PSHE and Sex and Relationships Education
A vital task for all schools is the moral education of children, which includes the encouragement of understanding and respect between different groups in society. As part of a broader curriculum including RE and Citizenship, we believe Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) education, which includes Sex and Relationships Education (SRE), has an important role to play in this.
We unequivocally support making PSHE a statutory part of the curriculum, and believe that the religious character of a school should not deprive children of their entitlement to good PSHE. We believe that the right of children to PSHE is more important than any other consideration and consequently that the right of parental withdrawal should cease.
Recently we have been working in favour of strengthening PSHE and SRE through the Government’s PSHE Review, and will be encouraging contributions from our members and supporters once the review continues to progress.
Sex and Relationships Education
Good quality, age-appropriate Sex and Relationships Education (SRE) is a vital part of PSHE. It is known to reduce unwanted pregnancies, to reduce the spread of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and equip young people with the language and tools to be clear about personal boundaries and understand appropriate and inappropriate behaviour, to be able to resist pressure assertively and to know whom to talk to and how to ask for help if and when they need it. It helps older children resist pressure, make safe choices, and be able to challenge and be critical of misleading and inappropriate messages about sex in the media. National and international research shows that young people who have had good SRE are more likely to choose to have sex for the first time later. When they do have sex they are more likely to use condoms and contraception.
We believe that all children are entitled to full, accurate and age-appropriate SRE, including education about forming and maintaining rewarding relationships and unbiased information on contraception, STIs, abortion, sexual orientation, and the many forms of family relationship conducive to individual fulfilment and the stability of society.
Despite the obvious public health and child rights imperative for SRE, the current situation is that maintained schools do not have to teach any SRE beyond basic information on puberty, anatomy and human reproduction found in the Science national curriculum. Maintained secondary schools must also teach about HIV and AIDS. However, Academies and Free Schools do not have to teach any of this. And parents are entitled to withdraw their children from all aspects of SRE not found in the Science national curriculum. As a consequence, SRE provision is patchy across schools, and the standards and scope vary widely between schools.
Our firm belief that all children are entitled to essential basic information about human reproduction and physiology in science and to broader and comprehensive SRE elsewhere in the curriculum means that we want it taught as a compulsory subject in all schools from primary age, with no parental opt out.
What we’re doing
The BHA is a longstanding member of the Sex Education Forum (SEF), and we recommend its work to teachers, school managers and governors. The BHA also sits on the SEF’s policy working group, representing a humanist perspective to the policy and parliamentary work of the SEF.
Prior to the 2010 General Election, we were supportive of the then-Labour Government’s plans to place PSHE on the National Curriculum, and were bitterly disappointed when those plans were later dropped as the Children, Schools and Families Act was not passed until the wash-up period right before the election.
Since then, we worked with peers to introduce amendments to the Education Act 2011 which would have made the same changes – but these were rejected. We have also supported private members’ bills aiming to achieve the same thing, and opposed attempts to introduce abstinence-only education. We also submitted a detailed response to the PSHE Review, and were disappointed that the outcome of that Review proposed no changes. We also took part in the Labour Party’s review of the curriculum.
From 2012, we have been working with Education For Choice and others to expose groups that are ideologically against abortion which have been making unevidenced claims around abortion and contraception in schools. Groups such as SPUC, LIFE and Lovewise have been found to be making unevidenced claims such as that abortion causes breast cancer, or leads to depression and suicide. In February 2013, Education For Choice published a report on this work.
Get involved
We’re currently fundraising to keep our dedicated campaigner on ‘faith’ schools and education – the only full-time campaigner on these issues in the UK. We’ve not yet raised his salary for 2013 – you can help us do so by donating at http://www.justgiving.com/nofaithschools.
We continue to be concerned about anti-abortion groups making dangerous claims in schools. If you are aware of groups such as SPUC, LIFE and Lovewise going into a school, please let us know.
The next phase of the PSHE review is due to begin shortly. We’ll be replying, and encouraging our members and supporters to do likewise.
You can also support the BHA by becoming a member. That helps in itself, and you can help even more by supporting our campaigns in the ways suggested above. But campaigns also cost money – quite a lot of money – and we also need financial support. You can make a donation to the BHA.
