care.
9 comments:
I'm with you on this. I posted at SchoolGate that while I'm willing to teach this aspect of PSHE (and others) I've not been offered the right training to do so. The last couple of schools I've worked at have had someone on staff who "co-ordinates" PSHE, but in both cases, this person wasn't a specialist - one was a PE teacher and the other an Art teacher. Kudos to them for taking it on, but it's far from ideal. The school I trained at had the right idea - there was a dedicated PSHE lesson on the timetable each week with a teacher other than form tutors (I think the Humanities dept had PSHE under their "umbrella") - so the kids saw it more as a "proper lesson" rather than, as at my current school, an extension of tutor time. As it is, our tutor periods are only ten minutes, so we all tend to use some of the PSHE time to catch up with "form stuff" like checking homework diaries and uniform and all the other odds-and-sods we're supposed to do each week.
My eldest daughter is in year 6 and had "the talk" last summer at school. But I made sure I'd spoken to her first - not only because I wanted to, but because I think it's a parent's responsibility and not the sort of thing that should be left to the school. It's important to be able to discuss matters relating to sex with your kids and for them to feel comfortable asking questions of their parents. Yes, there's a place for it in school, and it should be included, but we should be backing up the things kids are told at home, and not be their only source of information.
Caz, I agree with and can relate to everything that you have said here- in fact, the first paragraph resonates so strongly with my own experiences that you could be any one of my former or current colleagues!
Your opinons in the second paragraph are spot on. There needs to be a balance between school and the home. Sex and relationship education should never be mutually exclusive to either one. It astounds and horrifies me that a worrying percentage of parents are happy for the school to be the only source of information for their own kids when it comes to sex and indeed a high number of other issues. As I have said many times on this blog, this undeniable lack of positive parental involvement is at the core of many of this country's ills.
Very presumptuous. The school is not the child's parent. Whether the child's parent leaves out sex ed teaching altogether is NONE of the school's business. "Proper balance," nothing. It should be all on the parent's side. Whose children are they? Why would this be a concern that would OVERRIDE parental concerns on the issue?
Hey, I can understand where you might be concerned about kids... but I think you're also a bit prophetic here. Already many otherwise good parents are delegating their children's education to the schools. They are beginning to delegate the feeding of breakfast and lunch. And now they ought delegate the teaching of sex and relationships?
More than that, a teacher and group setting is very uncomfortable for many students.
I don't see where the couse couldn't be offered, but parents would have to ask to opt IN.
I haven't had a proper look at this yet, but it does look like the Government have given proper consideration to the draft version of UNESCO's new guide to sexuality education.
Let's hope so. I also hope they're going to include discussion of the presentation of sexuality in the media.
Mrs C- I don't mean to be presumptious and am simply stating my opinions from the teacher's perspective.
I agree that some parents are already (wrongly) delegating certain responsibilities to school and, while I believe that this only adds to the problem, it is nonetheless a problem that does exist and needs to be acknowledged and dealt with.
I agree that the correct and proper place for sex and relationship education is in the home. However, the above average rates of pregnancy among teenagers in this country strongly suggests that in many cases the parents are not adequately fulfilling their role - as with good manners, social skills and, as you say, meals - therefore the school system has a duty to step in and fill the void. For me, this is the correct decision.
Ideally, kids would receive information from a variety of sources, principally from parents but also from teachers. This is what I describe as a proper balance.
Mrs C, please tell me this.
Are all parents experts in sexual health? Do they all have the necessary knowledge to pass on to their children so that their children can protect themselves?
I think you'll find that the answer to that is no.
I'm a little annoyed by most of the media coverage of this focusing on the parent's rights. What about the child's right to sexual health?
What about their right to discuss and find out about the changes happening to their own bodies? What about their right to know about contraception so that if they do decide to have sex (which no one is telling them to do), then they at least know how to protect themselves?
Leaving it to the age of 15 would be too late for many children - puberty and sexual activity often starts before that age.
You do know that an 18 year old is not currently allowed to attend sex education classes if their parents don't want them to, don't you?
That would be an 18 year old who also has the right to vote. That would be an adult.
Really good and thoughtful post. I agree that parents need to do more, but also that there is definitely a place for school involvement too. However (and we agree on this, I think), there must be proper training on this and not an assumption that teachers will simply add this onto their subject specialisms and just see how it goes.
Mr. Teacher, I *do* understand where someone might wish to teach a course. But I still am not seeing where parents couldn't keep their children out of that if that's what they want. No doubt you come across some doozie bad parenting, so I can see where you might want some sort of minimum standard. I'm just saying that imposing it on a conservative religious population like mine won't get you the result you intend. :P
Phil H, I honest to goodness have no clue what sort of expert knowledge people need to pass on to their children in regards to this topic. People have had children for thousands (millions if you're of a secular viewpoint) of years. I'm wondering if you think teens need to know how to flout their parents' wishes "safely." If so, you're advocating for a deliberate and coordinated disregard for all teachings of parents with which the state disagrees. For the child's sake, of course.
Just to let you know we (I'm not actually at school anymore but it is not that long ago!) really did think PSHE was a waste of time, it was boring and pointless, generally the teacher didn't know much about the topic and it was almost always too late...don't smoke at 15 when everyone started or decided not to at 13, sex ed at 16 when no one at all hadn't had sex etc.
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