Ofsted Chief Says Sex Education Guidance Needs Better Definition on What Schools Can Do

Undated handout photo of Ofsted chief inspector Amanda Spielman. (Ofsted via PA)

It’s very difficult to regulate relationships and sex education in schools because the current guidance doesn’t limit what schools can do, England’s education chief said.

It comes after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak ordered a review of the Relationships, Sex, and Health Education (RSHE) guidance following concerns from MPs that children are being exposed to “extreme, sexualising” content.

Conservative MP Miriam Cates on Wednesday told Parliament that school children are being taught “graphic lessons on oral sex, how to choke your partner safely, and 72 genders” in parts of their relationships and sex education.

Commenting on RSHE education on Thursday, Amanda Spielman, chief inspector of the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services, and Skills (Ofsted), told The Telegraph, “It’s clear that there are materials being used which have no basis in any reputable scientific, biological explanation or any properly grounded understanding of human relationships.”

The chief inspector said it’s “very hard” for Ofsted to tell schools that “too much is being done” because the latest guidance "sets clear minimum expectations but no maximum.”

Spielman told the publications that new guidance should have “a much greater definition about what is properly taught and at which age,” adding that sex education is “so complicated and so contested” that teachers have to have “absolute clarity on what schools can do and when.”

She also said parents “must be able to see materials” used in these lessons.

A Welsh parent campaigning against Wales’ sex education curriculum previously told The Epoch Times that schools can use third-party handouts which are copyrighted, meaning parents may not see what their children are taught at school.

The Guidance

Sunak on Wednesday told Parliament that he had asked the Department for Education (DfE) to ensure that schools are not teaching inappropriate or contested content in RSHE and that the government will launch a consultation “as soon as possible” on reviewing the RSHE guidance.

The statutory RSHE guidance (pdf) requires all English primary schools to provide relationships education, all secondary schools to provide relationships and sex education, and all public schools to provide health education.

Primary schools can choose to teach sex education after consulting with parents on what is to be covered, according to the guidance.

Parents can request to withdraw their children from sex education but not from other aspects of the curriculum.

Children can also override their parent’s request to withdraw from sex education three terms before they turn 16.

Schools are told to “ensure that all of their teaching is sensitive and age appropriate in approach and content” while they are free to determine how they do this.

The DfE also said it expects “all pupils to have been taught LGBT content at a timely point as part of this area of the curriculum.”

The English guidance for primary school relationships education said families can take many forms, such as single-parent families, LGBT parents, families headed by grandparents, adoptive parents, and foster parents/carers “amongst other structures.”

Similar course material in neighbouring Scotland also specifically included families with two mums, two dads, or two mums and two dads, appearing to allude to polyamorous relationships.

DfE guidance for secondary schools said pupils “should be taught the facts and the law about sex, sexuality, sexual health, and gender identity,” and that “sexual orientation and gender identity should be explored at a timely point and in a clear, sensitive, and respectful manner.”

Sex Education Providers

Cates, a former genetics student and biology teacher, has for the past year been bringing up the issue that children as young as six are being introduced to “indoctrinating, graphic, and extreme sexual material” from sex education providers.

Last year, she named some of the providers. One said that sex is defined as, “anything that makes you horny or aroused.” Another tells children they fall into one of two groups “menstruators or non-menstruators.”

Another company had materials that involved the discussion of violent sexual acts.

But a teachers union boss rejected the idea that age-inappropriate materials are a widespread problem.

Reacting to Runak’s announcement of reviewing the RSHE guidance, James Bowen, director of policy for the National Association of Head Teachers, said the union had “seen no evidence to suggest there is a widespread problem with pupils being presented with age-inappropriate materials and if this were the situation, we would expect it to have been picked up on a case-by-case basis.”

He said there is a “real concern that this is a politically motivated review, rather than one based on the reality of what is happening in the vast majority of schools up and down the country,” and called on the government to ensure the review is handled with the care, sensitivity, and impartiality.

Owen Evans contributed to this report.