Thinking Allowed

Amelia McAllan, Head of PDHPE at SCEGGS Darlinghurst discusses the PDHPE curriculum, including sex education and issues around consent in this week’s Thinking Allowed article.

As a School we recognise the importance of providing learning opportunities for our students to support them in becoming confident, articulate, resilient young women who possess the knowledge and skills to allow them to take their place in an ever-changing world. Through their PDHPE lessons, we aim to provide opportunities for our students to develop self-management, interpersonal and movement skills that can help them become empowered, self-confident, and socially responsible citizens. We believe that PDHPE provides valuable learning experiences for our students to develop the knowledge and skills to empower them to make healthy and safe choices and to take action to promote the health, safety and wellbeing of both themselves and the communities in which they live. The petition has brought the topic of respectful relationships and consent to the forefront of discussions and highlighted the importance of education.

Learning in PDHPE reflects the dynamic nature of health, safety, and wellbeing in the context of a diverse and rapidly changing society. A new PDHPE syllabus has been developed and implemented from 2018 which has seen a significant shift in the way in which the teaching of relationships and sexual health is delivered.

The aim for students learning in PDHPE is for the students to develop the knowledge, understanding and skills that are important for building respectful relationships, enhancing personal strengths, and exploring personal identity to promote the health, safety and wellbeing of themselves and others.

The students develop strategies to manage change, challenges, power, abuse, violence and learn how to protect themselves and others in a range of situations.

Throughout their course of study in PDHPE, students develop, strengthen, and refine key skills that allow them to take action and advocate for their health, safety, wellbeing. In Kindergarten we focus on developing foundation skills, whereby students learn to identify how they grow and develop an understanding of their body and recognise that the terms ‘private’ and ‘public’ are associated to parts of the body. Students learn to recognise that all people have the right to give consent and tell others not to touch their body when they do not want to be touched. The students also identify the skills and strategies to be safe and be supportive, they recognise that they have the right to say yes or no to affection and appropriate touch. When students move into Years 1 and 2, they will then learn to describe the situations and learn to distinguish between contexts and when situations are appropriate and inappropriate in relation to consent. Specific strategies are targeted at this stage with the introduction of a help seeking strategy they can use when they feel unsafe, ‘No-Go-Tell’. The focus of learning across Years 3 and 4 is on exploring strategies to manage change, how to seek help and advice and how to manage the changes experienced during puberty. Much of their learning focuses on relationships and what their rights and responsibilities are in different relationships while also building the skills and strategies for them to be healthy, safe, and empowered in different situations. In Years 5 and 6 students learn about the managing transitions and challenges as they mature. The emphasis is placed on describing actions that support caring and respectful relationships and how to plan and practise assertive responses, behaviours and actions that can protect and promote their health, safety, and wellbeing.

In their Secondary School journey, learning focuses on the skills and strategies that can be used to promote inclusivity, equality, and respectful relationships. In their PDHPE lessons in Year 7, students learn about the changes to their relationships and discuss ethical behaviours in relationships including consent, and develop the interpersonal skills to negotiate safe intimate relationships. In Year 8 we explore the different nature of relationships and in particular power and abuse and what practices in sexual relationships that enhance their safety and contribute to positive experiences. A significant focus of the students’ learning in Year 9 focuses on sexual health and respectful relationships, with a semester of their study addressing this content. During this time, the students investigate the characteristics of respectful relationships and the rights and ethical responsibilities of individuals in relationships. The emphasis is on ensuring the students practise and evaluate their ability to use their interpersonal skills to develop and maintain respectful and inclusive relationships. They focus on informed consent, conflict resolution, seeking help and asserting a stance on an issue. Students also learn to recognise early warning signs about sexting and offensive online material and propose a range of realistic scenarios to manage situations where their own and other’s health, safety and wellbeing is impacted. In Year 10, students learn to predict potential problems and develop effective solutions to risky situations. They explore the harms associated with drug use and recognise the short- and long-term consequences of alcohol and illicit drugs on the individual and community.

The Pastoral Care program within our School is also very closely connected to the topics and themes taught in PDHPE. Each year group extends upon the main topics taught in a year and the Year Co-ordinators, led by Bethany Lord, will also explore these key areas through additional sessions and learning experiences and guest speakers who can provide insight and expertise in these areas.

As a Department, we are starting the conversations and attempting to bring about change but recognise that more can still be done. We have a passionate team of teachers who teach across the whole school, K-12, and each are equipped with the knowledge and skills to address these key issues. We are willing to tackle these issues and not dodge the more controversial content as we recognise the significant role we can play. We will also be looking to hear from the students more so that we can directly target areas that they feel we need to address in more detail or need to get right. As a department we also recognise the importance of our partnerships with the families within the School. We encourage you all to use our lessons and content in PDHPE as a springboard to further discussions as a family. We know that this is a significant topic and one which we already discuss with students and families but want to get right!

Amelia McAllan
Head of PDHPE