The New ABCs: Anal, Bondage, and Choking
Author: Tim Clark
Tim Clark is a highly experienced and successful educational consultant and trainer with thirty-two years of teaching experience, including eighteen years as the Head of two different schools. Contact Tim for staff, SLT and governor training, coaching and consultancy. Tim is also the Political Director of the Conservative Friends of Education.
Anal sex, BDSM, how to choke your partner safely, Gender Unicorns and the existence of more than one hundred genders are just some of the topics taught in some of our schools. The issue has been given prominence following the request for a review of RSHE by Miriam Cates, the Conservative MP for Penistone and Stocksbridge (and a former science teacher). About fifty MPs have subsequently supported Miriam. Union leaders, however, immediately replied that only a tiny minority of schools are guilty of such outrageous practices and that the issue is being used for political purposes.
What are schools required to teach?
Since 2020, all schools have been required to teach Relationships Education, and secondary schools have been required to teach Relationships and Sex Education (sex education remains optional in primary schools). In secondary schools, the statutory guidance is focused mainly on sexual health (contraception, STD etc.) and on building positive relationships, both sexual and non-sexual. The guidance stresses that there are “Different types of committed, stable relationships”. For me, there are three key issues:
Age-Appropriate RSE Guidance in Schools
I have always argued for the professional independence of teachers to be respected and for there to be as little imposition from above as possible. The statutory guidance on RSE is well intention, though it is a little loose and permissive. One would hope that the requirement for “age and developmentally appropriate” teaching would be enough. As Stephen James, Chairman of the Conservative Friends of Education, put it so succinctly, the primary curriculum should be,
“about multiplication tables and not masturbation”.
If, however, more prescriptive guidance is needed, then so be it. As with all lessons, to be effective, the teacher must be free to adapt the content and the method to suit every individual best in each class. One size cannot, and will not, fit all.
The role of Ofsted.
According to the Daily Mail, Amanda Spielman (Head of Ofsted) has said that the inspectorate is powerless to intervene. If it is true that she said that, then it is utter nonsense. Ofsted inspectors are required to inspect the Personal Development of pupils (one of the four key areas of inspection), which includes RSE, and was given a particular focus following the publication in 2021 of Ofsted’s report into sexual harassment in schoolsMoreover, underpinning every inspection is an evaluation of a school’s safeguarding procedures.
If a primary school teaches about masturbation, this is a safeguarding and well-being issue, and the mechanisms for doing something about it already exist. If Ofsted is, however, genuinely more interested in curriculum maps and lesson sequencing than in children’s safety, then we do have to question the purpose and future of Ofsted.
A reflection of society
If a school is teaching inappropriate lessons on sex, then these can be quickly identified and stopped. Much harder to resolve is the teaching of gender. The big question is, should schools reflect the society in which we live?
In 2021, a non-binary passenger on an LNER train complained to the company because a conductor had welcomed passengers on board with the greeting, “ladies and gentlemen”. LNER apologised to the complainant, saying that its staff “Should not be using language like this”. TfL staff were told to ditch “ladies and gentlemen” in favour of “Good morning, everyone” as early as 2017.
Is it only a matter of time, therefore, before a teacher is prosecuted on the grounds of discrimination for saying “boys and girls”? We must remember that gender is a protected characteristic under the 2010 Equality Act, and the statutory guidance on RSE accepts that we live in an “Increasingly complex world. We cannot, therefore, be surprised to see the “LGBTQIA Resource Centre” producing materials for schools to use.
How different from when I was at infant school in the 1970s when we read books about Dick, Jane and their mum and dad; a white, heterosexual, middle-class family where Dick played football, Jane had a doll, mum did the cooking, and dad went out to work and mowed the lawn (and always drove the car). Today, any school using such books would be slated by Ofsted.
So where do schools stand? Are they expected to prepare pupils for “Life in 21st century Britain”, as required by the Ofsted Framework, and, if so, is that society to be gender neutral? This is certainly not a decision to be taken by individual schools but a decision for our elected representatives and society. And that decision needs to be made urgently. (Schools are still waiting for guidance on catering for trans pupils, guidance promised last year when Nadhim Zahawi was Secretary of State.)
Schools that get it wrong in the teaching of sex and relationships must be called out. However, schools must be secure in knowing precisely what is expected of them.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Conservative Friends of Education. The information provided in this article is for general informational purposes only and should not be construed as professional advice or endorsement by Conservative Friends of Education.
