Blindfish RSE

I was happy to read today about an MP from wales standing up and speaking out for compulsory Sex education in all schools. It was a great blow when this was dropped from Ed Balls Education reform and sadly it now seems to have fallen off the political radar. However, young people are still engaging in risky behaviours at an early age and often feel like no one will talk to them about it. They have questions and don't know who to ask or where to get the information. I wish it was the case that all young people could have the confidence to ask their parents and the parents would have the skills and information to provide the answers. But sadly many families do not have this and as a compassionate society we must reach out to all the young people desperate for information and advice. MP speaks out for compulsory Sex Education

I was recently asked this question and it made me think long and hard. Read my response below it. *I would like to know more about your overall goal - in other words what is it you are trying to change. Do you consider it is more about raising awareness or changing behaviour (I am sure there are elements of both) and are you clear about the changes you want to see as a result of what you do - it will be very hard to measure the effect/impact of what you are doing without knowing this. I would say that changing behaviour is my goal, firstly by changing attitudes towards sex and relationships and secondly by equipping them with skills that change their behaviour to stay safer. For me the 3 changes I want to see are - a greater recognition of the emotional impact of sexual activity - a delay of a young persons first sexual experience - a greater proportion of young people using protection correctly when they are sexually active My biggest worry is how to measure these three changes?

I am putting together a lesson plan all about sexting and more generally sex and technology. This is the rough plan I have got so far. I would love hear what you all think about it. AIMS young people will understand the possible emotional consequences of online sexual activities young people will understand how to protect their reputation online young people will understand the law regarding sexting Blue String Game to show how quickly information can be spread around. Emotional intimacy of showing your body via pictures or webcams. some kind of activity to show that the online world can be as emotionally impacting as the real world How do you view the internet is it a bridge between people a bullet proof window a gapping chasm a long tunnel Get 4 student volunteers divide into pairs Sit facing each other, say one pair represnts real life one online life. say that the online group has to pretend they are divided by bullet proof glass (2 dead laptops screen cut out) give them some tasks...

Hello, Just a short blog to share a simple exercise I put together based on an Oasis esteem material. This resource exists to help groups explore ways to say no in a wide variety of situation from ridiculous examples to serious situations. The exercise is aimed to be fun at the start and a bit silly and then it gets more serious. Key to this exercise is having two leaders comfortable to act and react to the suggestions from young people. Improv skills are useful. Please have a look and let me know what you think. How to say NO Activity plan ways to say no (jpg)

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...