Prior to 2019, Relationships and Sexual Education (RSE) in England was compulsory in maintained secondary schools, which accounted for only 40% of all schools in the country. This education was still focussed toward cisgender and heteronormative conventions, with no holistic mention of consent, pleasure or other non-vaginal sexual practices. There was a blatant lack of representation of the LGBTQ+ community in safe-sex guides which stigmatised certain sexual behaviours and identities. Furthermore, the notion of relationship hierarchy stating that “sex is at its best only within committed relationships” already stigmatised the need for sexual positivity by discriminating against the potentiality of casual sex or multiple-partner relationships as implicitly negative.

 

I knew there was something that drastically needed challenging, and in response to this, I established The Department for Inclusive Education [DfIE] which was initially a big middle finger to the government, but in practice was a speculative design organisation that aimed to integrate equality within sexual education with a proposed kit for secondary schools.

 

The project encapsulated a fully realised sexual education kit that is inclusive and pragmatic to propose what a modern curriculum should include, enabling it to be more inclusive and representative of all communities and genders. The kit aims to teach the values of all safe sexual activities and encourage educators to work with the learning tools to promote kinaesthetic learning, create discussion and break down taboos in the classroom.