Age appropriate lessons with an emphasis on what makes healthy relationships will be taught to children aged four and onwards while the BIG birds and bees talk will be given when they get older. However, parents will still have the right to withdraw children from these classes. Up until now though, sex education classes have only been mandatory in council-run schools.
The Department for Education (DfE) has said primary school pupils will learn about staying safe and building healthy relationships while those attending secondary school will partake in lessons delving into online pornography, sexual harassment, and the dangers of sexting.The government will be discussing what and when to teach children later this year, with students being taught the new curriculum from September 2019.
In an interview with the BBC, Education Secretary Justine Greening said; “At the moment, many schools teach sex and relationships education. But it’s not mandatory, and therefore, for many children, they are not coming out of our schools really being equipped to deal with the modern world or indeed be safe and protected from some of the very modern challenges that young people face on cyberbullying and texting.
“What we’re introducing today is mandatory relationships and sex education in all secondary schools, but also mandatory relationships education in primary schools as well.
“And, of course, all of this, it’s important, is age-appropriate and, of course, it’s also important to retain, for sex education, a parent’s right to withdraw a child.”
Greening also added faith schools would be able to teach in accordance to the tenets of their beliefs.
