The foundation of a socially safe school climate
‘What do I like?’, this year’s theme for the Week of the Spring Fever (20–24 March), is the foundation of sexual integrity: “dealing consciously, respectfully and responsibly with one’s own sexuality and gender, and those of others”.
When a child learns to sense which situations feel comfortable and which do not, it has identified the boundary between what feels good and what does not. A subsequent developmental step is for the child to realise that other people also have things they do and do not like: empathy. This is the foundation of a respectful attitude. The foundation for preventing transgressive behavior. The foundation of a socially safe school climate.
Take a moment: how is it going?
The run-up to the Week of the Spring Fever can be a good time of year to pause and reflect on how things are going with addressing these themes—as a teacher, as a team, and as a school.
After all, working on ‘sexually respectful behavior’ is something you essentially do every school day, consciously or unconsciously. The words you use, the examples you give, the way you praise or disapprove of certain behavior, the videos you show in class, your comments on the news, your response to an incident. If you start paying attention to it, you will notice how much you ‘guide’ students, including on subjects relating to falling in love or physical contact, expectations for girls and boys, what is ‘normal’ in relationships, and so on.
Tell me more!
Would you like to read more about this or develop your professional expertise? Are you looking for tips to apply in the classroom? Or would you like to learn more about the relationship between sexuality education & social safety? The links below will help you further.
- Everything about the Week of the Spring Fever organised by Rutgers.
- What is sexual integrity? Read more about it on the ‘Dealing with sexuality in primary education’ theme pages of the School & Veiligheid foundation.
- Themed website Gendi.nl inspires has an article entitled ‘Week of the Spring Fever’ with practical tips for also giving gender and sexual diversity a place during this week.
- For the classroom: Conversation cards to learn to talk about ‘Touching’.
- Do you find it difficult to deal with these kinds of themes? Or would you like to get better at it? Then take a look at the ‘Pedagogical guides to sexual integrity’ and videos from the ‘Viewing guide for primary education’ by the School & Veiligheid foundation.
Getting started inclusively
Make sure you inform parents in advance. This prevents them from feeling taken by surprise by what has been discussed at school. Ideally, this should not merely be about providing information, but also involve a two-way conversation. In this conversation, you can look for shared wishes & important values relating to sexual education. This allows any differing perspectives to be given a place in education.
Halfway through the Week of the Spring Fever, Ramadan begins. Do you or your pupils or their parents feel that talking about sexuality on those days would be inappropriate? Consider, for example, shifting or rescheduling the week slightly.