In April, Warwickshire announced it had abandoned the explicit primary curriculum All About Me (AAM) after it was challenged by parents and Christian organisations, and saw its content picked over by the national media.
Cabinet meeting minutes for Warwickshire showed that AAM had undergone an independent review by the Sex Education Forum.* Interestingly, the review was broadly accepting of the curriculum, but noted that some parts introduced concepts at too young an age. Many critics pointed out that AAM hadn’t been formulated by anyone with a teaching qualification. Its author, ‘sex education consultant’ Jonny Hunt, has no background in education but publishes his sex-positive curriculum through his website ‘Going Off The Rails’.
The curriculum contained topics that many schools adopted as part of the 2020 Sex Education Curriculum for primary schools, but which were not part of the government guidelines. They came instead from a UNESCO document to which the review referred. en highlighted some of these curriculum areas (en November 2019, January 2020), showing them to be safeguarding red flags, even perhaps leaving children open to abuse.
Although one recommendation was that AAM be reviewed, Warwickshire decided to abandon the primary curriculum with immediate effect, and the secondary curriculum in June. In its place, it will signpost schools to other sites, and to the Department of Education’s national materials and resources. These, at present, are sparse.
A review is still being undertaken of the equally disturbing ‘Respect Yourself’ website. This predates the curriculum and was supported by the NHS. It included a sex glossary that defined bestiality as: ‘Illegal. But thinking about it isn’t’. The site was aimed at secondary-aged children. That report is due later in the year.
It is unlikely that AAM will return in its current guise. But, with so many staff and councillors in Warwickshire – and beyond – having welcomed this explicit curriculum, it would be surprising to see its content disappear entirely from the classroom.
