The University of Canterbury's health education expert Dr Rachel Dixon said she wasn't surprised by the results of a nationwide survey regarding RSE. Photo / NZME
The high number of small rural schools in Whanganui could mean more children missing out on a well-rounded relationship and sexual education (RSE), Family Planning Whanganui health promoter Neil Buddle says.
“Schools with only one or two teachers find it harder to access professional development opportunities,” Buddle said.
“Additionally, delivering programmes to separate year groups (1/2, 3/4, 5/6) can pose logistical problems when one class may contain as many as four-year groups.”
Buddle said RSE was a shared responsibility between parents and schools.
Relationships and Sexuality Education is one of seven Learning Areas in the NZ Health Curriculum and is a required area of learning, therefore, teachers are responsible for teaching students RSE.
The expectation of the Ministry of Education is that all students should receive education in RSE at every year level from Years 1-10, whichever school they attend.
Whanganui has many of the same challenges identified in the report as other schools around the country.
“These include a lack of time to teach, a lack of access to professional development, and an inconsistent whole-of-school approach for RSE.
“Some of our local schools may not cover all topics due to time restraints or discomfort or lack of knowledge in topics where there has been a lot of social change such as gender or teaching around pornography.”
He said Family Planning was currently working with the Ministry of Education to provide more training opportunities for teachers in the Whanganui region to help meet the requirements.
Buddle said there were also examples of really good RSE programmes in Whanganui.
“When young people don’t have RSE, they can miss out on learning that is important to their health, wellbeing and healthy development.”
He said this included information about everything from menstruation to consent.
“RSE supports young people to gain knowledge and skills to make informed, confident decisions about their sexuality and sexual health, and to develop respectful, consensual relationships.”
Buddle said RSE was important for positive youth development and wellbeing.
“It supports young people to be healthy and safe, to feel confident in their own identities, and to be inclusive and respectful of others.
“A few key recommendations are ensuring teachers have the time to teach the recommended 12 to 15 hours RSE from Years 1 to 10, and expanding teaching so senior students, those in Years 11 to 13, also have opportunities for meaningful RSE,” he said.
“There is also an important recommendation for schools to do needs assessments and ensure their teachers have the professional development they need to be confident teaching these sometimes challenging topics.”
Keith Street School (Years 1-6) principal Linda Ireton said it was important for students to begin their learning of RSE at a young age.
“It starts with how you set up classrooms at the beginning of the year to support students to get to know each other and form connections and friendships and build trust so the classroom environment is a safe and welcoming place to learn.”
It’s not all about sexuality, it’s about being a human being and how humans need to have connections and relationships to grow and develop.
“It helps them have a foundational knowledge of who they are as little people, an understanding of their bodies and who should or should not be touching their bodies.”
She said earlier years were about knowing the parts of your body and up to year 6 more information on pre-puberty, puberty and menstruation.
“As you go through puberty, you’re always thinking about who you are and that includes who you are as a boy or a girl, or maybe not feeling you are a boy or a girl.
“And it’s important to keep the space safe for those conversations if they come up.”
Ireton said there was an anonymous box where students could post questions they might be embarrassed to ask themselves.
She said when she first started teaching, the boys and girls would learn separately.
“If we want boys to grow into wonderful men and girls to grow into strong wāhine and all know who they are and withstand the pressures out there online and from peers, it starts young and it starts by being in the classroom together.
“Yes, there will be giggles and embarrassment but learning it’s a normal natural part of being a human and our boys and girls need to learn this together,” she said.
“Helping children understand we are all so very different, but all go through similar things and it takes away the idea that something is wrong with them.”
Findings from a nationwide survey of secondary school teachers’ perspectives on teaching RSE in New Zealand were released last week.
The study was a collaboration between the University of Canterbury, Family Planning and the New Zealand Health Education Association.
The results showed a majority of schools across the country do not meet the Ministry of Education guidance of 12 to 15 hours of RSE per year.
Teachers reported major barriers as being lack of time, access to professional development, subject status, and an inconsistent whole-of-school approach for RSE.
Many teachers commented the majority of senior students did not have meaningful RSE.
University of Canterbury health education expert and lead author of the report Dr Rachael Dixon said she wasn’t surprised by the findings.
“Despite many teachers wanting to deliver best practice relationships and sexuality education, too many young people do not have access to effective and responsive learning at secondary school in this important part of the curriculum.
“We hope the report will enable teachers to reflect on their practice and consider how relationships and sexuality education in their schools can be responsive to their learners’ needs,” Dr Dixon said.
Most Years 9 and 10 teachers indicated they purposefully planned for all but two topics, modern developments in HIV, and sexual violence.
Pornography, digital and cyber safety in sexual situations, and alcohol and drugs as they relate to sex, were also less commonly covered.
Meanwhile, 95 per cent of teachers reported purposefully planning for and teaching about consent.
Teachers reported that for Years 11-13, alcohol and drugs as they relate to sex, sexual violence, and pornography were more likely to be reported to be more often purposefully planned for or maybe included in learning at this level.
Some RSE topic areas where teachers were confident were anatomy, physiology and pubertal change (98 per cent confident ), relationships (97 per cent confident), gender stereotypes (95 per cent confident), communication skills (98 per cent confident), consent and coercion (95 per cent confident), gender and sexuality diversity (85 per cent confident).
The areas where teachers were notably less confident were modern developments in HIV (26 per cent confident), pornography (26 per cent confident), and sexual violence (37 per cent confident).
Timetabled time for RSE was sometimes a barrier, or a significant barrier, for almost 80 per cent of teachers.
The four enablers most commonly selected were having trained and confident teachers to teach RSE (48 per cent), access to teaching and learning resources (48 per cent), having ākonga supporting and valuing the RSE learning (43 per cent), support from external providers in the area of planning for RSE (42 per cent). As would be expected given the barriers discussed above, having adequate timetabled time is the least common enabler (9 per cent).
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