School’s sex education class has been described as archaic.
Teachers taught a sex education class that said men were “created to initiate sexual relationships” while women are “receiver-responders” at a school which has now been accused of “archaic misogyny”.
A faith-inspired programme of study named “A Fertile Heart”, designed for pupils in years four to 11, is being taught at St Mary’s Roman Catholic High School in Lugwardine, Herefordshire, and has been rolled out to 56 other Catholic schools in Cardiff.
The programme teaches that contraception is wrong and opposes same-sex marriage. One chapter claims that men and women were designed to have specific roles, particularly in relationships, with the suggestion that “man has been created to be the ¬initiator in sexual relationships, and woman the receiver-responder”.
The programme has come under sharp criticism, with LGBTQ charity Stonewall labelling the teachings as “misinformation” and adding that it was “upsetting” to see falsehoods still being taught. An LGBTQ activist from Hereford, Chris Hyde, branded the programme “wholly damaging” and warned that an unsupportive home life coupled with a school “actively telling you not to be what you are” could lead to “extremely detrimental effects through life”.
He also slammed the programme’s attitude towards women’s role in sex as “archaic misogyny”. Herefordshire Council also denounced the programme, calling for it to be scrapped and slamming it as “at odds” with teaching children to respect differences. The headteacher at St Mary’s, Stuart Wetson, defended the decision to teach “A Fertile Heart” at St Mary’s by saying their policy was inspired by the religious teachings of Roman Catholicism and added that the programme has provided pupils with a “broad and ¬balanced debate” on sex.
The school was previously ranked as outstanding in all areas in 2019 by Ofsted, however, the education watchdog has said that once inspections resume they will “look at schools’ RSE teaching as part of our ‘Personal Development’ judgment”.