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"We have to educate ourselves": prioritising young people’s voices and their recommendations for change

Publication date March 2023
We have to educate ourselves: How young people are learning about relationships, sex and sexuality

Our review of published research highlighted the need for adults to better understand young people's different experiences.1

We commissioned Cardiff University and University College London to work with us to design and conduct an exploratory research project to find out how young people are learning about relationships, sex and sexuality including:

  • how they seek information, support and advice
  • the potential barriers and opportunities they encounter
  • what they would like to learn more about.

The project was co-produced with a Young People’s Advisory Group (YPAG), and drew on participatory and creative methods, as well as an online survey to generate insight into young people’s own views and experiences.

Authors: Professor EJ Renold, Dr Sara Bragg, Chloe Gill, Dr Vicki Hollis, Rachel Margolis, Dr Ester McGeeney, Betsy Milne, Professor Jessica Ringrose, Dr Vicky Timperley and Dr Honor Young
Published: 2023

References

Hollis, V. et al (2022) Children and young people's views on learning about relationships, sex, and sexuality: a narrative review of UK literature. London: NSPCC.
"We have to educate ourselves": how young people are learning about relationships, sex and sexuality
Download report (PDF)
"We have to educate ourselves": how young people are learning about relationships, sex and sexuality - Welsh
Download Welsh report (PDF)

Key finding

Young people described relationships, sex and sexuality education as patchy and often poor yet would still rather learn in school because they felt that everyone needs to have access to relationships sex and sexuality education provision.

Young people’s recommendations

Listen to us

Young people had many ideas on about what and how they want to learn about relationships, sex and sexuality but were rarely consulted.

How and what we learn should be co-constructed and creative

Young people would like to be active participants in building a creative learning environment with each other and their education providers.

Providers should be comfortable and confident

Young people want to learn from adults who are comfortable with the subjects and confident in how they educate and who show care and compassion for young people’s diverse experiences.

Citation

Renold, E. et al (2023) “We have to educate ourselves”: how young people are learning about relationships, sex and sexuality. London: NSPCC.

“You can’t rule off school because for a lot of people it’s probably the only place because not everyone will want to talk to their parents, not everyone has access to the internet. Some people’s parents might not let them have phones and stuff. I feel like school has to be the main place because it’s the place which everyone is at.”

Sophia, age 15
Sexuality Education Plus infographic

The Young People's Advisory Group (YPAG) have given an overview of how we carried out this research and the key findings in an infographic. This is a useful resource for explaining about the research and its findings to young people. Download the PDF of the image by clicking on the image or the button below.

 

> Download infographic in English (PDF)

 

> Download infographic in Welsh (PDF)

"Understand Us" - What are young people learning about relationships, sex and sexuality? Thematic topic cards cover image

This resource is a series of 11 illustrated cards with images on one side and a series of young people’s anonymous quotes on the other. The quotes allow you to engage with what, how and where young people are learning about relationships, sex and sexuality topics.

 

> Download topic cards in English (PDF)

 

> Download topic cards in Welsh (PDF)

Click to play: RSE and me data poems

The Young People’s Advisory Group (YPAG) composed eight short poems for each of the key messages in this project report. The YPAG read through the anonymised quotes from each section of the report and selected lines, words or phrases that resonated with them. These were cut and pasted into a collaborative working document to create an initial ‘poem’. This was then read aloud, further edited and shaped to give the text rhythm, meaning and flow.

In this video you can hear the poems being read by the YPAG. The poems appear within the project report and as a complete set in the PDFs below.

> Download the poems in English (PDF)

 

> Download the poems in Welsh (PDF)

Watch our video ''More like this''

A 10-minute film that shares how creative and participatory methods can be used to better understand what and how young people want to learn about relationships, sex and sexuality.  

 

> Watch the video in Welsh

 

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