The children’s commissioner for England has spoken of her shock at some of the materials being provided to schools by external sex education organisations.
The Office of the Children’s Commissioner is a national, independent organisation with statutory powers and regulations. The commissioner has a legal duty to promote and protect the rights of all children in England in accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
She added that “children across the country are being exposed to a plethora of deeply inappropriate, wildly inaccurate, sexually explicit, and damaging materials in the name of sex education. That is extremely concerning for a number of reasons.”
Cates was also at Tuesday’s Education Committee hearing, and de Souza addressed her directly, saying, “I was shocked by your examples and I am going to be looking at it.”
“You gave some horrendous examples. One of the things I thought about when I read your speech, was headteachers often talk to me about being worried about teaching well in this area and therefore they are outsourcing the problem; we need to look at that,” said de Souza, adding that “thoughtful and age-appropriate” materials were “absolutely critical.”
She added that she was “looking forward to going out and looking at how RSE is taught in the country.”
Cates noted that providers are introducing children to materials that include games that prompt the discussion of explicit sexual acts. Some split boys and girls into groups divided by “menstruators or non-menstruators.” One company defined sex as “anything that makes you horny or aroused,“ while one course—later withdrawn—introduced six- and seven-year-olds to “rules about touching” themselves.
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