Dr. Patrick Sullivan:

In the review of RSE, we found that the biggest barriers to inclusive, effective and child-centred RSE are teacher confidence and competence. We found that school ethos is not in fact the barrier that it is often perceived to be. It can happen that teachers who feel a little unconfident or unsure of themselves in the classroom will think they cannot address a particular issue. A teacher may think it is not age- and stage-appropriate for him or her to speak about the issue with different groups of children. That is where teacher professional development comes in. It can support the effective negotiation and navigation of tricky terrain that can be required in classrooms. There are unexpected teachable moments that pop up every second of every day in a classroom and teachers can skilfully navigate them across the curriculum. However, this is one area that requires that extra bit of skill and care. That is what we found in our review and it is the council's view on the matter of ethos and RSE currently. Ms Honan has worked directly with the schools and has seen it first-hand.