A poor report?

"…sex education was taught only once, and very briefly, in the final year. 'The Year 6 girls did periods while the boys did road safety,' said the headteacher…"

Intense peer and media pressure and society’s mixed messages leave children and young people with a partial picture of sex and confusion and uncertainty about it. Yet we deny them the security of decent and reliable sex and relationship education.

Why is Sex and Relationship Education (SRE) in the UK such a mess? Until very recently there had been no clear steer from government despite calls from Ofsted, sexual health charities and others. But things are changing.

“schools have not received the guidance and support they need on these (SRE) issues” (Ofsted 2007) .

Because the public debate on SRE is often ill-informed, many governing bodies bury their heads in the sand and hope SRE will go away. The “Daily Hysteria” seems to drive the agenda with ‘myth-information’ and over-reaction (recent misleading headlines: “Children aged 5 to be taught about contraception”; “schools encouraging underage sex”; “call for sex lessons at age four”).

Many teachers feel unsafe about teaching SRE because they lack confidence and training and fear a backlash from the tabloid press. Many parents lack confidence themselves and hope that schools are doing SRE but are confused by the headlines in the newspapers, so are unsure about supporting the school. Pupils tell us they want clear information and sound advice from their parents and their schools but aren’t getting it. They tell us that what they do get is “too little, too late and too biological…”
 
The United Kingdom has one the worst rates of unwanted teenage pregnancy in the developed world and sexually transmitted infections, such as Chlamydia, are on a seemingly exponential increase. Throw in the issues we have with young people and alcohol and sex and… well, you get the idea! But it needn’t be like this, there can be ‘good SRE’...