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Key messages
- Consent education teaches important skills to keep students safe.
- Consent education should start in the home.
- The new WA Health Curriculum explicitly lists consent descriptors in each year level from PP-10.
- Consent is just one part of comprehensive relationships and sexuality education.
- GDHR uses a strengths-based approach to teach consent in the context of healthy, respectful relationships.
Consent education
Consent education has received a lot of media attention in recent years. It has highlighted the need for curriculum reform and law reform, particularly in the area of 'affirmative consent'. Affirmative consent means that 'the absence of a no, does not mean yes' and that someone should get a clear 'yes' before touching another person in any way. This concept is embedded in child protection education which has been mandated in Australian schools for some time. These skills help to keep children safe by empowering them with knowledge about bodily autonomy and providing them with skills to seek help.
Consent education starts at home
Children need to learn about bodily autonomy as soon as they are able to understand. Teaching them that their 'no' will be respected, whether it is in playing and tickling or hugging and kissing. This helps them to learn that no-one is allowed to touch their body when they don't want to be touched. The Talk soon. Talk often resource provides parents with lots of tips and conversation starters for talking about consent at age and stage appropriate ways from birth to adulthood.
The new WA Health Curriculum
The new mandated WA Health Curriculum now explicitly lists consent descriptors as part of 'Staying Safe' in age and stage appropriate ways from pre-primary to Year 10.
Consent is one part of comprehensive RSE
Consent education is vital in preventing sexual abuse but it is just one part of a comprehensive RSE program and needs to be taught in context of respectful relationships. GDHR uses a strengths-based, holistic approach that embeds consent education across the program by developing foundational skills such as emotional literacy, communication skills and respectful friendships before moving on to navigating consent in intimate relationships.
