2023 GDHR symposium
2023 GDHR symposium
Organisers
The Curtin RSE Project. Funded by WA Department of Health.
Dates
27 October 2024
Location
Curtin University, Bentley Perth WA
Overview
The Curtin University RSE Project held their biennial Symposium on Friday, October 27th titled: ‘Growing and Developing Healthy Relationships 2023: Supporting schools to deliver effective relationships and sexuality education’. The specialised event engaged delegates from all over Australia, due to the success of the 2021 livestream option for the Symposium. Over 140 teachers, school nurses, pre-service teaches, school psychologists, sexual health sector representatives, principals, curriculum representatives and more attended the event online and in-person. This year’s theme was ‘Connection, Community, Collaboration’, which acknowledges the necessity of delivering a whole school approach to relationships and sexuality education, and how various services, organisations, and individuals can assist with implementation, and share their experiences.
They day kicked-off with an opening address from Meredith Jane Hammat MLA. Meredith reiterated the government’s position on the teaching and implementation of respectful relationships education within Western Australian schools and Australian schools more broadly. Following Meredith’s opening address, Katrina Marson, a Churchill Fellow and powerful RSE advocate delivered an inspiring keynote presentation. Katrina flew over from Canberra to join us for the event, and her presentation titled: Legitimate Sexpectations: The power of sex-ed, was a powerful reminder of the importance of delivering school based relationships and sexuality education to young people, to ensure they are equipped with the skills they need to form and maintain respectful relationships, and engage in healthy sexual behaviours. Katrina’s presentation was extremely thought provoking, as she drew on findings from her Churchill Fellowship to explore what best practice relationships and sexuality education looks like in a range of different countries.
The keynote address was followed by the presentation of the first Relationships and Sexuality Education Educator Awards. This year, the RSE Project, through generous funding from the Department of Health, Sexual Health and Blood Borne Virus Program, presented awards to four Western Australian educators. The categories for the awards were: (1) Rising Star, (2) Regional RSE Educator, (3) Primary RSE Educator, and (4), Secondary RSE Educator. Each award winner, and all of the finalists for each award category have shown a strong commitment to teaching and implementing relationships and sexuality education within their schools. The RSE Project would like to say another massive congratulations to all of our award finalists and our winners.
Throughout the breaks, delegates were able to explore a showcase of 15 agencies, who provided resources, information, and advice to support the delivery and implementation of RSE. The agencies included: WA Department of Health; Sexual Health Quarters; The Youth Educating Peers (YEP) Project; Sexuality Education Consultancy Agency (SECCA); Act, Belong, Commit; Starick; Safe4Kids; Legal Aid; WAAC; eSafeKids; Man UP; We are Womxn; and Headspace. Armadale Education Support Centre also held an agency display, where they showcased some of their scope and sequence, and activities done within the classroom.
A session titled ‘Stories from the Field’ was held after morning tea, where delegates heard from our RSE Award winners about real life approaches to RSE and successes, to the vast array of challenges that educators face. The session wrapped up with a panel of 7 finalists of the RSE awards. This panel was a mix of questions asked by the delegates, and questions formatted by the RSE team. In the afternoon, delegates participated in two professional development workshops. Delegates were spoilt for choice with workshop topics on a variety of the subjects including: Healthy Relationships and Consent; LGBTIQA+ Diversity; Working the Mooditj Way; Including all Abilities in your Sex Ed; Innovative Resources for Abuse Prevention; Children and Pornography; Interactive Strategies to Teach about STIs; Family and Domestic Violence; Whole School Friendship Strategies; and Socialising Online.
The RSE Project wish to thank all the delegates who made a special effort to leave their classrooms and workplaces for the day to network with us; and to all the speakers for their highly engaging presentations. We look forward to continuing to offer professional learning opportunities to further support you all, as you play a valuable role in helping our youth to grow and develop healthy relationships.