Y6 sex ed

MegS

DS has had sex ed this week and whilst I understand he's not going to be learning about contraception as he's at a catholic school they didn't really cover anything much at all. In fact today they watched a dvd showing a woman give birth with all the gory bits and the head coming out :eek: - is this normal for sex ed? I have to say I wouldn't have wanted to watch it.

He says the lessons have been "disturbing" but I think he's just being dramatic lol. He asked if 'when I was younger' did I have sex with his dad when I said yes he said he was now traumatised:rotfl:

Would you agree the best way to go would be buy a book from Amazon, get him to read it and then answer any questions? I also plan to batter home the importance of contraception. Think its going to be left to me as DH has been no help whatsoever so far:)

liney

I think we were younger than Year 6 when we watched a birthing video, and that was over 20 years ago. I vividly remember a certain young man in my class fainting and being teased for weeks!

Gordon_Hose

I went to a Catholic school and they fast forwarded through most of it.

So yeah, maybe buy a book or sit him down and talk openly about sex and, more importantly, contraception.

savingmummy

We had sex education in junior school probably year 5 or 6 and it was pretty much about womens monthly cycles and fetilisation and yes births of babies!! GOD that kept me away from boys:rotfl:

In the seniors it was worse we didnt really have any kind of sex education at all only things in science when we did about the human body!

I think books even educational dvds (hopefully someone can recommend some), parent and child discussions are a must now as some schools really don`t do enough imo.
Our local family planning clinic have some fab info leaflets too with everything from sti`s, sex in general and contraception along with Q`s&A`s may be helpful especially if children are too embarrassed to ask Q`s.

shy-but-need-help

At year 6 it's mostly about the biological side of reproduction and not the relationship/emotional/prevention side of it all which will explain why it was all birthing video and scientific stuff... I remember wondering why on earth anyone thought it was ever a good idea to teach us this in a mixed classroom.

I think schools stick to the biological aspects as part of science and leave the rest to parents, books can be a good starting point for discussion as you really are better off talking with him rather than having him ask people in the playground (who will claim to be the font of all knowledge but will undoubtedly lead him to some really odd misinformation)

I recall my 13 year old having to sit through it in year six and coming home complaining that her friend pointed out it was gross her (as in DD1's) parents "still did it" as dd1 had 3 younger siblings and I was pregnant again, where as all of her friends were only or youngest children who thoroughly convinced themselves their parents stopped having sex after they were created. ROTFL ROTFL

RAS

They seems to have got the wrong end of the stick?

Sex education should cover relationships, biology and contraception? Or are they trying to teach them to be midwives?

shy-but-need-help

I think they cover relationships, contraception etc in year nine onwards? Might have changed though.

Before I forget this... http://www.amazon.co.uk/Usborne-Facts-Growing-Adolescence-changes/dp/0746031424/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1310056007&sr=8-1 is the book we got DD1 and it was really thorough, maybe a bit too thorough and blunt for some? If I recall it covers everything from basics like starting periods and getting body hair (both boys and girls) through to pregnancy, contraception, even covered subjects like masturbation and drug use if I remember rightly (shall have to go and get it down) It might lean slightly towards girls but I didn'y tend to think so, we bought it because we wanted DD1 to understand and question growing up as a subject- not just about herself. We bought it her in year six but we're very open. If they have it in waterstones it's worth a flick through to see what you think yourself.

Elle7

A book might be helpful, as he'll probably feel intrigued. Yr6 is the grimy stuff, and we did some talking about feeling aroused, but Yr 9 was the contraceptives, emotional stuff, putting a condom on a banana...

The birthing videos were horrible. I think they use them to put people off sex...

savingmummy

RAS wrote: »

They seems to have got the wrong end of the stick?

Sex education should cover relationships, biology and contraception? Or are they trying to teach them to be midwives?

Exactly! Its one of the reason children become parents.
Parents don`t always do their part either through laziness or feeling awkward doing so!
I had a friend at school who used to speak to my parents about sex as her parents refused to talk about it:eek:

building_with_lego

RAS wrote: »

They seems to have got the wrong end of the stick?

Sex education should cover relationships, biology and contraception? Or are they trying to teach them to be midwives?

At Catholic school?
I agree that they should though

shelley_crow

Sex education at catholic schools is virtually non-existent, I speak from experience. In (Catholic) high school, the number of girls getting pregnant before year 11 was horrific. Maybe the sex ed has got better since I was at school but reading your post, I'm guessing that this isn't the case.

Do your son a favour and fill in the blanks for him, which will be many! Instead of buying a book and letting him read it, read it with him. It will probably be horrifyingly embarrassing at first but it will open the channels of communication on this subject. If he ends up listening to playground rumours and urban myths then nothing good can come from it.

ETA: my school's sex ed for my particular year was being made to watch a pro-life video of a supposedly "real" abortion. It was later proved to be a fake propaganda video but there were many unhappy parents storming the school.