SOMERSET County Council is welcoming new amendments to the Children and Social Work Bill which could see sex education become mandatory in all secondary schools. 

Parents will still have the right to withdraw their child from the classes, while religious schools will still be able to teach sex education within the tenets of their faith, the government announced.

In a written statement, Education Secretary Justine Greening said that statutory guidance for sex and relationships education (SRE) introduced in 2000 had become "increasingly outdated", failing to address issues that had become increasingly common, such as cyber bullying, sexting and online safety.

Under the move, all primary schools in England will have to teach age appropriate lessons about relationships, while secondaries will have to give classes in both sex and relationships.

Currently, sex education is compulsory only for secondary pupils in schools run by local authorities.

The change makes the subject mandatory in all schools, including academies, independent schools and religious free schools and extends the subject to include relationships and modern phenomena such as internet porn and sexting.

Education Secretary, Justine Greening, said: "RSE and PSHE teach children and young people how to stay safe and healthy, and how to negotiate some of the personal and social challenges they will face growing up and as adults. These subjects form part of the building blocks young people need to thrive in modern Britain. At the moment, too many young people feel they don’t have the RSE they need to stay safe and navigate becoming an adult.

"It is time to make this change to ensure all children and young people have access to these subjects and to update the current statutory guidance for RSE which was introduced nearly 20 years ago, in 2000. We need high-quality, age-appropriate content that relates to the modern world, addressing issues like cyber bullying, ‘sexting’ and internet safety.

"We will now begin a review and gather expert opinions to ensure these subjects really have a positive impact on young people."

A spokesman for Somerset County Council said: “We welcome these proposals because we recognise the importance of good quality PSHE and sex education, particularly its role in promoting healthy relationships and emotional health and wellbeing.

"We have already commissioned a programme which trains teachers in the delivery of PSHE and relationship and sex education. At the moment more than 20 teachers are on the training programme, and we plan to repeat it annually so that even more schools can benefit.

“We support the Ofsted judgement that well-delivered PSHE supports better academic and non-academic outcomes, particularly for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children and young people.

"We believe that it is important that all children and young people in Somerset should have access to this.”

Barnardo’s Chief Executive, Javed Khan, said: "We are thrilled the government has listened to our campaign to provide all school children with age-appropriate school lessons on sex and healthy relationships to help keep them safe.

"Barnardo’s has long campaigned for this vital education so children can better understand the dangers in the real world and online. We believe this will give children the knowledge and skills they need to help prevent them being groomed and sexually exploited."