New sex ed guidance ‘muddying the waters’

The latest guidance on Relationships, Sex and Health Education (RSHE) for schools in England, published by the Department in Education in July, is receiving mixed reactions from the Christian community.

The big win from the guidance for Christian parents is that all teaching materials for lessons on sex education should be made available to parents from September 2026, when the new rules come into play.

“The one bit of good news is that the guidance is clear about the need for transparency and making resources available to parents,” said Dr Julie Maxwell, a community paediatrician as well as deputy director of Lovewise, a charity that supports parents and schools by providing resources on marriage, sex and relationships from a Christian perspective.

“This is a big step forward given that in the past parents have often struggled to get schools to share material,” Maxwell said. “However this relies on parents requesting to see material (lots of parents don’t bother) and understanding what they are looking at.

"The resources are only the basis of the lesson – what is actually taught in the lesson may go way beyond what is in the resources.”

One update to the new guidance that has been criticised is the removal of the minimum age limit for students to receive sex education.

The previous government’s draft guidance, which was scrapped in favour of the new, detailed that children under age nine should not be taught about sex, while children under 13 should not be taught about explicit sexual acts.

Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said of the age limit amendment that schools may need to “broach a topic a little bit sooner,” but that parents would be consulted in those cases.

“The draft guidance had age limits (which in my opinion were still too low for many things) but these have now been removed and schools are supposed to be trusted to ensure content is age appropriate – however we know that this has been far from the case in very many schools,” Maxwell said.

A major focus of the new guidance is addressing children’s exposure to misogyny and harmful online content; however, Maxwell criticised the new guidance on its lack of positivity around masculinity and femininity.

“There is lots of talk about misogyny and sexual violence and, although it does talk about not characterising all men negatively, the overall impression is very negative towards men and towards stereotypes in general,” she said.

Concerns have also been raised regarding the LGBT content in the updated guidance. While previous wording gave primary schools discretion as to whether to discuss sexual orientation or families with same-sex parents, the new language says: “We strongly encourage primary schools to teach about healthy loving relationships, and to include same-sex parents along with other family arrangements when discussing families.”

It also states that content regarding sexual health and sexually transmitted infections should be suitable for “those who are lesbian, gay, bisexual and/or gender questioning.”

“The new guidance contains vital new rights for parents to see sex education material, finally doing away with secret sex education lessons. But muddying the waters around teaching on gender identity is the last thing we need right now,” said Simon Calvert, deputy director of The Christian Institute, in response to the updated policy.

In light of the recent changes, Maxwell encouraged Christian parents to look in detail at sex education materials and to talk to their children about puberty, marriage, relationships, and sex before they learn about it at school.

“This guidance focuses on trying to deal with all the negative consequences of ignoring God’s design for men and women, marriage and sex instead of focusing on the real problem,” she said. “If sexual intimacy is kept within loving, sacrificial marriage relationships, then the picture would be very different.”