Reaction to Government sex education plans

New Government guidance will prevent schools in England from teaching students about gender identity.

The Department for Education says the regulation will protect children from inappropriate teaching on sensitive topics.

Teaching of gender identity will be not allowed at primary or secondary level.

Sex education before Year 5, when children are aged nine, will also be banned.

The DfE say the guidance comes after ‘multiple reports of disturbing materials being used in Relationships, Sex and Health Education (RSHE) lessons.’

Many teachers and teaching unions have said the review is politically motivated and that there is no evidence of a widespread problem.

This updated Sex Education curriculum is open for an eight-week consultation from today, Wednesday 16th of May.

Secondary school pupils will learn about sexual orientation and gender reassignment, but not about gender identity.

Additionally, schools will be required to ensure that RSHE teaching materials are available to parents and that parents are aware of what is being taught.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said that parents should be able to trust that their children are safe and taught appropriate content when at school:

“I will always act swiftly to protect our children and this new guidance will do exactly that, while supporting teachers to teach these important topics sensitively and giving parents access to curriculum content if they wish.”

Education Secretary Gillian Keegan said the updated guidance was focused on protecting children:

“It will support schools with how and when to teach often difficult and sensitive topics, leaving no doubt about what is appropriate to teach pupils at every stage of school.”

“Parents can be reassured once and for all their children will only learn age-appropriate content.”

Oscar Hoyle is CEO of Blossom, an organisation which provides supportive spaces for LGBTQ+ young people in Surrey.

They say this lack of education will have a negative impact going forward:

"What we're going to see going forward is a number of young adults who have been impacted by unsafe sex education, be that through accessing online pornography or digital forums which will encourage poor behaviour and reinforce unhealthy stereotypes into the way that they see what a traditional relationship should be.”

“Prohibiting sex education before the age of nine, which is already putting children at significant risk of not being able to report sexually inappropriate conduct by adding that extra layer of not teaching around gender identity for so long.”

“We need to acknowledge that diverse people, and people who are in all sorts of different relationships exist, whether or not we like it, and by not acknowledging that we often leave students feeling that they're not the norm, which can relate to them either finding themselves in unhealthy relationships, or it can mean that they don't understand very basic elements of sex education.”

“Both the Conservative Party and the Labour Party seem to have a real misinterpretation, or a misunderstanding of what people believe is an issue for children.”

“Children and parents are more concerned about our schools crumbling, and about teachers not being paid, they're more concerned about a lack of teaching staff, and this is a distraction technique.”

“If we're not talking about the existence of trans people, and what they need to know when it comes to sex, then we're putting them at risk of sexual assault, of domestic violence and domestic abuse, because they aren't able to articulate or know what their experience as a community.”

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