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Views of teachers, parents and young people to help shape
first updating of relationships and sex education guidance
since 2000
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New approach to combat online issues
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Follows confirmation that the subject will be compulsory in
all schools, to help equip every young person for life in
modern Britain
The government is asking parents, teachers and young people to
help shape a new relationships and sex education curriculum that
will help them stay safe and face the challenges of the modern
world.
The current statutory guidance for teaching Relationships and Sex
Education (RSE) was introduced in 2000. It currently fails to
address risks to children which have grown in prevalence in
recent years, including online pornography, sexting and staying
safe online.
The guidance is being updated after legislation was passed by
Parliament earlier this year to make relationships education
compulsory in all primary schools and relationships and sex
education compulsory in all secondary schools.
As part of that process, an eight week call for evidence
will invite views on
age-appropriate content on mental wellbeing, staying safe online
and LGBT issues in the updated subjects.
The move to make RSE compulsory was welcomed by the teaching
profession and organisations such as Barnardo’s, Stonewall, the
Catholic Education Service, NSPCC, Terrence Higgins Trust and the
End Violence Against Women coalition.
Education Secretary said:
It is unacceptable that Relationships and Sex Education
guidance has not been updated for almost 20 years especially
given the online risks, such as sexting and cyber bullying, our
children and young people face. Young people must have an
education that teaches them the importance of healthy and
stable relationships.
This call for evidence is about giving teachers, parents and
especially young people a chance to help shape that new
approach and I’d urge them to take part.
Currently only pupils attending local-authority run secondary
schools – which represent around a third of secondary schools –
are guaranteed to be offered Sex and Relationship Education as
currently delivered.
The ‘call for evidence’ aims to gather views from people across
England from all backgrounds on the content of this subject. It
will look to establish:
- what teachers think they should be teaching their pupils to
help them navigate the modern world they are growing up in;
- how parents expect their children to be taught this topic in
a safe and age-appropriate way; and
- what children themselves think they would benefit from
understanding the most, and the online risks they are concerned
with.
Ian Bauckham, who was awarded the CBE in 2017 for services to
education, will lead this process. He is CEO of a multi-academy
trust, executive head of a large 11-18 Church of England
comprehensive in Kent and, as a National Leader of Education
(NLE), works with many other schools in the region and more
widely.
Ian Bauckham CBE said:
I warmly welcome the government’s decision to seek views on
these important topics. Since I started work as a teacher over
thirty years ago, enormous changes have taken place both in the
lives of young people and in the wider world in which we are
preparing them to live. I hope that the call for evidence being
launched now gives us the chance to find out about the best
teaching and to improve provision for all our young people in
all types of school.
The teaching of this important subject in schools is supported by
the wider public. Recent surveys show that:
- 91% of parents believe all pupils should receive lessons to
teach them about the risks of sexting, as well as other issues
such as contact from strangers online; and
- 74% of 11 – 15 years old believe that children would be safer
if they had age appropriate classes on relationships and sex
education.
