Consultation on the Draft Framework for the teaching of Relationships and Sexuality Education (RSE)

Submission from Speak Up for Women, May 8th 2025

Speak Up for Women (SUFW) is a feminist women’s rights organisation with a focus on promoting, protecting and advocating for single-sex spaces, services, sports and opportunities for women and girls.

As a feminist organisation, our principles are that of empowerment, autonomy and education for women and girls. 

Our primary focus for Relationships & Sexuality Education (RSE) is to ensure that it focuses on areas that give girls (and boys) the tools and information to make educated decisions about their bodies and relationships. We believe this can be achieved by providing our young people with age-appropriate, factual and evidence-based information in a safe environment.

Not every girl comes from a home where this information is available. While it is nice to think that all girls are given the best information by their families, sometimes this information is not accurate or is based on conservative or religious ideas that do not serve girls well. Good education is empowering and all girls deserve to have the knowledge and tools to make choices for themselves.

We are pleased to be able to submit on this important topic and we are happy to be contacted about our submission: contact@speakupforwomen.nz 

We have split up our submission into four parts. We begin with general comments on RSE, then we address the Framework including specific answers to the survey questions. We conclude with recommendations.

RELATIONSHIPS & SEXUALITY EDUCATION 

As stated in the consultation supporting documentation, “Well delivered, comprehensive RSE equips young people with the knowledge and confidence to make informed decisions about their lives and navigate important topics such as consent, healthy relationships, pubertal changes and online safety”. We wholeheartedly agree, and we support the teaching of RSE in New Zealand schools.

We would like to see a return to dedicated RSE classes, rather than the suggested approach of the 2020 Guidelines to ‘embed’ the topic throughout the curriculum. And we would like to see that stated openly in the Framework and Curriculum. As much as we support the teaching of RSE in New Zealand schools, it is only one subject among many and we believe parents should be able to withdraw their children if they wish to. However, it is our hope that the two consultation periods associated with the upcoming changes means parents will feel more comfortable with the content and purpose of RSE, and a more structured curriculum should make them more confident to take their concerns to their school. 

Parents have lost a lot of trust in the MOE and their local school, and we think this open approach has the potential to strengthen these important relationships.

THE FRAMEWORK

We’re pleased to see the removal of all references to gender ideology. We think having it in the curriculum and teaching it as fact alongside the realities of pubertal change confuses children and creates unnecessary conflict in the school environment with all the demands this belief system brings. However, we would support it being taught in senior classes as a belief some people hold so students can learn to think critically about the issue. Gender Ideology has wreaked havoc throughout our society and a good deal of our work (SUFW) is aimed at improving laws and policies that are not based in facts and reality so that everyone’s rights can be considered equally. This belief system has no place in schools and we would support a requirement that school policies be rewritten to go back to separating children by sex for those times when it matters (eg. toilets, changing rooms, sports and overnight stays).

For younger students we would like to see RSE provide well-researched and age-appropriate content relating to: Healthy relationships and families, including different family types; Bodies; Privacy.

We think this is generally achieved well in the Framework.

From Y7 we would like to see RSE provide age appropriate, well researched programs on: Puberty and body changes, differences between boys and girls; Consent; Healthy relationships (including different sexualities)

We think this is generally achieved well in the Framework.

As RSE is only compulsory up to Y10, we think some important topics need to be covered from Y9: The impacts of misogyny (as supported by the ERO Report 2024) and pornography; STIs; Contraception; Pregnancy and termination; Reproductive autonomy.

THE SURVEY QUESTIONS

A note on our format: Although the survey questions request separate responses about content appropriateness, alignment, removal and addition, we have chosen to group our responses to Q1-14 under each year group to present a more comprehensive view.

Years 0-6

Appropriateness and alignment: Overall, we agree the content in the Framework is age appropriate and relevant for these age groups.

Remove: All we would remove is “most people have either a female or a male body” at Y6. This is not accurate. All people have either a male or female body. Saying anything else at this age is just confusing and untrue. Intersex conditions do not change the fact that there are only two human sexes.

Add: Nothing to add

Years 7-8

Appropriateness and alignment: We agree the content is appropriate for this age group

However, girls are getting their period in year 6/7 and are likely to be noticed by men at this age (sadly). From a feminist perspective girls generally benefit from knowledge about their bodies (including abortion and contraception) and they are being targeted by men earlier and earlier so year 7/8 seems appropriate for the introduction of some sexual topics, while advising them there is a legal age of consent and not everyone chooses to be sexually active and no-one has the right to coerce them.

Remove: Nothing to remove 

Add: We think as soon as sexual relationships are discussed, same sex relationships should be included. 

Years 9-10

Appropriateness and alignment: We agree the content is appropriate for this age group

Remove: With a rate of 0.017% we don’t see the need to cover intersex conditions.  We would also like the term “people who menstruate” replaced with correct biological language: females, girls and women.

Add: As Y10 is currently the final year for compulsory RSE, and students are closer to the age of consent, complex topics such as contraception, STIs, unwanted pregnancies, pornography, misogyny, and transgender ideation all need to be included in the framework. Obviously prevention is better than cure, but we believe abortion should be covered with the emphasis on it being part of a pro-choice, pro reproductive autonomy approach, with the reminder that school counsellors are there to talk things through if needed.

Years 11-13 

Appropriateness and alignment: We agree the content is appropriate for this age group

Remove: Nothing to remove

Add: Nothing to add

Question 15 

We disagree that, overall, the content covered in the framework will support effective relationships and sexuality education, but only because of the topics left out. See next question.

Question 16

The Framework is good but it leaves out important topics like the impact of pornography, misogyny and transgender ideation. We would like the MOE to be very clear which organisations have their approval to create classroom resources that meet the new curriculum, and that these are to be proven educators, not political lobby groups like InsideOut. Schools should also be reminded parents have a right to view all classroom materials.

We believe our introduction has answered Questions 17-20

As we mentioned at the beginning, good education is empowering and all girls deserve to have the knowledge and tools to make choices for themselves. In a world where abuse can come at them 24/7 we believe a comprehensive RSE curriculum can help give them the strength to stand up for themselves and their sisters.

RECOMMENDATIONS

We endorse the following recommendations from the submission by Resist Gender Education, an alliance of educators well-versed in teaching accurate and age-appropriate RSE: