Church of England say relationship education plans risk ‘ghettoising’ faith values

After contributing to a government consultation on what to change in Relationships and Sex Eduation (RSE) in schools, the Church say: “We have welcomed much of what has been proposed, such as the inclusion of health education and the need to show respect for LGBTI+ people and to teach about sexual orientation in the secondary phase.”

However, Nigel Genders, Chief Education Officer at C of E added that there is a danger of faith-held opinions being packaged into other areas of the curriculum:

“We believe that there is a risk here of ghettoising faith perspectives on relationships, wrongly suggesting that they are only relevant to pupils attending schools of a religious character.”

“This, we believe, serves to problematise religion, rather than giving children and young people the skills and knowledge they need for life in pluralistic communities with diverse belief, faith, religion and culture.”

He explained that the concern lies within non-religious schools only being required to teach religious perspectives on relationships within Religious Education (RE) rather than giving them an equal voice in RSE.

The C of E say this separation of faith and relationship values does not concur with the statement in the Department of Education’s draft consultation that reads: “There should be an equal opportunity to explore the features of stable and healthy same sex…