Sex and Relationship Education. Which parts at what age ? Poll

[namechangeforSREpoll]

Following on from the recent thread about Sex and Relationship Education, I would love to poll Mnetters about appropriate ages for different aspects of SRE.

The reason for this, is that I am drafting the SRE policy for a one form entry, relatively affluent, middleclass area, faith primary school. Imput will be requested from parents, staff pupils etc, but a wider view would be very useful for me at this stage.

Please would you let me know for each category whether you would like your child's school to "teach" it and at what age.

Many thanks

1.Correct anatomical names

2.Making safe choices, saying no, when to keep a secret and when to tell

3.Good and bad touches

4.Personal hygiene

5.Social, emotional and physical changes at puberty.

6.Menstruation

7.Masterbation

8.Homosexuality

9.Wet dreams

10.Basic biology of human repoduction

11.Sex, other than for procreation.

12.Contraception.

this isn't going to be very helpful - but I think this stuff should start from day 1. And if a child of mine reached the age of - say - 7 -without a basic knowledge of all the topics on your list I would feel that I had failed in a very important parenting task.

So I don't mind what age the school teaches this stuff because my children would know it already!

Sorry 0 I said I wasn't going to be helpful.

Seeker, that is helpful, and not just because I personally agree with your statements.

I need a range of views in order to word the appropriate questionnaires and try not to offend anyone.

shameless bump

Golly, what a question. Basically agree with Seeker but if you really want to break it down:

1. Reception/Year 1
2. Start in reception and keep going through the school ensuring language and content is age-appropriate.
3. ditto if you mean what I think you mean.
4. Reception
5. Well before puberty - gather it's getting earlier and earlier so Year 2 or 3, maybe?
6. ditto
7. Year 5 or 6 (or just incorporate it with everything else, as you go along)
8. Pre-puberty, Year 3?

10. From reception in age-appropriate terms 11. Year 5 or 6? 12. ditto

My dses are at a single sex school, so I guess my preferences/assumptions are different. Eg I have no plans for teaching them about menstruation until they are much older.

There is a difference between age-appropriateness of the information, and whether the child is able to understand and remember information correctly, and I think that it is more important to concentrate on less information but be able to ensure that it is fully understood rather than to attempt to cover too much at the risk that it isn't understood. Ds1 seems to have learnt from school biology that he has a peanut, rather than a penis (this was Yr 1 or 2). And that his ureather is attached to his anus (Year 3). And of course the teacher is always right.

I would expect 1-4 to be covered by the end of KS1. I would have a strong preference for 10 and 11 to be discussed in the context of relationships. Certainly most parents seem to have tackled this topic by the end of year 2/start of year 3, and I think that it would be best for school to follow rather than lead, so I would probably opt for Year 3.

Personally I think that covering 5, 7, 8, 9 and 12 too early is a waste of time. I think children need the information as it becomes relevant to them. This means that once you have introduced the topic then you need to be covering it regularly in order to ensure that children are able to learn as they are ready.

What I think might be more helpful would be to provide more information to the parents. If children in your locality are hitting puberty earlier than on average then it is helpful for parents to know that so that they can prepare for it. Sometimes it does seem to come across as if the Government doesn't trust parents to be able to teach their children about certain issues so the schools will have to do it for them. From the sounds of your school this may very well not be the case.

I'd want a primary school to cover all of those to some degree at least, but probably very little detail about some of them. I've put them in the order I'd think they should be covered

2,3,4 right from the start

1,6,10

5,7,8,9 before there's any chance of them reaching puberty

11,12 last and in least detail

Thnak you all - any more views would be appreciated

Bump for the morning crowd

I forgot

13. STI

All answers gratefully received

I suppose another unhelpful answer but all of it from the start answering questions honestly an using age appropriate language/ details.
most children will only ask and want to know what the can process.

and I want to make sure my child knows about such things in a normal, natural way so it is not this 'big deal' at school, and I would rather the information comes from us

as for example with menstruation, dd is 3 and she as always seen me change pads etc but has never really asked about the blood, she asked about the pad I said it was for mummy's period and that seemed to be enough for her