5th Year Parents : Invitation to attend Active Consent Parents Seminar
5th year students are working through the Active Consent module in RSE this year whether your child has completed RSE yet or not. This is an invaluable information seminar for parents. It is not compulsory but is available if parents would like to attend. Please follow the link to the eventbrite page to register. The seminar is 1 hour delivered via Zoom – Mon, 20 February 2023, 19:00 – 20:00 GMT
Parents, Guardians & Carers are the most powerful and primary source of values and knowledge for their children. However, many of us struggle to equip our children to explore and develop their independence in a social context where they may encounter sexist banter, sexting, revenge porn, sexual bullying and a rising number of sexual assaults.
The Active*Consent programme, based in the School of Psychology in NUI Galway, has been working for over 14 years with young people aged between 15 and 24 years, educators, parents, guardians & carers to develop important resources to support our children. All these resources are based on Irish data and we work alongside young people to ensure that our workshops and other resources are engaging, relevant and effective in raising awareness, sharing knowledge and skills.
In March 2020, we piloted our workshop for secondary school students responding to demands from parents, young people and teachers for the reform of the RSE programme and the need to educate our children about sexual consent. We also work with the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) on their expert development group on the reform and updating of the SHPE/RSE curriculum. Well-taught RSE gives essential tools for life; strengthening young people’s ability to make conscious, satisfying, healthy and respectful choices within their relationships and to stay safe both on and offline. Plus, when young people are healthy, happy, and feel safe and secure in school, they do better.
Talking about sex and relationships does not encourage young people to go out and have sex. On the contrary, consent skills are essential when it comes to intimate interactions where the consequences of getting it wrong is the difference between sharing a positive intimate experience and having an abusive experience. We need conversations about consent to become as ordinary as putting on a seat belt.
Kind Regards,
The SPHE Department.