Blindfish RSE

The 2010 British election is today and this lead me to wonder what party would have the most positive impact on Sex Education. Now I have attempted to research as best I can but have found that it is not a major manifesto point. But we do know a few things. Firstly the Labour goverment did originally propose that Sex Education should become mandetary and that parents should have their rights to remove their children removed for students in year 11. They tried to pass this on the last day of parliament and the tories blocked this. They specifically object to the clause to stop parents having the right to remove their children. Libdems haven't said a lot about the issue but it appears they did act in support of Labour on this issue. To be honest I am not sure which party will do the best job at encouraging good quality appropriate sex education. Hopefully which ever party gets in will not set us back!

Yesterday we finished our training course for local youth workers in the Oasis Esteem course. It was great fun, especially the final day with each youth worker delivering a mock session to the rest of the group (who all pretended to be young people). It raised lots of very interesting points about the topics and about classroom management. The group acted the role of young people with passion and commitment. Infact I think some (including myself) found it a great opportunity to misbehave. All in all I'm very happy with everyone who completed the training, I can't wait to get them involved with some real lessons with real young people.

One of the most confounding challenges of coordinating a Sex and Relationship Education project across a city is how to assess the impact of such a project. Working in a limited number of schools for a relatively short period of time(a couple of years) excludes any regional statistics from being directly related or representative. Also regional statistics focus on two things conception rates and STI infection rates. However, our Sex and Relationship project focus on attitudes and behaviours as much as biological consequences. It is difficult to assess the attitudes of a group. Interviews individually or in groups may work but it is very personal and questions could possibly be inappropriate. Instead of interviews we have written an anonymous quiz that attempts to evaluate both attitudes and looks at knowledge. We have used this in one school already I hope to post some of the statistical results in the near future. Below is a small 2 page quiz is all about trying to evaluate what is th...

Some people have asked for the training form to be put only so they can download it. So here it is. Esteem Course Booking Form or type the following into your address bar    http://www.dbiz.org.uk/uploads/text/49.doc

Today I had the privilege of meeting my works key financial supporter. I could not do my job with out his kind donatitions. Well I work up early to go meet him and I've got to be honest I was nervous. Whilst I was pretty sure that he would not object to my work, I was keenly aware that the long term existance of the project could depend on this meeting. The project has garenteed funding for the next 1 and a half years. Beyond that we do not have any guarentees. In fact he has publicaly said that he will not fund the work after summer 2011. After meeting him and his wife I wish this wasn't the case. He is a fantastic guy who has a clear passion for work which makes a differance and for work which builds in sustanability. Before this meeting (and my pre-meeting prep) I had not put a lot of thought into sustanability but Chester is in a good state for sustainability. Mainly because the model we are using is to get local youth workers from local churches to be passionate about the ...

Just wanted to post a quick link to a fun little flash game I found today. It's from Canada on a interesting   website (sexualityandu) made by the SOCIETY OF OBSTETRICIANS AND GYNAECOLOGISTS OF CANADA (SOGC). I like this game because it covers sex attitudes and sexual health questions. Sex Education game http://www.sexualityandu.ca/multimedia/games/sexfu/index_e.asp

Two things surprise me regularly when I'm teaching SRE. Firstly, how much some young people know about sex. Secondly, how little some young people know about sex. Strangely this seems true across all demographics of age, culture, up bringing and economic background. Some young people just seem to have a much greater awareness of sex at a younger age and some seem to be the complete opposite. This presenst some problems when teaching SRE. I know that if I aim too basic in my session I will be irrelevant to some of the class and more worryingly they may then decide to not ask me that question that they really want to know. On the over side if I aim high I may be concussing to people in the lesson or I may give them ideas that they wouldn't have thought of before. I believe the best approach is to aim somewhere in the middle, never assuming anything. Ensuring all my language is clear and concise examplianing new terms as I use them. At the same time I aim to never let my language ...