We have sent you this email as we believe you (or your organisation) would be keen to see evidence-based Relationships and Sexuality Education (RSE) offered to all young people in their homes, schools and and communities throughout Australia. 

We have formed an alliance - Bloom-ED - to help drive some collective action.

If you don't wish to receive the occasional email from us to hear about our advocacy efforts, then please unsubscribe below ('enthusiastic consent' is important to us). However, we hope you will scroll down to learn a little more about our first project and perhaps tell your friends all about us!

Australian National Curriculum Review

Please make a submission

Did you know that proposed revisions have been made to Australia’s National Curriculum for primary and secondary school students? This is an important opportunity for organisations and individuals to have their say - and to ensure relationships and sexuality education concepts are appropriately mentioned in these documents.

Bloom-ED has read through all the proposed revisions, with a particular focus on how relationships and sexuality education (RSE) concepts may or may not have been addressed. We have created some HELP SHEETS and we encourage you to check them out and to share them with colleagues.

Please look through these HELP SHEETS carefully and consider if you (or an organisation you belong to) can make a submission.  

Note: You do not have to be working in schools to participate.

Just a few issues that concern us:

• Whilst the issue of consent is described well - it's not really present in the sections that are compulsory.

• A student can spend their entire education without learning anything about the human reproductive system.

• Language around relationships, identity and diversity is not specific enough. Schools can still these address issues in very superficial ways.

• Although there are lots of examples regarding how the curriculum can be taught (these are called elaborations), RSE examples are not routinely provided. We expect most teachers will just focus on the examples that are provided for them, even though and RSE-alternative would be acceptable. You will struggle to find terms basic sex education terms like 'contraception' or 'sexually transmissible infection' in these documents.

• Educators will need support and time to deliver any changes.

The opportunity for public consultation is open until Thursday 8th July, 2021.

LESS THAN ONE MONTH TO GO!

So who is Bloom-ED? We are a collective of teachers, researchers, sexologists, students, parents and activists who operate as an alliance - in conjunction with other organisations - to advocate for comprehensive RSE. Learn more about our hopes for RSE here. At the current time our focus is on improving RSE delivery in Australia, but watch this space...

Over time, we are hoping our website will be able to showcase all the fabulous RSE organisations, educators and programs that currently exist to support families, schools and community organisations throughout Australia. If you'd like to be listed on our site, please get in touch.