Puberty is one aspect of sex and relationships education (SRE) that one might assume every child learns about at school, but a survey of over 2000 young people (Sex Education Forum, 2016) suggests that nearly a quarter (24%) of girls start having periods before the subject is covered in SRE classes at school. Almost 15% of young people said they were taught nothing at school about menstruation.
The pattern is repeated for boys with 38% experiencing wet dreams before having , learnt about them. Over 50% of young people go through school without this aspect of puberty ever being mentioned.
Government guidance on sex and relationship education (DfEE, 2000) states that pupils should learn about puberty before they experience it, but this is clearly not happening in all schools. So what is getting in the way of educating children about , growing up, and how can schools help ensure that all pupils are prepared for puberty? One of the obstacles is that many adults did not have good quality (or any) SRE themselves. Without that experience to recall it is difficult to imagine what good , quality, age-appropriate SRE would be like. Teachers and parents alike may have inherited a sense of embarrassment about the subject, and it is hard to get out of a cycle of passing on this awkwardness and avoidance to the next generation. But training and support can do just that.
A good starting point is to look at the existing curriculum, from the Early Years Foundation Stage upwards, and find natural links with SRE. National Curriculum science provides an ideal context for learning about growth and lifecycles across Key Stages 1 and 2. You could start by discussing changes that pupils are familiar with, for example from baby to infant; the physical changes but also the social , and emotional changes.
The Year 1 Science National Curriculum programme of study includes pupils being taught to ‘identify, name, draw and label the basic parts of the human body’. Although not mentioned specifically, it is important that pupils are taught the names of the external genitalia and know the differences between boys and girls. This is vital for safeguarding so that , a child has the language to describe the private parts of their body and to seek help if they are abused. Ofsted has raised concerns about primary schools failing to teach correct names for sexual parts of the body and the Government guidance ‘Keeping children safe in education , ’ highlights , that safeguarding needs to be addressed through teaching opportunities.
With 16% of young people reporting that they did not learn correct terms for genitalia at primary school (Sex Education Forum, 2016) there are clearly hundreds of schools that need to update their practice. It is vital to have senior leadership support for this, with training opportunities for staff, for the practice of the use of correct terms to be included in the school SRE policy and the school’s position (and rationale) communicated to parents. Use of correct terms for genitalia need not undermine the use of familial terms in other contexts, it’s just about making sure all pupils have a shared vocabulary for their body and the knowledge that genitalia are private to them. It is also important to teach pupils about getting help ; half of young people reported that they did not learn from primary school how to get help if they experienced unwanted touching or sexual abuse (Sex Education Forum, 2016).
Good quality SRE includes learning about the body, relationships, feelings, keeping safe, life-cycles and getting help. At the Sex Education Forum we have produced a curriculum design tool which is organised as a series of ‘questions to explore’ with children and young people at each age and stage, and spans from age 3-6 years to 16+.