The Department of Education has developed an updated and upgraded suite of resources for the delivery of respectful relationships education in Queensland schools.
Contained as part of the Respect Program, the resources involve new and strengthened information on concepts like consent education, reporting of sexual assault, ethical decision-making, coercive control, forms of abuse and drivers of gender-based violence.
The Department said the Respect Program would support teachers with the resources they needed to provide comprehensive, age-appropriate respectful relationships education.
Minister for Education, Grace Grace said the Respect Program built on the existing Queensland Respectful Relationships Education Program introduced in 2017 in response to the recommendations from the Not Now, Not Ever report.
“In March 2021 I instigated a comprehensive review to make sure we were delivering the best age-appropriate resources and materials to our schools,” Ms Grace said.
“We consulted more than 180 stakeholders including subject matter experts, parents, teachers, principals, and most importantly, students themselves.”
She said students said they wanted to talk about consent in a direct and mature way — “no euphemisms or gimmicks” — and they wanted to be engaged in discussions that would help them respond to real-life issues.
“Earlier this year, Education Ministers from across Australia announced that consent education would be mandatory in the national curriculum from 2023,” Ms Grace said.
“Queensland’s updated Respect materials are now available online in a Respectful Relationships Education hub, which also includes publicly-available resources for parents and high school students.”
She said the Respect materials would be available for all schools — State, Catholic and Independent.
The Respect program is now available online for teachers for professional development and training in Term 4, before incorporation of the materials into classroom learning in 2023.
The Respectful Relationships Education Hub can be accessed at this PS News link.
