Inaccurate report from the Times on the future of 'sexual health lessons'

Last week The Times reported that 'lessons in Citizenship, sexual health, thinking and functional skills are set to be dropped by many in a radical slimming down of the national curriculum'. It is based on the information on an unnamed Government source and perhaps more solidly on a paper written by Tim Oates, director of research at Cambridge Assessment, parent body of the OCR exam board.

Now the headline was clear - 'sexual health lessons to be scrapped in review of the curriculum', and understandably there was a little twitter of concern about the implications of this. I read the paper this weekend to ascertain the truth.

The paper Could do better: using international comparisons to refine National Curriculum in England does indeed mention sexual health on page 2. It says;

Adjustments have occurred not only in the 'core' material of the currculum (e.g the removal of the cross curriculum themes and skills: the move from ten levels to eight) but in the repeated addition of new material (e.g functional skills, Citizenship, sexual health as a theme in biology), changes in assessment (e.g the incorporation of mental mathematics in testing......

But that is the only mention, and Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Education in his Foreword states that Department for Education will 'launch its own review of the National Curriculum and the remit will explicitly, for the first time, require benchmarking against the most successful school systems.'

So my conclusion is that we don't know whether or not sexual health lessons will be scrapped in the review of the national curriculum, because the review hasn't happened yet - the only exception to my conclusion would be if the government source quoted in the article told The Times more than 'the national curriculum MIGHT be reduced to 20 or 30 pages and gave a more detailed account of what it would include. Unlikely if the review hasn't happened.

For those of you interested in the national curriculum, Oates' paper is worth a read.

Sex, religion and the pope

There are pages and pages about the pope's state visit this week - whatever you think about the visit and whatever your religious views and perspectives, one thing is sure, his visit is causing lots of opportunities to discuss (often passionately) how we teach children about relationships, sex and keeping safe with people with all sorts of different beliefs.

I have come across the following articles and letters which are interesting perspectives. I was privileged almost a decade ago to work with a multi-faith group to develop a framework for teaching about sex and relationships in a multi-faith and multi-cultural society. The book, Faith, Values and Sex and Relationships Education published by the National Children's Bureau. The links at the end of the blog provide a link through to the factsheet that came from that work, and some recent case studies of practical work that is being done working with Faith Communities and teaching about sex and relationships.

Report in the telegraph on survey about Roman Catholics views on traditional teaching about sexuality issues, including contraception and homosexuality.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/religion/the-pope/7995094/Pope-visit-Most-Catholics-oppose-church-teaching-on-sex.html


An open letter from FPA and NAT about the pope and his teachings


http://www.fpa.org.uk/Campaignsandadvocacy/Advocacyandlobbying/pope

An article by Polly Toynbee

http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/pollytoynbee

And finally, here is an excellent factsheet and some case study examples from the Sex Education Forum about how to teach about sex and relationships in a multi-faith and multi-cultural society

http://www.ncb.org.uk/dotpdf/open%20access%20-%20phase%201%20only/ff_faith02_sef_2005.pdf

http://www.ncb.org.uk/sef/practice/faith_and_values.aspx

Interesting research on girls and puberty

There is an increasing body of research about the earlier onset of puberty. This particular article in the Guardian this week focuses on girls in the USA.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/aug/09/us-study-early-onset-puberty-girls

Over recent months I find myself in more and more conversations with people across Brook about the younger clients that we see and the questions they have about relationships and sex. The age of puberty, sexual development and sexual activity has been the subject of much discussion ever since I have been working in sexual health over the last 15 years.

This type of research shows yet again that we must work with the fact and science that many children are maturing faster than in previous generations and as adults - parents, teachers and other educators we must ensure we provide timely education and support so they do not grow up with the fear, embarrassment and silence that so many of my generation did.

And of course yet more reinforcement of the need for compulsory sex and relationships education in schools. Not that we require any more evidence of its need.