As health promotion officers within the Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District, we often get asked if we go into schools. But as a small team, our role is to provide resources and education as we build the capacity of teachers and community workers to deliver these key messages to young people.

Though we do a have a little dream of the Harold the Giraffe type van going around delivering Sex Ed.

In the Illawarra Shoalhaven we do deliver some small group education with students in out of school and alternative school settings, however this is not at a large scale and is not reflective of what is happening across the state and nationally.  We also work in the digital space in online settings reaching young people through social media campaigns and website hubs like Play Safe NSW, the International Student Health Hub and Take Blaktion.  

At a state-wide level there are a range of resources, support and training available for schools and teachers to effectively deliver CSE, or SSHE within NSW schools. The Department of Education, and other school sectors, provide a range of professional learning materials to enhance teacher’s understanding of the NSW PHDPE K-10 syllabus and effective delivery of SSHE.  

Non Government Organisations like Family Planning NSW also offer a range of courses and workshops to support teachers to upskill in the delivery of CSE. You can check out their website for a comprehensive list of their courses, teaching materials (including lesson plans, resources, games and activities) and more.  

Other agencies like Interrelate, Consent Labs and Learning Consent, and more, also offer in-classroom teaching where external facilitators will deliver expert session. Check out On The Couch when we hosted Dr Tessa Opie & her colleague Kerrin Bradfield from Respect Collective. This is a dynamic collaboration between two of Australia’s most respected sexuality educators striving to ignite a transformative shift in societal attitudes towards relationships and sexuality. 

What next? 

What’s insightful, is that parents wanted education around the topics of sex, safer sex practices, sexting, contraception and pornography to start in years 7 and 8. As per the curriculum guidelines, schools are not delivering this sexuality education until years 9 and 10. 

Remember that the secondary student’s survey also showed that 93% of students reported receiving RSE at school most commonly in years 8 and 9. However, only 24.8% reported that their most recent RSE class was very or extremely relevant to them. This information shows there is diversity within young people and that age and stage appropriate information is inclusive and relevant.

One of our fav resources is Talk Soon Talk Often a free resource that has been developed to help parents and carers initiate regular and relaxed conversations with their children and young people aged 0-18 years about relationships and sexuality education in an age and stage appropriate manner. You can order a hard copy from us here.

If you’re a teacher or youth and community worker working with a group of young people and needing support to deliver Sex Ed. We have produced a series of lesson plans and presentations with an accompanying resource kit which includes a banana demo penis, condom, o-cube, internal condom and oral dam. You can order this for free from us here.

Teachers are superheroes who often wear many capes and deliver excellent sexuality and sexual health education in a rapidly changing environment! There are always avenues to improve what we do and how we do it, and the increasing attention being given to consent education and wider CSE is a great step in the right direction. 

Final thoughts 

In the last few years, we have seen an overhaul in consent education.  

Consent education was mandated in all Australian schools in 2023, however, the current NSW consent education course was made mandatory in 2022 before it was a national requirement. We are seeing increasing recognition on the importance of CSE, consent education and embedding the development of life skills among teaching which is great.  

What has really stood out for us has been youth-led advocacy. It’s been phenomenal to see young people advocate and demand better educational experiences when it comes to SSHE and encouraging that professionals are listening and responding.   

The Netflix show Sex Education is fantastic and if you haven’t watched the four seasons yet, we really encourage you to. This show started a conversation, as it highlights the need for more comprehensive sexual education not only in schools but in communities and at home. Although the show Sex Education is teaching viewers about sex and sexuality, it really should be adding to rather than replacing Sex Ed in schools.