1. Better Sex Education Action Research Group Young Edinburgh Action

2. Action Research Group  “Better Sex Education” was chosen as a topic for one of the City of Edinburgh Council’s Young Edinburgh Action’s action research groups at a young people’s gathering in November 2014.  9 young people aged between 14 and 18 and 2 members of staff met once a week from January to July 2015.

3. We asked 158 students and staff to complete a questionnaire about their views of sex education. Then we made a short video to share some of the things we learned and our opinions. [Insert link to video]

4. Findings Respondents said that the three most important topics in sex education are:  Contraception  Puberty  Sexual abuse/sexual violence

5. Where do young people find their sex education? The three most common places that young people say they get information about sex are:  Friends  School  Social media 29.7% of young people say that they don’t know where to get information about sex 18.4% of young people say that they get information about sex from porn Quality 5.9 out of 10 Quality 5.9 out of 10 Up-to-date 5.4 out of 10 Up-to-date 5.4 out of 10

6. Common themes  Young people think that sex education is important. Young people also…  think that the information they get in sex education is out of date.  think that the sex education they receive is only relevant to heterosexual young people.  said that the classes were often rushed and did not go into enough depth.  say that the behaviour of other students in the class and the confidence of the teacher impact upon their learning.  requested more interactive ways of learning that can be fun and keep them engaged.

7. Recommendations Recommendations from the survey:  Teach sex education in smaller groups  Provide more in-depth information about the topics covered  Ensure that teachers are comfortable with the subject  Provide more classes The four topics that most respondents said weren’t included in sex education but should be were:  Pornography and sex in the media  Slut-shaming  Sex work  Sexting

8. After the research…  Conversation for Action  New CEC/NHS post with responsibility for SHRE  Working on a resource for teachers looking at sex education from students’ perspectives  Invited to speak about our work to DHTs, PHSE teachers and at various conferences.  We won a CEC Children and Families Achievement Award!