SCOTLAND'S top educators and children's advocates have backed new Government advice on teaching same-sex relationships in sex education classes.
In a letter to the Sunday Herald, Scotland's Commissioner for Children and Young People, Tam Baillie, welcomed the guidance issued last week by the Scottish Government.
The guidelines on Relationships, Sexual Health and Parenthood Education (RSHPE), last updated 14 years ago, were revised most notably to include teaching about same-sex relationships and civil partnerships.
The letter, signed by 26 children's and health organisation chiefs, read: "We strongly support this new guidance which applies to all children and young people in all schools and helps to equip them with full, accurate and evidence-based information; promotes respectful and compassionate attitudes that recognise the impact that gender stereotypes can have upon relationships; and supports safe, informed, responsible and healthy choices about their relationships and emotional and sexual health and wellbeing."
Signatories included Jackie Brock, chief executive of Children in Scotland; Martin Crewe, director of Barnado's Scotland; Dr Miles Mack, chairman of the Royal College of General Practitioners; and Mhairi McMillan of LGBT Youth Scotland.
Heads from the EIS, Scottish Youth Parliament and Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health were also among those who supported the new guidelines.
Acknowledging the role teaching staff have in informing children about relationships and sex education, the letter added: "As was indicated by the Educational Institute for Scotland (EIS), the commitment identified in the guidance to professional, equitable and non-judgmental classroom practice is the right framework in which to take forward the provision of education, including on issues some teachers may find difficult to address.
"We welcome the focus on the need for high-quality training for teachers and support staff, which should be delivered in collaboration with school nurses, youth workers, voluntary sector agencies and other public health professionals, so that they feel comfortable and supported in the delivery of positive lessons relating to RSHPE education."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article