Sex Ed Matters: Tackling Sex & Relationship Taboos

Our Project: We need your help!

Sex Ed Matters will deliver empowering Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) workshops in UK schools, so that all young people have the knowledge and confidence they need to tackle sex and relationship taboos and to stay safe. We are raising £4,000 to make this happen.

Changing the world starts here. Join us.

With your help, we can establish our pilot scheme which will bring to life the Government’s new RSE curriculum launching in September 2020. With the £4,000 we hope to raise, we will provide tailored RSE talks, workshops, resources and support to circa. 40 schools across the country during our first twelve months of operation.

Why does Sex Ed Matter?

#SexEdMattersBecause

33% of young people never learn about consent in school.

246m children experience gender-based violence in or on the way to school. 

89% of trans young people have thought about committing suicide. 

That is not okay! We can do better. We will do better. 

About Us 

WHAT: We believe that all schoolchildren across the UK should have access to comprehensive, age-appropriate Relationships and Sex Education.

WHY: In an increasingly complex world, effective RSE enables children and young adults to make informed decisions about their mental and sexual wellbeing and teaches them about the importance of healthy, respectful relationships – both on and offline. Nevertheless, topics including consent and menstruation are often omitted from the classroom. This is particularly problematic considering that a third of schoolgirls are routinely harassed by their peers for nude photographs and 26% of students start their period before knowing what menstruation is.

In response to growing concerns that sex education in UK schools is outdated, The Department for Education has launched a new, mandatory RSE curriculum, which comes into effect from September 2020. It covers big topics like consent, sexting, FGM and LGBTQ+ rights and, quite honestly, it is amazing! This is just the beginning of dealing with the unprecedented pressures young people face in today’s schools.

While this is a welcome step forward, there is still more work to do to ensure Relationships and Sex Education remains a political priority. And this is where Sex Ed Matters come in…

HOW: To ensure that the new curriculum is delivered in the most engaging and effective way, Sex Ed Matters will provide free talks and workshops to support schools across the UK. Our school workshops will also support schools' transition from the previous sex education requirements to the new curriculum. We want all children and young people to be empowered by taboo topics, not embarrassed or vulnerable. Students will learn how to turn taboos into activism and how to reclaim topics including periods, consent and body positivity. Our talks will make this happen.

We will also conduct research and evaluation to better understand sex and relationship taboos and the ramifications they have on child's education. The data we collect will be invaluable for our advocacy work where we continue to make the case for RSE to schools, parents, policy-makers and funders.

Our Workshops

Our experienced team will bring the RSE curriculum to life in UK schools through empowering talks and workshops for pupils tailored to the needs of individual schools. Our school talks and workshops demystify taboos, overcome stereotypes and encourage open and honest conversation.

Meet the Team

Our amazing team is comprised of Laura Coryton who runs a petition to end Tampon Tax with 320,000 signatures and wrote ‘Speak Up!’, a campaign guide for rebel girls, Gussie Ivory-Peters who graduated from Oxford University with an MSt in Women’s Studies and has worked for major charities including Cancer Research UK and Sian Green who currently works in politics after spending years at Goldman Sachs, before which she taught English in deprived schools through Teach First. Together we make a dynamic and dedicated team, ready to deliver these powerful RSE talks in UK schools.

Over the past few years we’ve been visiting schools to gauge what RSE support students need. What we’ve found has been heartbreaking. One 11 year old girl told us that sexual harassment was a “normal” part of school life while another felt unable to talk about LGBTQ+ issues in fear that everyone would think he was “disgusting”. These experiences inspired us to launch Sex Ed Matters. We want all students to feel empowered by RSE, not held back or exposed. That’s what our project is all about.

Sustainability

Our dream is to run Sex Ed Matters as a sustainable social enterprise.

Our twelve-month pilot programme will provide a platform for us to establish ourselves as a leading RSE provider. We will use qualitative and quantitative measures to assess the quality of our workshops and the impact of the programme on pupils in our circa. 40 pilot schools. 

To ensure that Sex Ed Matters is sustainable in the long-term, following our pilot programme, we will charge private schools a small but reasonable fee for our RSE sessions. Our independent-state school partnership scheme means that for every one private school that we reach, we will provide a heavily subsidised RSE workshop to sister state schools. We believe this business model can ensure Sex Ed Matters makes the biggest impact for as long as possible. 

Your seed backing won't just fund a pilot programme. Your backing will enable us to empower students for years to come. We can only make this happen with your help.

NatWest 'Back Her Business' Winners!

We're raising £4,000 to make our dream of Sex Ed Matters a reality. This figure sounds like quite a lot of money to raise! BUT, HOLD UP... *drum roll please*

We are so excited to be one of the 12 winners of the Crowdfunder and NatWest 'Back Her Business' competition, which supports more women to start their own businesses! If we manage to raise £2,000 through our Crowdfunder campaign, 'Back Her Business' will match it by donating a further £2,000!

This means that every time you donate, NatWest donates! These funds will go such a long way in making sure we’re able to launch as a fully flourished social enterprise, as well as ensuring that we reach as many schools as possible. 

Our #SexEdMatters campaign fights for real change. Join us by becoming a founding backer today.

Rewards

We're so excited to be able to offer you - our founding funders - some amazing taboo-busting RSE rewards! Our rewards vary depending on what you're interested in but here's a photo of our taboo-smashing stickers, included in all of our resources and toolkits:

FAQs

1. What is RSE? 

From September 2020, Relationships Education (RE) will become statutory in all primary schools and Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) will become statutory in all secondary schools.

2. Does RSE damage children?

Absolutely not! In fact, a recent study by the Sex Education Forum found that the reverse is true. Read their amazing research (pg. 4) here. 

3. Other than delivering talks and workshops, what are Sex Ed Matters main areas of activity?

Our main areas of activity include:

Talks and Workshops. We run inspiring talks and workshops for pupils which aim to empower young people by educating them about previously under discussed sex and relationship taboos.

Tools and Resources. We develop innovative tools and resources to support the teaching of the new RSE curriculum.

Research and Evaluation. We conduct research to help better understand sex and relationship taboos and how this impacts a child's education.

Advocacy. We campaign for comprehensive, age-appropriate RSE in all UK schools.

Thank you so much!

We really appreciate your support. Your funding will make our dreams of providing empowering Relationships and Sex Education in all schools across the UK, come true. Thank you for believing in us and our project!

Follow us and join our campaigns on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

Laura, Gussie and Sian :)