Rejected petition Make the teaching of LGBTQ relationships and sexual health mandatory in sexual education classes.

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Relationships and Sexuality Education (RSE) will be a mandatory element of the new Curriculum for Wales, under the Curriculum and Assessment (Wales) Act 2021.
Teaching of RSE will be in accordance with a statutory code which the Welsh Government is required to issue under the Act. The Senedd approved the Relationships and Sexuality Code in Plenary on 14 December 2022.

The RSE Code states:

Across the learning strands, curriculum content in RSE must be inclusive and reflect diversity. It must include learning that develops learners’ awareness and understanding of different identities, views and values and a diversity of relationships, gender and sexuality, including LGBTQ+ lives.

There are several other references to teaching and learning about LGBTQ+ issues within the Code.

The Welsh Government plans to introduce the new curriculum in primary schools in September 2022. Secondary schools will also be able to teach it in Year 7 from September 2022. However, it will not be statutory in Year 7 until September 2023 when it will also be statutory for Year 8. The Curriculum for Wales will then be rolled out to an additional year group over the following three years.

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