JOHN SMEATON, DIRECTOR OF SPUC: Parents must be at the centre of sex education, says Safe at School

Tuesday, 17 February 2015

Parents must be at the centre of sex education, says Safe at School

Antonia Tully

SPUC's Safe at School campaign has said that parents must be at the centre of sex education, in response to the report from the House of Commons Education Committee on PSHE and SRE in schools.

Antonia Tully of Safe at School told the media this morning:

"Parents constantly find themselves having to battle with schools in order to protect their children from inappropriate sex education. The recommendation from the Education Committee that parents can continue to withdraw their children from sex education, isn't addressing this problem."

We don't need new sex education guidelines either. We already have guidelines for schools which repeatedly stress that parents must be involved. What is missing is a robust mechanism to ensure that schools really do engage with parents.
Parents are the primary educators of their children, they are natural sex educators of their children and they are the experts on their own children."

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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.