What is sex education?

Sex education is about the body, relationships, sexuality, and the associated norms and values. You do this in a way that is appropriate to the child’s stage of development.

Through sex education, you contribute to children’s sexual development. An important part of sex education is sexual and gender diversity. Sexual and gender diversity concerns different forms of sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity, often referred to by the term ‘queer’ or the abbreviations lhbti, lhbti+, lhbtiq+, or lhbtqia+.

Getting started with sexuality and gender in primary school

Starting sex education in primary school

You can start sex education from Year 1. What children learn in sex education is aligned with the child’s development. Sex education is not only about sharing information, but also about views, norms, and values relating to relationships and sexuality. By starting sex education in primary school, children become familiar with the subject at an early age. Children learn about their own bodies and relationships. They also learn how to interact respectfully with one another.

There are various ways to make sexuality a topic of discussion in the classroom. The topics you discuss differ depending on the child’s age. With young children, for example, you talk more about their own bodies, while with older children the focus is more on falling in love and discovering who you are and what you like. A safe classroom climate helps make it possible to talk about these subjects openly. How you provide sex education in the classroom depends on the children’s needs. What questions do they ask? What occupies their minds?

Five tips

  • Make sure you feel comfortable with the subject yourself. What do you find difficult to discuss? Ask colleagues with experience how they approached it.
  • Before you begin, make agreements with the group. For example: ‘We do not use insults’, ‘What we discuss in the classroom stays in the classroom’, and ‘We do not laugh at each other’. Also discuss that something that feels like a joke to one person may be hurtful to another. Let students know that they may talk about themselves, but that they do not have to. This helps children set their own boundaries.
  • Also pay attention to your own choice of words. Try to keep it neutral. Do not talk about ‘normal’ and ‘different’. If you tell a love story, for example, also talk about two women who are in love.
  • Books can help make sexual and gender diversity a topic of discussion. On Stichting School & Veiligheid’s Gendi platform, you can read more about these books.
  • You can ask the children to write on a piece of paper what they think about sexuality and relationships, and what questions they have. They can submit the note anonymously, for example in a mailbox in the classroom. This makes it less intimidating. Based on the questions from the class, consider the objective: what do you want to achieve with the sex education lessons?

More information

  • On Gendi.nl, you will find inspiration, tips, and teaching materials for making sexual and gender diversity a topic of discussion in the classroom. You will also find free teaching materials to help you get started.
  • You can find more tips and teaching materials for making sex education a topic of discussion in your classroom on the page Starting sex education in primary school from the Rutgers and Soa Aids Nederland knowledge centre.
  • More tips for teaching about sexual and gender diversity can be found on Seksuelevorming.nl.
  • The Rutgers knowledge centre has compiled the Guidance on sex, gender & sexual diversity for education professionals.
  • Via Basisschool.coc.nl, you can find teaching materials and books that help children learn more about sexual and gender diversity in an accessible way. You can also find further inspiration for each year group in their Guide to Purple Friday.
  • School & Veiligheid and Rutgers have developed free e-learning. It covers many situations that you may encounter at school in the area of relationships and sexuality.