81% of secondary school pupils aged 14-18 claim that most of their understanding about sex comes from the internet, television and friends.

Worse, in studies by the young person’s sexual advice service, Brook, almost half of the country’s secondary pupils stated that they felt the sex education provided at school was poor with a lack of relevant information. Shockingly, 5% citied pornography as their main source of information.

The key point here of course is not whether the approach being used in the schools is “poor” or not – but rather that the youngsters perceive it as poor.

In such a situation it is often helpful to have a complete re-think as to how the subject can be taught, and this is what we have done with a series of four lessons that tackle questions related to young people, the media and sexual identities.

Of course all approaches must teach reproduction in the biological sense and provide sex education as part of sex and relationship education.

But as you will know, there is no set SRE policy and this can make things incredibly difficult in the classroom as you are placed in the invidious position of having to provide better sex education without the support to do so.

One way to face the findings of the Brook study is to place a greater emphasis placed on real life situations, emotions and the impact of media such as Facebook, Twitter and ‘sexting’.

iTeachingResources have worked with Dawn Clark, a practicing trainee psychologist, psychotherapist and researcher with special interest in young people and sexually risky or harmful behaviours to produce just such materials.

The new package of sex education lesson plans from iTeachingResources priced at £49.95 is split into a series of four sessions and full details of the lessons can be found at http://www.iteachingresources.com/lessons/secondary-school/pshe-resources/sre-resources where they can be purchases and downloaded straight away. If you quote reference HH12SRE when you buy you will gain a 5% discount on the order.

For further information, contact info@iteachingresources.com or telephone 0113 2660880

To say that the teenage years are a time of uncertainties, emotional turmoil, of feeling undervalued and misunderstood and of lacking in self-esteem, is really nothing new.

But to have an activity that can help teenagers work their way through these issues is something worth considering.

Through encouraging the exploration of character analyses and interpretations via drama, teenagers will not only exceed the expectations of themselves (and often everyone in the school), the will often reveal a talent and insight which neither they, nor those around them ever knew that they had.

Of course, many students are reluctant to get involved in theatre games and improvisations, but through gentle coaxing most can be involved, and thus find enormous benefits in their own lives.

It is with this thought in mind that The Tip of the Iceberg has been produced, a book which takes teenagers beneath the surface to unlock their true potential.

Each chapter of the book provides a one hour lesson (some accompanied by PowerPoint presentations) and each lesson is designed so that it can be used either as a lesson that supplements an existing syllabus or as a part of an entire syllabus that spans a year and ends in a performance.

The lessons can be used to complement any GCSE syllabus and as a foundation for A level Drama or Theatre Studies. It also fits with Text and Performance within the International Baccalaureate.

The book is supplied on CD with a printed version, so that copies of the text can be shared within the department, and relevant extracts made available to the students as they work on the projects.

The volume includes sections on characterisation, relationships, plot structure, remarkable moments, puppetry, symbols etc etc etc. An extract from the volume is available here.

The Tip of the Iceberg is available as a photocopiable book with a free CD containing the text of the book plus 4 PowerPoints. It can also be bought as a download at a reduced price.

You can see some sample pages at http://www.pdf.firstandbest.co.uk/drama/T1791.pdf

Publisher’s reference: T1791EMN ISBN: 978 1 86083 870 5

Prices

• Photocopiable book plus CD £24.95 plus £3.95 delivery
• Download £19.95

Prices include VAT.

You can purchase the report… please quote the order ref: T1791EMN

• By post to First and Best, Hamilton House, Earlstrees Ct., Earlstrees Way, Corby, NN17 4HH
• By fax to 01536 399 012
• On-line with a credit card at http://shop.firstandbest.co.uk/product_info.php?cPath=28&products_id=763 for the book and at http://shop.firstandbest.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=764 for the download.