Citation
Lenderyou, G. (1998), "The Primary School Sex Education Pack: : A Whole School Approach to Sex Education", Health Education, Vol. 98 No. 1, pp. 33-34. https://doi.org/10.1108/he.1998.98.1.33.1
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Sex education in all schools belongs properly within the context of personal and social education. This very welcome pack will help primary schools to integrate sex education into a whole school perspective. The pack is laid out logically and starts with staff preparation, then moves into curriculum planning and guidance before offering a range of classroom activities.
The staff preparation section offers a selection of training activities which help staff and governors to develop confidence in sex education and to raise their awareness of the effect of their own (and others’) attitudes and beliefs on the teaching of sex education.
The curriculum planning section offers information on the content and appropriate methodology of the education. Usefully, it includes guidance on how to manage and work with sex‐related pastoral incidents.
The teaching section offers good ideas for activities without the detail of aims, objectives and time and materials required. This could be limiting for busy teachers but could also encourage staff to develop their own activities based on the needs of the children (and their families).
The pack is strong and durable, has good referencing and is accessible despite an initially uninviting layout. It is also rather expensive and, unfortunately, many primary schools will not have the funds to buy it. I hope local education authorities and health promotion services will buy it and encourage primary schools to use it.
At the Sex Education Forum, we have become increasingly worried about the lack of appropriate support for the sex education of boys. Many resources and programmes do not address the needs of boys. This pack is no exception and it would have been great if gender had been addressed more specifically, given the lack of positive male role models and appropriately planned sex education programmes for boys in the primary school.
However, despite my few reservations, the Primary School Sex Education Pack offers a comprehensive list of materials, includes suggestions for fiction for boys and girls, and a glossary, and is an excellent sourcebook for all those developing and supporting sex education in the primary school.