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Leah Jewett
- Jul 3, 2018
- 8 min
The power of positive teaching: how to approach porn and pleasure in sex ed – Yoan Reed interview #3
Outspoken co-founders in conversation – relationships and sex (RSE) educator Yoan Reed (above right) talks to Leah Jewett (left) in the last of a 3-part series We’re surrounded by sexualised images. How do you think children and young people are being affected by the messages around sex, sexiness and sexuality that they see on TV and on billboards, in music and YouTube videos etc? YOAN Sex sells everything from cars to yogurt – it’s an advertising tool. There are so many hidd
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Leah Jewett
- Jun 19, 2018
- 11 min
Sex ed at home: the importance of parental engagement – Yoan Reed interview #1
Outspoken co-founders in conversation – relationships and sex (RSE) educator Yoan Reed (above right) talks to Leah Jewett (left) in the first of a 3-part series What was your driving force in setting up Outspoken Sex Ed? YOAN Through Outspoken we want to reach outside the classroom – not taking sex ed away from schools but extending it into families. “Taking sex ed out of the classroom and into the family” – that’s a good title. I want to empower children but I also want to e
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Leah Jewett
- Jun 11, 2018
- 6 min
Candy shop, self-harm, easy, a void: how children see porn
We are, all of us, among the first generations to be vulnerable to and blindsided by an easy access to porn. In some American states pornography has, controversially, been labelled a public-health risk and even a public-health crisis. It’s hard to contest the fact that porn is now a safeguarding issue and a mental-health issue because it invades – often uninvited – children’s developing minds, sexuality and identity. One way to counter the normalisation of pornography is by m
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Leah Jewett
- Mar 16, 2018
- 7 min
WOW: The lowdown on sex ed
The full-on three-day WOW (Women of the World) festival, now in its eighth great year at London’s Southbank Centre, is galvanising and uplifting – a rush of input, ideas and exchange. This year I’m on a mission to navigate the seemingly hundreds of workshops, theatre, comedy and music events by targeting discussions around sex-ed topics. My daughter, age 12, is amenable to coming along on Saturday on condition that she’s accompanied by a friend. They arrive in time to hear a
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Leah Jewett
- Feb 13, 2018
- 5 min
Hiding in plain sight: what’s missing from your children’s sex education
What is one of the most important elements that is missing from your children’s sex education? What’s missing is you – their parent. Although we live in a highly sexualised culture, it rarely comes naturally to talk openly with our children about challenging issues like body image, unwanted touching, the impact of porn, sexting, pleasure and consent. But research consistently shows that both parents and children want to communicate with each other about these and other sex-ed
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Leah Jewett
- Feb 9, 2018
- 3 min
The importance of educating parents to educate their children
In today’s digital and highly sexualised world, there is a pressing need for relationships and sex education (RSE). Recent media coverage and increased public awareness around some of the topics it covers – such as consent, sexual harassment and the impact of porn – as well as the fact that it will be mandatory in secondary schools as of September 2019 mean that RSE is on the national radar. Discussion of sex and healthy relationships – whether it’s through the lens of safegu
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Leah Jewett
- Feb 7, 2018
- 13 min
Where Outspoken stands on the government consultation on relationships and sex education (RSE)
Near midnight on 12 February 2018, the website for the Department for Education (DfE) seemed close to crashing. The deadline was imminent for contributing to the government’s consultation on updating relationships and sex education (RSE) and personal, social, health, economic education (PSHE). The goal was to update guidelines that have not been revisited for 17 years in order to “make sure pupils are being taught the knowledge they need to thrive in the modern world”. The ca
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Leah Jewett
- Feb 5, 2018
- 3 min
At the heart of Valentine’s Day: 14 tips for talking openly with children and young people
Valentine’s Day is a catalyst for talking with children and young people about love and healthy relationships – and the perfect symbolic moment to emphasise that respect, LGBT inclusivity and enthusiastic mutual consent should be at the heart of relationships and sex education (RSE). Presenting – for 14 February 2018 – 14 ways that parents can be their children’s best relationships and sex educators… 1 Start talking openly with your children early on. Think: “Little and often
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Leah Jewett
- Dec 19, 2017
- 4 min
Up against it: the urgency of confronting children’s exposure to pornography
Never having grown up with an endless supply of explicit sexual images at the touch of a mobile phone or on screens in their own homes, today’s adults can be in denial about the extent to which their digital-native children have to confront and negotiate their way around pornography. Unequipped to talk openly about it, many parents stay silent and teachers often feel too awkward to have honest conversations with students. Pornography underpins a multitude of interrelated conc
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Leah Jewett
- Nov 26, 2017
- 8 min
Porn Generation conference featuring Outspoken co-founder Yoan Reed and panellist Meg Veit
With at its heart the motivation to set up a local equivalent of the ground-breaking Bristol Ideal – a whole school approach for ending sexual and domestic violence – the Women’s Rights Action Group (WRAG) in Cambridge hosts a half-day conference on 19 March 2017. Porn Generation: Why Sex and Relationships Education is More Important Than Ever, held at Anglia Ruskin University and attended by 65 people, is spearheaded by Shally Shefer. Egalitarian in construct, the conference
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