JOHN SMEATON, DIRECTOR OF SPUC: Respond to inquiry into compulsory sex ed

Friday, 9 May 2014

Respond to inquiry into compulsory sex ed

The Education Select Committee of the House of Commons has launched an inquiry into personal, social and health education (PSHE) in schools. PSHE covers a number of topics such as drug education, healthy eating and so on. Sex and relationship education (SRE) is also covered in this topic.

We are very concerned that this inquiry will be used to make sex education a compulsory schools subject. This would mean that children as young as five years old would have to learn about sexual matters. Parents would be unable to protect their children from inappropriate teaching.

It is absolutely vital that there is an overwhelming response from parents, grandparents, teachers, clergy and all concerned citizens saying "no" to compulsory sex education. Compulsory sex education will sever parents from the moral upbringing of their children. And the innocence of children will be wiped out by ever more sexual content in the classroom.

Every school will be affected by this. Every child deserves to be protected.

Please download SPUC's briefing to help you respond to this inquiry. Please circulate the briefing as widely as possible asking others to respond to the inquiry. The deadline for responses is the first week of June (see the briefing for further details).

P.S. You may have seen this frightening report today by The Telegraph:
"NHS chiefs tell ministers: Change sex education lessons to make all pupils learn about gay marriage"

The NHS in Scotland wants:

all children to learn about gay marriage in sex education lessons
children to be given the power to overrule their parents
a stop to parents campaigning against the content of sex education lessons
training for teachers to help them overcome their objections to gay marriage.

Read SPUC Safe at School's reaction "Brainwashing children about gay marriage condemned by parents' rights group"

Comments on this blog? Email them to johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk
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About Me

I became involved in SPUC after graduating, when I established a branch in south London in 1974. I have worked full-time for SPUC for 42 years. I became chief executive of SPUC in the UK in 1996, having been general secretary since 1978. I was elected vice-president of International Right to Life Federation in 2005. At UN conferences in Cairo, Copenhagen, Beijing, Istanbul and Rome, I helped coordinate more than 150 pro-life/pro-family groups resulting in pro-life victories in Cairo, Istanbul and Rome. I was educated at Salesian College, London, before going to Oxford where I graduated in English Language and Literature. I qualified as a teacher, becoming head of English at a secondary school. I am married to Josephine. We have a grown-up family and we live in north London.