Young people don't understand HIV and AIDS

Could you explain how HIV impacts the body?

I ask this question at the start and end of every HIV lesson I teach. Its a way of trying to monitor if my lesson is making a difference. Asking if they could explain a topic to someone else is a reasonable test to see if people understand the topic themselves.

Today I asked this question at the start of a lesson and none of the 32 young people (13-14) could say yes. Now I am used to most young people not knowing that much about HIV but usually 1 or 2 say yes. It reminded me just how low the level of HIV awareness is in the general population. Now I know that HIV rates are low in the UK but they are on the rise. If we are not careful it is very possible that we could have a significant problem with HIV if we fail to educate people about the risks. The role of ARVs may help make people live significantly longer so that HIV can be seen as a chronic condition and not a death sentence, yet the cost is high and it is not a easy or desirable condition.

So here are some of the common miss-conceptions about HIV I regularly encounter.

HIV can be cured (yes this is the most common myth I encounter)
HIV can be caught by sharing a house with someone who is HIV+
It is impossible to catch HIV from oral sex
But you can catch HIV from a normal toilet
Condoms protect you a 100% of the time
You could tell if someone had the HIV virus, they would look ill

These commons myths keep cropping up and whilst some are less serious (toilets!) some could lead people into significant problems. We need more education about HIV. If they practise safer sex in relation to HIV they will also be protected from a lot of other more common STIs, so its an effective way of promoting general safer sex practice. So lets push the issue in schools.

(I'm going to use this video on loop for my next presentation about HIV+)

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A RSE reading list

Sometimes people ask me what reading I recommend around RSE, so I thought I would put together a bit of a list. Key (free) articles and reports Young people’s RSE UK poll Sex Education Forum (2018) RSE outcome variations due to facilitator differences Young et al (2018) What do young people think about their school-based sex and relationship education? A qualitative synthesis of young people's views and experiences Pound et al. (2016) Review of sexual abuse in schools and college s Ofsted (2021) National and International RSE Guidance UNESCO international guidance on RSE UNESCO (2018) England Department for Education full guidance on statutory relationships education, relationships and sex education (RSE) and health education Department for Education (2019) Wales Curriculum for Wales guidance and code for Relationships and Sexuality Education (RSE) (Consultation stage) Welsh Government (2021) Scotland Guidance for teachers on the conduct of teaching relationships, sex

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Review of Channel 4's Sex in Class

Review of Channel 4's Sex in Class from a relationship and sex educator's perspective. In this review I will try and bring my perspective as a relationship and sex educator to look at Channel 4's one off show Sex In Class . The show is about a Belgian sexologist Goedele Liekens testing out her approach to relationship and sex education for 15-16 year olds at a Lancashire school. You can read some great overall reviews from Jules Hillier at Brook and Sam Wollaston at the Guardian of the show. In this blog I am trying to focus specifically on my my perspective as a relationship and sex educator on Goedele's content and approach. Goedele Liekens with her charges in Sex in Class. Photograph: Matt Squire The show starts with a pretty unsurprising statistic of " 83% of kids have seen porn by the time they are 13" (source not cited) and goes on to show how teachers at this school don't think current RSE is good enough and also gives some quotes f

Blindfish RSE

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