ABSTRACT
Educational settings provide ideal sites for learning about sexualities, relationships and sexual health (UNESCO 2009). This does not mean that young people are guaranteed to receive the type of input they would like (Hirst 2008); nor does it mean that family, peers, television, digital media, pornography and accessible sexual health services are unimportant in shaping sexual understanding and developing life skills (Marston and King 2006). What it does mean is that schools and colleges, in particular, offer a boundaried setting that reaches a majority of young people who want education and support to help them protect and have greater control over their lives in relation to their sexual and emotional health and relationships. However, this opportunity is often not capitalised upon in the UK and countries where inadequate provision enhances susceptibility to exploitation, coercion, unplanned pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, including HIV (Sidibé 2009). A significant factor is that sex and relationships education (SRE) is still regarded as controversial, with a lack of agreement on content, approaches and policy that could support more collective endeavours to increase the contribution it could make to health outcomes.
