Primary mixed sex ed classes

It was taught mixed sex 14 years ago

Honestly, it's highly unlikely that the children will ask questions or speak about their own bodies/experiences anyway.

Not my experience at all. I've taught Sex Ed every year for the last 12 years and the children have always asked questions (both openly and through the question box) and some are not shy at all about sharing their own experiences/thoughts/worries with the group if they feel comfortable.

I think it's fine to teach sex ed to a mixed group. Honestly, it's highly unlikely that the children will ask questions or speak about their own bodies/experiences anyway. You're their parent and you can ask about what they were taught and answer any questions they might have. Sex ed is always a bit uncomfortable (have taught sexual health to teens myself) and there will always be a bit of giggly/embarrassed behaviour. A good teacher can deal with this. I think you're overthinking it and there will always be parents who moan about this stuff on WhatsApp groups, but it really is the norm that it's taught in mixed sex groups.

Kids won't be asked to give personal contributions regardless, it will be all just be taught as a matter of facts.

If that have personal questions that they are uncomfortable asking then they should talk to a parent/other adult/teacher outside of lesson time.

You should be able to request the content of the lessons to view beforehand (our school just sent them), it was all very basic stuff and they learned it together. It was done like any other lesson and the children seemed happy and comfortable after, they were provided with little cards to pass to the teacher to signal if they wanted to talk privately.

A lot of posters are assuming that splitting sexes means that different content is taught: it doesn't.

We separate the girls and boys for Sex Ed in Y6. They learn the exact same content but we found that they felt able to be more open with their contributions and questions when taught separately. The children, and our parents, have always been very happy with that arrangement.

I'm pleased so many people have said to trust the teachers. It really is arrogant to assume you definitely know better (parents on the group up in arms) than people who have taught this potentially a dozen or more times before and actually given it a lot of thought over the years.

I Remember in my Primary School, we did have a whole class discussion about sex, but then went off separately and had female Teacher with girls, male Teacher with boys etc to talk about the different changes in the respective bodies. They should offer both to avoid any embarrassment. It's going to be awkward enough otherwise!

Honestly with the lack of knowledge men and boys have about women’s bodies I think it’s actually incredibly important they don’t just get an ‘overview’ of it. Most of these boys will be friends, husbands, fathers, uncles to girls and the stigma needs to be taken away. Give children an option outside of the lesson to discuss any worries they have etc but no, I don’t think they should be taught separately.

Err, isn't it better that they are taught everything together and both boy and girls have equal knowledge of each other's bodies.

Or do parents want their boys to be like the mp, who during the debate about vat on sanitary products asked "why can't they wear tights like my wife?"

it's a bit dark ages surely to divide kids like that?

babynot · Today 17:19
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Also you keep saying about what the class WhatsApp thinks and is saying and admit you were okay with it before.

This. Trust your initial instincts (which were correct).

Also you keep saying about what the class WhatsApp thinks and is saying and admit you were okay with it before.

It's just how it's done in most schools and always works fine.
I'm sure if the class WhatsApp group had a look at the rest of the curriculum they would find many things to be upset about and that they would prefer done differently.

Trust the teachers. I'm sure they'll have systems such as anonymous questions to save kids' blushes. I doubt many kids would be comfortable asking questions out loud anyway, even if only in front of same sex peers so all separating does is encourage the mindset that boys don't need to really understand what happens to girls.

It will be age appropriate. If you don’t make a big deal of it, they won’t. Sooner they understand the facts, the better. All sorts of misinformed nonsense used to be discussed in our playgrounds, pre sex-education sessions. I think separating the sexes suggests there’s something funny or naughty about differences.

(Don’t people teach their kids this stuff at home by 9 these days? Some girls are starting periods by then. We discussed openly as soon as they could understand basic concepts: where do babies come from, how do they get there, why do boys have penises and testicles and girls’ vaginas, etc. Our 4.8 grandson understand these simple facts already. At his age, it’s just information, like 5+5=10, with no connotations.There are some very good age appropriate books to read with your kids).

My 4 year old knows about periods and very basic facts about how babies are made. I’d hope that if you take the approach of being open about it early it never becomes embarrassing. And that there should be nothing in year 5 sex education he doesn’t know.

That's it. Because it's not presented as something 'secret' and just biological facts the children just accept it.

Als0, my daighter was taught in a mixed class which meant she was confident enough to ask her older brother to puck stuff up for her when she needed it because she didn't see it as something that should be a secret from boys.

They've had some oddly (to me with my personal 80s sex ed experience) open conversations about it.

It's just learning scientific facts, they're not being asked to show examples of anything on themselves.
They should all have all the knowledge.

What 'in-depth' things would you like to be done separately?

Sex Education has been taught in mixed classes for several decades now. Thinking about it, I had sex Education at secondary school in the late 80's and it was mixed classes then!!

We teach everything together.

If the girls want to know anything personal they come and ask me afterwards because they generally don't want the other girls hearing either. Akd they haven't been too embarrassed to ask stuff in front of the boys.

It leads to some really interesting discussions, tbh - eg I've been asked by a boy how your body knows when to make breastmilk on the back of it. The childen are really respectful, absolutely fascinated, questions are always limited to the lesson and there's no silliness afterwards. Having seen how well it works, I'd always been in favour of it now.

Treating it like its a secret tends to cause more issues IME.

Besides, we can't complain that men are clueless if we don't educate boys properly.

I agree with that approach