Consent: Ready vs not ready for sexual activity

Group agreement

5 min

Teaching tip: A group agreement must be established before any Relationships and Sexuality Education (RSE) program begins to ensure a safe learning environment. Read Essential Tool: Establishing a group agreement for tips on how to create one and what to include.

1. Revise or create the class group agreement.
2. Let the students that we are going to be talking about sexual activity, and statistics on behaviours of Australian high school students. We are not assuming or saying anyone in the room has done (or not done) these activities. 

Considering your values

10 mins

3. Write a range of the following words (depending on the class) on the whiteboard. Have students form small groups and using a T-chart categorise each sexual activity into either “Sex” or “Not sex”:
   Massage; Cuddling; Kissing; Holding hands; Vaginal intercourse; Oral sex; Masturbation; Making out; Touching genitals; Rubbing nipples; Anal sex; Pornography; Sending nudes
4. Ask:

Which behaviours did groups agree on?

Which behaviours were there disagreement about?

Was it hard to classify these behaviours? If yes, why?

Was it easy for the group to come to a shared decision for each behaviour?

What would be a good definition of sex?

People have very different views about what they define as sex. What could be the implications for couples who have different definitions of sex?

5. Stress that if someone wants to and agrees to have sexual contact, this may include things such as holding hands, kissing, caressing and other intimate activity, and that it does not have to be sexual intercourse to be pleasurable. For some people, sexual activity may be in a context of love, and for others, in certain situations, it may not. It should, however, always be in a context of trust and respect and consent.

What the research says

10 mins 

6. Tell students you are going to do an activity where we will look at what Australian research tells us about the sexual activities of high school students. You will put a question up with multiple choice answers with a percentage in a coloured box. There are 4 pieces of coloured paper around the room matching the coloured boxes. Move and stand next to the coloured piece of paper that matches with the answer you think is correct. Note the study on Year 10-12s, so a bit older than them, but still useful when considering their own behaviours now and in the future. 

Teaching tip: If you do not have a projector/screen consider alternate ways you can run this activity. You can have the coloured pieces of paper with the percentages pre-written on them and stacked so as you do one question, students can remove the top piece of paper to reveal the next statistics. You can do a line-up with one end being 0% and the other 100% and ask students to stand where they think the answer is. 

7. Run through the questions and answers in the Teaching resource: Who is having sex?.

Teaching tip: Have a read through the 7th National survey of secondary students and sexual health 2022 and consider if there are any other statistics you think will be useful to include in the activity. 

8. When you finish the last question, ask the students to find someone close to them or a group and talk about whether any statistics surprised them.
9. Ask:

What was the purpose of this activity? 

(Point out how common or uncommon certain activities are, get us moving).

10. Say:

"Lots of young people think they need to have sex before they leave high school. But it is important that only 60% of year 10, 11 and 12 students are sexually active - so just over half. So, it is just as common to not have had sex as it is to have sex. What is most important that you do the sexual activity you feel comfortable and ready to do, with someone you trust."

Prepared or not prepared?

20 mins

11. Have students brainstorm in small groups responses to the following questions:
    1. How does somebody know they are ready for a relationship?
    2. How does somebody know they are ready for sex?
12. Provide each student with two blank A4 sheets of paper and a copy of Teaching resource: How do young know if they are ready for sex?. The statements provide a starting place for a young person if they are considering about whether or not they are ready to begin having sex. It’s crucial that young people decide whether they are ready before someone else decides for them. This handout is based on the resource: Talk soon. Talk often. A Guide for Parents Talking to Their Kids About Sex.

Teaching tip: This activity can be done in small groups but requires a considered approach. You risk bringing in peer influence into other student's thoughts and response, especially if there is a couple in the room. 

13. On the first sheet, students draw a T-chart, illustrating, labelling and describing the qualities and features of an adolescent who is prepared and ready for making the choices related to having sexual intercourse.
    1. What does this young person feel like and sound like? It is suggested that the teacher model the T-Chart for the adolescent who is prepared.
       For example:
       Feels like... it's in the context of trust and respect and you are in control of basic aspects of your life
       Sounds like... being able to communicate fully and openly about preventing infection and unwanted pregnancy.
14. On the second sheet, students independently complete the T-chart for an adolescent who is not prepared and not ready for making the choices related to having sexual intercourse. Ensure students incorporate social and emotional elements using thought bubbles and feelings vocabulary and consider the influence that alcohol and other drugs may have upon choices made.