With the Healthy Relationships & Sexuality Incentive Scheme, schools can more easily work on giving structural attention to the theme of Relationships and sexuality. Schools that are awarded funding under the incentive scheme receive a financial contribution, support and professional development as part of the scheme. They can also make use of useful information, tools and recognised Healthy School activities.
Inspiration and conditions of the incentive scheme
In the previous rounds, no fewer than 625 schools started working with the Healthy Relationships & Sexuality Incentive Scheme. In this way, they contribute to the positive and healthy sexual development of their pupils and students. Would you like to know more? Be inspired by the experiences of other schools: the Curio Entry-level programme, Breda location, was one of the first vocational schools to start with the incentive scheme, while Hoornbeeck College, Amersfoort location, is using the incentive scheme to supplement its own policy.
Curio Entry-level programme, Breda location
One of the driving forces at the location is teacher Stefanie van Dalsum: “I think Relationships and sexuality is an important subject.” “At this Curio location, we work with a vulnerable group of students aged 16 and 17, among others. Sometimes they have no basic knowledge about sexuality, and there are students from different cultural or linguistic backgrounds. Some young people have already experienced a great deal. This calls not only for practical sex education, but also for attention to resilience and forming opinions. Hopefully, the contribution from the incentive scheme will help us move forward with the latter.”
Financial boost
During the one-year programme, all classes already receive sex education at least once during Citizenship lessons. But Van Dalsum believes that even more attention could be paid to the subject of sexuality. With the award of funding under the incentive scheme, Curio’s entry-level programme in Breda is among the first group to benefit from the financial boost. “So we still have to work out exactly how it should be done,” says Van Dalsum. “Also because the coronavirus crisis threw a spanner in the works when it came to planning. You cannot simply start an online conversation about such a subject. You have to work on creating a safe environment.”
Van Dalsum already has ideas about where this should lead: “We are currently working on a description of our policy on this subject in the regulations. This will make it visible to everyone, including parents. In addition, starting in the new school year, we will use Citizenship textbooks in which the subject is already addressed. That provides a good starting point for other activities. It would be great if we could use the financial contribution to purchase an contraception kit.”
Hoornbeeck College, Amersfoort location
Three years ago, Hoornbeeck College, Amersfoort location, set up a Sexuality and Resilience working group to examine how the subject could be made open for discussion in lessons. The working group’s ideas have since developed into pilot projects, an in-house teaching method, integration into the Citizenship subject and an application for funding under the Healthy Relationships & Sexuality Incentive Scheme. Location manager Wiechert Petersen: “We want students to feel valued and resilient, including in relationships.”
Addressing uncertainty about how to act
The Hoornbeeck location regularly conducts a student satisfaction survey. “Feeling safe” consistently scores highly, Petersen explains. At the same time, it appears that teachers sometimes find the threshold for talking to students about relationships and sexuality too high (‘uncertainty about how to act’). How do you do this properly?
That is why the teachers took the initiative to address this threshold. “We wanted to create space to talk about these subjects. Preferably through a structured programme and in a way that makes both students and teachers feel comfortable,” says Healthy School coordinator Marianne van den Broek.
School-wide teaching method
Following a number of pilot projects, the school now has its own school-wide teaching method, ‘Met Liefde’ (‘With Love’). All first-year students at levels 2, 3 and 4 spend one block covering various subjects related to sexuality. Van den Broek: “There are a few compulsory components, such as homosexuality. Apart from that, students largely determine the programme themselves.”
Forming their own opinions
“The two lessons per week are always intended to help students form their own opinions. Not everyone has the same background. For example, we have students from a Reformed background, for whom this subject is not always easy to discuss, and young people who rely solely on whatever comes through on their phones.”
As a supplement to the direction it has taken, the Hoornbeeck location submitted an application to Healthy School. Van den Broek: “With the Healthy Relationships & Sexuality Incentive Scheme, we can now finance additional activities on top of our own programme. Among other things, we want to organise the educational escape room ‘It Stops with You!’ at our location. It deals with sexting—the forwarding of sexually suggestive photos and videos. We are also looking into whether we can further train teachers in how to make sexuality open for discussion in the classroom.”
Curriculum expanded
Petersen: “Sexuality is an important subject. Our vocational programme is the final step on the way to adult life, with a job and other responsibilities. Students deserve to be supported in this area. I am happy to act as a driving force by having the subject included in the curriculum and appointing a coordinator.”
Van den Broek: “I also think sexuality is a very important subject, both for my own students and for the people they will go on to educate. The teaching assistants who will pass it on to young primary school pupils, for example. When it comes to resilience in pupils, you cannot start early enough.”