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Key messages
- These are answers to questions commonly asked by parents.
- If you have a question from a parent that you would like help answer, contact the GDHR team.
- Can condoms be given out to high school students?
- Growing and Developing Healthy Relationships emphasises a positive preventative approach, harm reduction and safer sex strategies which take care not to normalise sexual activity for school-aged students. Abstinence from sexual activity until legal age of consent (16 years +) and capacity for informed decision making is encouraged.
- Individual schools are best placed to determine the needs of their students in context with their policies and values.
- It is important to provide students with the knowledge and skills required to make informed decisions about their sexual health BEFORE they engage in any sexual activity. This may include showing condoms in Health lessons, and allowing students to practice the correct way to put condoms on.
- Alternatives to providing condoms to students in schools:
- access to school health nurses to provide individualised age/stage appropriate information and referral to health services.
- providing parents with information and links to services that they can refer their children to. (E.g. Condoms and Contraception | Get the Facts and Preparing young people for healthy sexually active lives - Talk Soon Talk Often).
- providing referrals to locations that provide free condoms (e.g. condom dispensers, condom trees, bowls of free condoms in services, etc) - Find free condoms | Get the Facts.
- Leaver's events - WA Department of Health provide free condoms that are distributed at events around WA by funded services. Social media campaigns encourage Leavers to pack condoms before events, use condoms, and get tested for STIs if they have had sex.
- Can children be withdrawn from lessons?
A parent or guardian may request that a child be exempt from any class. This request needs to be in writing to the school principal. (Section 72 of the School Education Act 1999).
If exemption is granted, principals are expected to make reasonable efforts to provide alternative means for exempted students to achieve the same outcomes as other students.
GDHR recognises parents as the primary relationships and sexuality educators of their children. If parents remove their child from school-based lessons it is vital that they ensure their child has access to accurate and reliable health information and the skills and attitudes to make informed choices. Talk Soon. Talk Often. A guide for parents talking to their kids about sex is a free resource that offers age and stage appropriate tips for parents with children aged 0 to 18 years.
Research indicates that the majority of parents support the provision of relationships and sexuality education at school but want to be informed when it is happening to support and complement the program. It is strongly recommended that schools communicate clearly with parents about the nature and content of health-related programs, including relationship and sexual health education. This could be, for example, through:
- Do teachers need to inform parents they are implementing relationships/sexual health education with their class?
It is strongly recommended that teachers/schools communicate clearly with parents and caregivers about the nature and content of health-related programs, including relationship and sexual health education. This could be, for example, through:
- the school council agenda
- newsletters
- parent workshops and information evenings
- a letter from the teacher/school (Sample letter - primary/Sample letter - secondary)
- offering additional supportive resources such as:
Research indicates that the majority of parents support the provision of sexuality education at school but want to be informed when it is happening to support and complement the program.
Under Section 72 of the School Education Act 1999, a parent or guardian may request that a child be exempt from any class. This request needs to be in writing to the school principal. If exemption is granted, principals are expected to make reasonable efforts to provide alternative means for exempted students to achieve the same outcomes as other students.
- Should boys and girls be separated for puberty and sexual health education?
Many teachers wonder if it is best to split their classes by gender for relationships and sexuality lessons. There are pros and cons to be considered for both.
Reasons for co-ed classes
- Gender-split classes may result in genders receiving inequitable or gender-biased education.
- Students who are gender diverse are better catered for (students who are gender diverse may feel uncomfortable, unsafe or uncatered for in split classes).
- Same-sex attracted young people are better catered for (students who are same-sex attracted may feel uncomfortable, unsafe or uncatered for in split classes).
- Students may act in a more mature manner (in gender-split classes students may feel the need to act in stereotypical gendered roles).
- Opportunities to learn about topics from different perspectives from different genders.
- Opportunities to develop empathy for the changes and challenges experienced by another gender.
- Opportunities to practise communicating with each other about sensitive topics (which is an important skill for developing respectful relationships with other genders - friendships, romantic relationships and intimate relationships).
- Timetabling of gender-split classes can be difficult.
Reasons for splitting classes by gender
- Young people may feel more comfortable asking questions (particularly on topics such as menstruation, erections, wet dreams, female genital modification, sex).
- It may be more culturally appropriate (e.g. In Aboriginal culture there are requirements for delivering 'men's business' and 'women's business').
- Lessons may be differentiated more easily to suit the needs and learning styles of all boy or all girl groups.
- Some parents may be more supportive of teaching boys and girls separately.
- Differing maturity levels of boys and girls can be accommodated for.
Teachers and schools are best placed to determine the needs of their students.
If you choose to conduct co-ed classes:
- offer instruction taught by both male and female educators to provide positive role models and reduce stigma (if culturally appropriate).
- allow students to ask questions they may not be comfortable asking in front of the class by using a question box.
If you choose to conduct gender-split classes:
- do not just teach the 'girls' topics' to the girls and 'boys' topics' to the boys - both need to know all of the information.
- ensure that both groups know that they are both receiving the same information.
- offer instruction taught by both male and female educators to provide positive role models and reduce stigma (if culturally appropriate).
- think about ways to cater for gender diverse students (and be aware that gender diverse or intersex students may not be visible to you). It may be appropriate to ask students to choose which group they feel comfortable in, or this may cause more stress and discrimination for the student.
- share questions (and answers) from the question box with both groups so that everyone has the same information. (Collect questions from both groups to answer in the next session to help maintain anonymity and avoid questions being labelled as 'boys' questions' or 'girls' questions').
- What resources are available for students and parents who home school?
Useful resources are the ‘Puberty’ series - Puberty booklet. A good approach is to have boys learn about what also happens for girls (and vice versa). The Relationships, sex and other stuff booklet is for teenagers (13 years or older).
The comprehensive publication Talk Soon. Talk Often. A guide for parents talking to their kids about sex aims to increase the confidence of parents when talking to their children about relationship and sexuality topics.
Some other organisations that offer free or low-cost resources include:
SECCA (resources to support people with disabilities)
Freedom Centre (resources to support LGBTI young people)
- Why is only a single dose of HPV vaccine now required?
From 6 February 2023, healthy young people aged 12-13 years will only need one dose of the Gardasil®9 vaccine to be considered fully vaccinated. Gardasil®9 protects against 9 strains of the HPV virus.
This change follows the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) advice that a single dose gives excellent protection that is comparable to protection from two doses.
Healthy young people who receive a single dose before 26 years of age will not need further doses.
