Sex Education for Year 4

[GreatWhale]

My daughter has come home with a letter stating next week they will be shown a dvd from the Channel 4 Living and Growing Series which will include animated images of sexual intercourse and a footage of an actual birth. I'm just not sure about whether at 8/9 this is not abit too early? Not sure at 40 even I want to see footage of a live birth.

Has anyone else any experience of this? My daughter is developing and knows about bodily changes and the basic mechanics but I don't think she neccessarily needs to see graphic imagery just yet.

If its anything like the one my 9 year old saw it wasn't very graphic.

Go and ask them to see it and decide for yourself. We show it to Year 4 and haven't had any complaints, other than those who choose to withdraw in advance and don't agree with sex ed in schools.

Actually - seeing the video isn't so much the problem is the forum. In a group of 30 mixed gender kids where some are very confident and cocky and others more sensitive and not so confident. I think it is the sort of thing I would prefer to watch with her and stop and chat as she needed.

Also - one of my firends has seen it and says its ok but very girl centred. Her concern is that some of the less sensitive boys will goad the girls abit about it.
That said - I'm not going to stop her seeing it. Just be ready for lots of questions and support at the time.

I watched it with my Y4 class last week. The footage of a live birth is about 1 minute of the baby emerging and my lot didn't really 'get' why it was called labour if it's that quick. We spent more time talking about that than anything else.

My class is mixed, in every sense of the word, and they coped brilliantly with it. The DVD is set up in such a way that it is possible to have the discussion points running alongside the programme so after particular questions have been raised it pauses and a question comes up on screen.

I used post-it notes with my class so they could write down anything they wanted clarified either by me (in front of the class or not) or by a parent. The main issues raised were; how do siamese twins happen, why don't babies come out of the same bit as poo, does it hurt to have a baby, does drinking lots of wine when pregnant cause miscarriage, do people get pregnant every single time they have sex?