Pupils want to know more about sexuality

Pupils say teachers and parents are not good at talking to them about sensitive issues like sexuality and are turning to magazines for help, a report finds. Inspectors for the schools watchdog, Ofsted, said magazines offered useful advice, even though they might be explicit and sexist. And school nurses were providing a "valuable service" by offering contraception to pupils, Ofsted said (BBC NEWS). Inspectors urged parents to put aside their embarrassment and talk openly. The Ofsted report, based on 350 school inspections over the past five years, said pupils felt some of their parents lacked the knowledge and skills to talk to them directly about sensitive issues. And girls aged 12 and 13 were now less likely to talk to their mothers about sensitive issues such as sex as traditional mother-daughter relationships changed. The inspectors said extended schools, where nurses were on site to offer contraceptive advice, were helping reduce teenage pregnancies. "School nurses can provide a valuable service, particularly in terms of providing emergency hormonal contraception and advising on other forms of contraception," the report said. And it said where parents failed to set clear expectations for their children, schools became an important source of advice - hence the importance of good personal, social and health education (PSHE). The report added: "Young people live in a world far removed from that which their parents experienced in their teens."