My daughter is in year 6, and recently attended a two day Transition to Secondary School course at school.
At the end of the first day, all parents received an e mail saying that some of the parents thought the content of the course may be inappropriate. I didn’t see my daughter until the evening of the second day ( she had been staying with her dad my ex husband ). I asked her what she had learnt. She told me....about a boy who moved up to Secondary School and started suffering from cyber bullying, so much so that he committed suicide. They showed them images of the boy, his grave and a video of his mother in tears talking about it. Four of the children left the room, two were in tears, one of whom began hyperventilating.
I contacted the boy’s mum who confirmed this was true, and told me they had also been taught about a rape. About a 15 year old girl who got drunk and woke up in a ditch and was pregnant. They were also taught about the spiking of drinks, and given stickers to put over their glasses in order to prevent this from happening.
I gave my consent for her attend this course, on the basis they would be discussing “ keeping safe, not harming your body, making healthy friendships, resisting peer pressure and cyber bullying.”
The course was delivered by an outside company that describes itself as a Small Social Enterprise.
On the school’s advice I contacted this company to complain. The CEO did not agree the content to be age inappropriate. I asked for a copy of the content of the course, and was refused because it was their intellectual property, she did say I could view it in her office.
I have had a meeting with the Head of Federation ( her school belongs to a Federation of several Primary Schools ) He said that although he agreed that the content may not be age appropriate, his colleague who arranged the course thought that it was. I asked if he could obtain a copy of the content and he said he could try but not promise.
My daughter is 10, and has not yet covered sexual intercourse in Personal Development, so her introduction to this has been rape. Her friend has since questioned her own sexuality, and has been Googling ways to commit suicide. Apparently there is a child in year 5 who has gone home and asked her mum what rape means, so it is filtering through the playground.
There seems to be no accountability. I really want to see what she has seen, she was shown it without my informed consent, surely I have a right to a copy of the content.
Any advice ? Thoughts ?