The Department of Education is to develop a new consent package for schools focused on support for teachers and engagement with parents.
Minister for Education, Sara Mitchell said the package would support the teaching of respectful relationships and was the first major step following the Statement of Intent signed by all three school sectors earlier this year.
“To support teaching of respectful relationships, a new range of curriculum-aligned teaching and learning resources – aligned with the Personal Development, Health and Physical Education (PDHPE) curriculum – will be created for teachers,” Ms Mitchell said.
“The resources will be available on the Department’s Learning Resources Hub; they will be quality assured and produced by subject-matter experts,” she said.
“Our consent curriculum content in the PDHPE curriculum is the strongest in Australia and these resources will ensure teachers can deliver it in the best way possible.”
Ms Mitchell said the resources would include lesson sequences and stage-appropriate teaching activities that teachers could use or adapt to assist them in the classroom.
The Minister said resource uptake would be monitored by the Department to find out which resources were used most and where more support was needed.
She said the Department had also partnered with the Federation of Parents and Citizens (P&C) Associations of NSW and, as a first step, would hold the first webinar for all public school P&C associations next month.
“The webinar will be an opportunity for P&C members to find out more about the Statement of Intent, what students currently learn through the curriculum, and how parents and carers can stay engaged in the discussion,” Ms Mitchell said.
She said a survey of parents and carers would be conducted in Term Three of this year to learn about parents’ current understanding of consent education and the kind of supports they would find helpful in the effort to help young people build healthy and respectful relationships.
Ms Mitchell said the Department’s resources would be available to all teachers in the coming school term and parents would receive more information on the webinar and survey via their P&C association or local school.
