We like ‘the why’ at Team Teach. It drives everything we do. So, why choose our Relationships & Sex Education training for SEND?
I am you. I am that school leader that needed to improve our RSE provision for our special learners. I was that person who thought I would ‘get someone in to help’. I thought I would find all the resources and a range of SEND RSE curriculum models to choose from, all with a click of a mouse. Perhaps, like you, I was disappointed and frustrated to find very little help out there.
RSE is a priority for SEND learners
The truth is, many of our special learners have not had the opportunity to learn about themselves, their changing bodies through puberty, and how to keep themselves safe. They don’t know about different relationships we develop as we grow older, consensual physical contact, the confusion over public and private, or safe and unsafe touch. I knew this to be true for my learners and I know it to be true for many others across this country and beyond.
For many of our learners, healthy relationships, body changes, naming body parts (including proper names for genitals) and keeping safe should be a learning priority. To promote the safety of our special learners, we need to support them to develop the skills to communicate effectively, however they communicate. The NSPCC also encourages us that this can be achieved through relevant RSE that develops our special learners’ conceptual understanding relating to personal safety, feelings, relationships, safe and unsafe behaviours and how to seek help.
The views of the Children’s Commissioner on RSE
As we now have the statutory duty to provide RSE for our special learners[i], the need to find this relevant provision is even more important. There are organisations you can out-source to that offer RSE materials to solve your ‘problems’. But these are generally focused on mainstream needs. They do not know your learners; you are the experts when it comes to understanding their needs.
As Dame Rachel De Souza, The Children’s Commissioner, said to the Commons Education Committee; age-appropriate materials are “absolutely critical.”[ii] She also said she would examine how RSE is taught in schools. Dame Rachel said headteachers and trust leaders had spoken of their worries about providing quality lessons on the subject, which resulted in outsourcing teaching to external providers. “We need to look at that,” she said.
She also made clear the new RSE framework had, “opened the floodgates to a whole host of external providers who offer sex education materials to schools, and now children are being exposed across the country to a plethora of deeply inappropriate, wildly inaccurate, sexually explicit and damaging materials in the name of sex education.”[iii]
The need for personalised RSE for SEND is clear
We can all acknowledge a historic lack of suitable resources for our learners and a lack of specific guidance and training for our colleagues. I know of SEND schools that have simply adapted mainstream RSE curricula, but does that address the real issues faced by your learners or colleagues? A lack of an easy solution should not and cannot be used as an excuse not to provide relevant RSE.
Like you, I had a choice. Ignore the issues around puberty, sex and relationships that my learners were trying to cope with, and hope they disappear – or do something about it. As Ruth Garbutt said, “Professionals might like to honour the ‘right to sexuality’ of people with learning disabilities, but many do not know how to do this in practice.”[iv]
Can we provide the guidance and support our colleagues require as well as developing our RSE curriculum? In short, yes we can.
A background specialising in RSE and SEND learners
My special RSE journey has been a long one. Through my research and RSE provision development, I published a master’s dissertation in 2015. This led to writing an article for NASEN around providing RSE for those with additional needs.
The Guardian newspaper visited our special school to interview me and sample our way of providing RSE for one of their education articles. Then, in 2021, my book ‘Providing Relationships & Sex Education for Special Learners’ was published by Routledge.
Why we’ve developed Team Teach RSE SEND training
We know that through a well-planned, long term, whole-school RSE programme, we can make a lasting impact on confidence and knowledge for our learners. For those schools that already provide good quality RSE, the progress made by their learners continually reflects that statement. But how can we support each other to develop outstanding RSE provision?
What has always been missing is a coordinated country wide support network for all Special Schools to improve their RSE provision. Now RSE has statutory status, we need that support more than ever.
This is what Team Teach and I want to develop. Founded in 1997, Team-Teach Ltd is an accredited, award-winning provider of training for education, social care and health professionals, as well as offering parental support through the My Family Coach website. Our training is built on a foundation of respect, both for the responsibility of those we instruct and for the dignity of the children and adults who are the real beneficiaries of our training.
Team Teach aims to foster cultures of support, helping people recognise the needs of those they work with, offer help where necessary, and make use of the support available. I have been involved with Team Teach for 20 years and I am one of their Principal Tutors.
How we can help with RSE in your SEND setting
In partnership, we want to provide RSE facilitator training to enable individuals to make a real difference back at their schools. We want to support you with RSE provision in terms of resources and activities and also help you offer RSE support to families. In time, we believe this can become a network hub of national (and international) RSE support for those working with individuals with additional needs.
Ruth Garbutt wrote back in 2008;
“There seems to be no coordinated, consistent support for people with learning disabilities in [the area of RSE] or for the frontline staff who are dealing with the issues. Parents and professionals are responsible for providing the training and education the individuals need regarding relationships and sexual expression, yet, in general, within our research we have found that neither feels prepared”.
14 years on and we remain unprepared. It is time to change that fact. Together.
More information
If you’d like to explore some of the topics mentioned in this article, click here.
Paul Bray is a Principal Team Teach trainer, experienced educator and RSE specialist.
In his role as Headteacher of a Post-16 SEND provision in 2010, Paul quickly learned there was no RSE guidance relevant to his learners.
Paul has become renowned for his work in supporting Relationships and Sex Education, particularly for disabled young people and those with special educational needs.
He’s taught on the Special Educational Needs & Disability Studies degree course, and been a speaker at the National Association of Colleges’ annual conference, the World Education Summit, the Sex Education Forum & the National Children’s Bureau conference.
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[i] Department for Education (2019) Relationships and sex education (RSE) and health education. (accessed 15.9.22). Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/relationships-education-relationships-and-sex-education-rse-and-health-education
[ii] House of Commons (2022). Education Committee: Oral evidence: Accountability hearings, HC 58 (accessed 15.9.22) Available at: https://committees.parliament.uk/oralevidence/10550/html/
[iii] Lough, C. (2022). Children’s commissioner shocked by ‘horrendous’ sex education materials, Independent, 5th July 2022. (Accessed: 7.9.22). Available at: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/children-uk-parliament-jessica-taylor-westminster-hall-b2116056.html
[iv] Garbutt, R., (2008) Sex and Relationships for People with Learning Disabilities: A Challenge for Parents and Professionals, Mental Health and Learning Disabilities Research and Practice 5(2). (accessed 15.9.22) Available at: https://doi.org/10.5920/mhldrp.2008.52266