Teacher FAQs

• 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.

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:

• the school council agenda,
• a school relationships and sexuality education policy
• newsletters
• parent workshops or information evenings
• a letter from the teacher/school (Sample parent letters: primary and secondary).

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:
  • Talk Soon. Talk Often. a guide for parents talking to their kids about sex
  • Puberty
  • Relationships, sex and other stuff

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. 

There are no specific Departmental guidelines or policies governing public schools on relationships and sexuality education (RSE).

GDHR guidelines are based on evidence and best practice principles.

Individual schools are encouraged to develop school-specific guidelines to address a range of health-related issues.

School guidelines/policy for RSE should include areas such as:

• a whole school approach
• communication with parents
• professional development for teachers
• ensuring teaching resource are evidence informed
• guidelines for guest speakers
• considerations for inclusivity and diversity - cultural diversity, gender diversity, sexual diversity, body diversity
• procedures for dealing with incidents - e.g. image-based abuse, inappropriate sexual behaviours, etc.

Resilience and emotional wellbeing go hand in hand. These are important concepts to teach in the junior primary, early childhood years as this is when younger students may need support to identify their own personal strengths. Identifying and describing their own strengths and achievements and those of others form the basis of persistence, understanding change and the transition and change in identity.

No, but it is highly recommended. Effectively dealing with sensitive and controversial issues can be difficult. It is important for teachers to ensure their personal values and beliefs are not imposed upon their students when these issues and situations arise.

Quality professional learning enables teachers to further develop their skills and knowledge in teaching sexual health.

Professional learning opportunities are made available through Curtin University and other agencies. Please see the Professional Development section for a list of current workshops.

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

• Separating boys and girls can perpetuate the stigma of the topic.
• 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 opportunities for gender split groups (e.g. a 'girls' chat' or 'boys' chat' at lunch time; or small group work with the school nurse).
• 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').

It is normal for young people to be curious about pornography, and to look at it on the internet, it is also absolutely normal for them to be disinterested in pornography!

Viewing pornography can be a very destructive means of early education about sexuality and relationships. It’s very important for young people to understand that graphic and sensational pictures of naked men and women, body parts such as breasts, vaginas (vulvas), penises and all manner of sexual intercourse positions may seem exciting, but it’s simply not reality.

Pornography has the potential to negatively impact on sexual experiences. It can shape what and how young less experienced people think sex will be like; how they believe men and women should look and how they should act sexually. Pornography commonly portrays women and sometimes men enjoying the experience of being treated badly, even violently. This is usually a completely false representation of what is really going on.

While pornography can be harmful, it is important to note that it can also be an affirming experience for young people. It may be the only place that they see of the type of sexual experiences or sexuality that they identify with as often sexuality education can assume everyone is heterosexual and cisgendered.

Discussion question

A useful discussion question about pornography could be prompted by asking students "Why is it that pornography does not show sex as a loving kind of thing?"

Everyone working in schools is responsible for the care and protection of children and the reporting of concerns about child protection. The Department of Education’s Child Protection Policy explains the actions to be taken by staff to protect children in circumstances where abuse is suspected or when allegations of child abuse are made.

How to make a report
Once a disclosure of sexual abuse is made or suspicion is strong, school personnel must make a report to the Department for Child Protection and Family Support’s Mandatory Reporting Service.

A verbal report can be made, but this must be followed by a written report as soon as is practicable, preferably within 24 hours.

Once a report is made, the Mandatory Reporting Service will:

• acknowledge receipt of the report
• provide the Western Australian Police with a copy of every written report
• make enquiries and an assessment to take the necessary action
• assist the Western Australian Police, who may undertake a separate investigation.

Effectively dealing with sensitive and controversial issues can be difficult. It is important for teachers to ensure their personal values and beliefs are not imposed upon their students when these issues and situations arise. Quality professional learning enables teachers to further develop their skills and knowledge in teaching sexual health.

Professional learning opportunities are available for teachers through the Curtin University SRE Teacher Training Project.  Check out the professional development section of this site for more information.

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:

Sexual Health Quarters

SECCA (resources to support people with disabilities)

Freedom Centre (resources to support LGBTI young people)

• Listen carefully to queries and answer where possible.
• The resource library section of the GDHR website lists resources that parents can access to support relationships and sexuality education within the home.
• If questions of concerns are about policy or procedure, teachers should seek support from the school's principal. The Department of Education is also available for support.

Guest speakers can add interest and relevance to school-based relationships and sexuality education programs. However, this strategy should not be used in isolation but should complement other learning opportunities.

See Guest speakers: Guidelines for engaging guest speakers for more information.

There are two possible avenues for teachers to access external support and guest speakers for sexuality education in schools:

1. The school community health nurse. Many school health nurses are involved in supporting teachers in the delivery of sexual health education for primary and secondary school students. There is variation in the sexual health-related skills, expertise and work programs between school nurses but it is worth checking out if they can be involved.
2. External agencies provide guest speakers on aspects of relationships and sexuality education in WA schools. For example, Sexual Health Quarters provides support for school sexuality education. Fees may be charged for providing these services.

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.