The Accord Coalition has given its backing to a new campaign launched by the Sex Education Forum (SEF) today called ‘SRE – It’s my right‘, which seeks to transform the provision of Sex and Relationships Education (SRE) in schools in England and Wales.
Currently state funded schools do not need to provide SRE beyond basic and cursory sex education in the National Science Curriculum, which Academies are able to ignore. Teachers also do not have basic training in SRE as part of initial teacher training and do not have the option to train as a SRE specialist teacher. Last year Ofsted found that Sex and Relationships Education required improvement in over a third of state funded schools.
Chair of the Accord Coalition, Rabbi Dr Jonathan Romain, said ‘Sex education is vital. It would be tragic if we were to return to the days of children learning about sex from toilet walls or from exposure to misleading online messages because head teachers can’t find time for it or deliberately ignore it for religious reasons.’
‘The best schools already provide high quality SRE, but its development is frustrated in others by a narrow lobby lacking in evidence, which seeks to delay when information surrounding how human reproduction occurs is presented. This is an important safeguarding issue – children and young people should have an entitlement to learn about how their bodies work and pressures and risks they may face. To deny this education places their health and well-being at risk.
‘Accord is very pleased to add its support to the SEF’s campaign, which seeks to ensure the teaching of SRE in schools is made statutory, that teacher training is much improved and that values and influences that shape attitudes towards sex and relationships are considered, including religious and cultural ones, but in a way that is focused on the expressed needs of pupils. It is time government heeded to public sentiment, evidence and expert opinion.’
In a survey this year of over 200 SRE teachers the SEF found that 68% said they needed more training to be able to provide quality teaching in the subject and that 89% thought they should have been given the option to train as specialists in PSHE (which includes SRE) during their initial teacher training. In April a Jewish Chronicle commissioned opinion poll found that 82% of people (to 9% against) thought faith schools should not be freed from a requirement to provide sex education. Accord has joined a large number of groups in signing an open letter organised by the SEF to party political leaders, which is published in today’s Guardian.
Notes
The SEF is a charity and was founded in 1987. It brings together a large array of SRE practitioners and member groups, including health, education, and religion and belief organisations. Statistics from its (2014) ‘Your experiences of teaching SRE’ survey of 208 teachers of SRE in England have been released as part of its campaign.
