Sexual Health and Relationships: Special Report
Derren Hayes
Tuesday, July 27, 2021
Schools will soon be required to teach pupils about sex and relationships, which experts say is vital to help young people navigate a range of complex issues including consent and explicit online material.
The issue of sexual abuse in schools was catapulted into the spotlight in March when thousands of people posted about their experiences of assault and harassment in education settings on the Everyone’s Invited website.
In the course of a few weeks, more than 10,000 current and former school pupils and college and university students posted about their experiences of “rape culture” – defined as when abnormal behaviours are normalised including misogyny, harassment, abuse and assault – on the website.
Some posters named the school and their alleged abuser, some of whom were in the same social groups, with the majority of reports being from girls and young women. Many of the reports were initially about private schools, but it quickly widened to include testimonies about state schools.
As a result of the disclosures, police forces across the country have launched investigations and Ofsted was commissioned by ministers to undertake a review of the current situation in schools.
The inspectorate’s report, published in June, painted a “shocking if not surprising” picture on the “sheer scale of the problem”, Ofsted chief inspector Amanda Spielman recently told the Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS) annual conference (see ADCS View in policy context).
Read more in CYP Now's special report on sexual health and relationships:
Practice Examples: