Key messages
  • GDHR is a long-standing educational curriculum and teaching resource funded by WA Health. 
  • It is designed to support WA teachers, school nurses, schools, and educators in alternative education settings to provide positive and comprehensive RSE.
  • GDHR is evidence informed and updated regularly to align with current research and curriculum.

 

WA Department of Health

High-quality school-based relationships and sexuality education (RSE) is a priority public health strategy for Western Australian Department of Health (WA Health) and forms part of a comprehensive approach to the prevention of sexually transmissible infections and unplanned pregnancies in young people. 

 GDHR is funded and developed by the Sexual Health and Blood-borne Virus Program (SHBBVP) at WA Health.  The GDHR resources have been available in various forms to all schools in WA since 2002 and available online since 2010. GDHR continues to be under constant improvement and update in line with WA and Australian curriculum development. 

SHBBVP are a team of policy and project officers with backgrounds in health promotion and education. Many of the team have worked delivering sexual health education sessions to young people and trained educators and nurses in previous roles. They manage a suite of resources including:

  • Get the facts - a website offering teens reliable and accurate information about sex and relationships
  • Let's yarn - a website for people working with Aboriginal young people delivering relationships and sexuality education
  • Talk soon. Talk often (TSTO) - a website for parents of 0-18 year olds to support age and stage appropriate conversations about relationships and sex.
  • Yarning Quiet Ways - an adaptation of TSTO written in collaboration with Aboriginal families to create a culturally safe resource for yarning about relationships and sex.
  • A suite of hardcopy resources on topics such as: consent, sexting, STIs, BBVs, contraception, etc.

GDHR, and the extended suite of SHBBVP resources, form part of the comprehensive approach the SHBBVP takes in the statewide coordination of the prevention and control of sexually transmissible infections and blood-borne viruses in WA.

 

School based RSE

The education sector is an important and key area for promotion and delivery of evidence-based RSE in WA schools. Teachers and schools are essential partners in preparing and equipping young people with the knowledge, confidence and skills to enjoy happy and healthy relationships. The GDHR website strives to provide evidence informed and easily accessible online support to deliver comprehensive relationships and sexuality education using a strength's-based approach. 

GDHR provides:

  •  a range of age-appropriate learning activities aligned to the current WA Health curriculum
  • comprehensive guides to assist teachers to plan and deliver quality RSE programs
  • essential teaching strategies and tools to deliver interactive and engaging activities in a safe environment
  • resources including booklets, brochures, illustrations, guidelines, research, reports, agencies set out in popular RSE subtopics with functionality to filter by age, type and location
  • online question box to support teachers
  • current professional learning opportunities and workshop events in sexual health and relationships education.

 

GDHR guiding principles

The Health Promoting Schools Framework is also acknowledged as a guiding policy within GDHR given its wide recognition as a best practice model for promoting health within a school community. This framework suggests that positive health outcomes are much more likely when classroom health education is complemented and reinforced by a supportive school environment with effective links to family and the community.

The GDHR resources:

  • incorporate the guidance and direction of both the Australian Curriculum and Western Australian Curriculum in Health and Physical Education
  • reflect a philosophy that encourages young people to delay sexual activity and recognise and respect the right of young people not to be sexually active
  • emphasise a positive preventative approach, safer sex strategies and harm minimisation strategies whilst taking care not to normalise sexual activity for school-aged students
  • include the development of lifelong skills, clarification of values and acquisition of knowledge to empower students to make informed, safe and healthy decisions
  • reflect current research and knowledge about attitudes to, and patterns of, behaviour in young people’s development, sexuality and the range of relationships in their life
  • accept sexuality, sexual feelings and relationships as a normal aspect of young people’s development.
References

1. Western Australian Department of Health. Growing and Developing Healthy Relationships Curriculum Support Materials. Perth, 2002.

2. World Health Organization. Promoting Health Through Schools – The World Health Organization’s Global School Health Initiative. Geneva, 1996.

Have a question?

Email the GDHR Team at gdhr@health.wa.gov.au

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