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Primary education

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Original poster

Shocked: sex education in year 1 ?! [angry]

111 replies

LlZZlE · 01/07/2015 22:22

Hi, my little girl is in year one, she was 6 in March.

The school are planning on showing them a video next week that the parents were told was "about the difference between boys and girls" and we were told it was part of the science curriculum. We were asked if we would like to see it,and a few of us went along. WELL! This video is more like sex education. It talks about men and women "using their sex parts to make babies" and it also states that "a girls clitoris and a boys penis sometimes goes hard" and that "it feels nice".

Now, I am far from prudish, and I am open and honest with my child, but I (along with a few Mom's that saw the video) think this is far too much information for children aged 5 & 6. I personally believe this is encouraging the sexualisation of children and I am very angry that when we asked the teacher before seeing the video, we were told categorically that it was not sex education...this is why so few of us went, as the teacher was so nonchalant about it. Angry

May I ask, when did your child start sex ed in school, and do you think this is too soon?

Many thanks.

OP posts:
MMmomKK · 01/07/2015 22:35

Strange. Dd1 is in Y3 and nothing like that has been covered in her school.

AndNowItsSeven · 01/07/2015 22:36

Absolutely no way any primary age child of mine even year six would be watching that video.

Ilikesweetpeas · 01/07/2015 22:38

That sounds like too much info for y1. If this was my child I would say I didn't give permission for them to watch it

AuntieStella · 01/07/2015 22:38

I can't remember a time when they weren't doing some form of SRE.

But the video you described sounds as if it is not for their age group (the specific ins and outs being more y5/6 not age 5/6).

Can you remember the name of what they showed you?

NeedAScarfForMyGiraffe · 01/07/2015 22:39

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

JasperDamerel · 01/07/2015 22:39

My kids weren't shown anything like that in school, but the information itself doesn't seem inappropriate for their age.

happybubblebrain · 01/07/2015 22:42

It started in year 2, with a bit more detail in year 3. I wasn't happy and it's too young. We weren't told about it by teachers but dd told me. There was no sex video though, I would have been very unhappy about that.

I agree it is encouraging the sexualisation of children. It should start in year 6 at the earliest.

RiverTam · 01/07/2015 22:43

But surely a lot of them will be vaguely aware if this anyway - my 5yo has certainly fiddled with her bits and told me it feels nice! And friends with boys have mentioned about being able to make your willy bigger.

Frankly the more open and upfront the better, I think.

Feenie · 01/07/2015 22:44

You've got the wrong end of the stick - clearly the evening was about sex education throughout school and that particular video was aimed at Y5 and 6.

Sex education is now on the Science curriculum, but reproduction in animals is saved for Y5 and 6. There is no longer an option to withdraw your child.

mrsdavidbowie · 01/07/2015 22:44

That's a year six video

cornflakegirl · 01/07/2015 22:44

Pretty sure all the boys in the class already know that sometimes penises go hard and it feels nice! That's not really about sexual pleasure.

Men and women using sex parts to make babies is pretty innocuous too - does your daughter not know the rudiments of reproduction?

cariadlet · 01/07/2015 22:46

very odd.

When I taught Foundation (Reception) we used to talk about the differences between boys and girls as part of our Ourselves topic. We included it in the week that we learned about parts of the body.

We used a really lovely big book with cartoon style drawings. It asked how boys and girls were different with suitable questions and pictures (eg Are they different because boys like cars? Are they different because only girls cry?) - lots of discussion with the children.

Then it went on to say that no, they were different because their bodies are different. Cue more discussion - mainly suggestions from the children that boys are taller or girls have long hair. Eventually somebody would be brave enough to say that "boys have willies".

Then back to the book which talked about private parts and introduced the correct names (no mention of clitoris). Children are introduced to the correct names as there have been cases (nationally - not in our school) of children reporting abuse but not being understood as they have used family names for parts of the body.

At the school where I teach and where my dd used to go, nothing more is taught until Key Stage 2. To be honest I can't remember exactly what was covered in KS2, but I know that as a mum I was happy with it.

The video that you describe does sound rather detailed for Year 1

gallicgirl · 01/07/2015 22:47

Wouldn't have a problem with it.
DD is 4 and starts school in September but we've already covered where babies come from. DS was born at home 3 months ago so I thought it best to pre-empt any awkward questions.

chantico · 01/07/2015 22:48

I thought you can still withdraw from SRE, but you cannot opt your DC out of science (don't think you ever could).

plantsitter · 01/07/2015 22:49

Even if this is for y1 to watch I wouldn't have a problem with stuff that's frankly descriptive about sex at this age, as long as it's not done in an explicitly erotic or pornified way.

What's wrong with saying it feels nice?

TheAwfulDaughter · 01/07/2015 22:52

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TheUnwillingNarcheska · 01/07/2015 22:53

In year 5 they got hygiene and puberty video then year 6 sex, naming of genital parts and it touched on masturbation. Blink and you would miss it. I saw both videos in school.

Are you sure it wasn't for a year 5 rather than an aged 5?

Theoldcauliflower · 01/07/2015 22:53

This is disgusting, may I ask which part of the UK your in? My dd had a it of sex ed in year 6 but no video! I agree op it's sexualisation of children, a 5 year old doesn't need to know this, I'm very sad for our country when I hear things like this

Feenie · 01/07/2015 22:53

But SRE now part of Science, which you cannot withdraw from.

Good.

Feenie · 01/07/2015 22:56

Ofgs, there is no way this video is aimed at Year 1 - there'd have been a riot at any parents evening. Op has, at best, got her wires crossed.

TheAwfulDaughter · 01/07/2015 22:56

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bikeandrun · 01/07/2015 22:57

My children knew this information at 5, my DD is 11 we have discussed many difficult topics, often things that have arisen from picking up a newspaper or me leaving the radio on, ie what is pornography, sti's, prostitution. She has not been sexualised in any way and is relaxed and happy around boys rather than going down the boyfriend/ girlfriend route that a lot of y6s seem to be doing. Anyway as she very sweetly told me the other day, she doesn't want to have a boyfriend yet as she hasn't worked out whether she will be straight or lesbian yet, looking at the way she swooned at Leonardo de caprio in Romeo and Juliet i am guessing straight but way to early to tell Smile

yellowcurtains · 01/07/2015 22:58

My 6yo has already asked about why his penis goes hard. I told him (biologically, not 'sex for fun'-type answer!)

I think it's important children are given age-appropriate information about their bodies (and the bodies of children of opposite sex too). Why wouldn't you want your child to be well-informed? Children forget a lot of the information they're told, particularly when it seems Confused to them (human reproduction is pretty weird!) My children ask for explanations at recurring intervals.

Heifer · 01/07/2015 22:58

My yr6 daughter (11) has only just received her Sex Ed talk and video - she hadn't had much before then. They talked about puberty a bit last year. We certainly got a letter telling us what they were covering and that we could talk to the teacher about it to get more information and take our children out if we didn't want them to see.

It does sound quite full on for such a young age...

chantico · 01/07/2015 23:01

Parliamentary briefing paper laid in the Commons library June 2015

You can still withdraw children from SRE, which has not been subsumed into the science curriculum.