Mother's fury as primary school teaches daughter, 8, about masturbation, wet dreams and 'signs boys are in puberty'
29 November 2022, 19:39
A furious mother has spoken of her shock at finding out that her young daughter's primary school had been teaching her about masturbation and wet dreams.
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The woman said her daughter, 8, was upset when teachers showed pupils in her Year 4 class a video of a cartoon rocket launching and a volcano erupting, meant to show an erection and ejaculation.
The video also included a cartoon depiction of a boy waking up in bed after a wet dream.
The mother, who has chosen to remain anonymous, told Mail Online: "I am very angry about this because I don’t want my eight-year-old daughter being taught about masturbation and wet dreams. It is far too young.
"My daughter said to me 'Mummy, why do boys have wet dreams?' She was really upset and said she didn’t want to learn about it.
"I was stunned and didn’t know how to answer her at first. It is disgusting that this is taught in Year 4."
The mother said she was shocked by the video, called 'Top signs boys are in puberty', because of its adult content and language.
She said: "The words used in the video include 'horny', 'sexual desires', 'masturbation' and 'erection'.
"I didn’t know if I was being old-fashioned, and I spoke to other parents who felt exactly the same way.
"More so the dads. They were the angriest of all."
She said she spoke to the school, Coleshill Primary in Birmingham, who agreed not to show the video any more, but said they would keep teaching children about puberty, which is compulsory for schools.
The mother added: "The head reluctantly accepted the video was inappropriate but said I couldn’t opt out of my daughter attending the lesson after the Government made in compulsory in September 2021. It is disgusting and sexualising our children.
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"If a child went to school and told teachers their dad or step-dad had been saying they were horny, had sexual desires and were having wet dreams, alarm bells would ring and social services would be involved immediately.
"But the government thinks it is okay for teachers to teach it.'They are too young. Let them be children because once they know about it, they will start experimenting."
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The school's headteacher Matthew Edwards said: 'Parents can opt out of these lessons and get a letter informing them of the content before the lesson is taught.'The exact resource being referred to has been taken out of that unit in Year 4.
"It is an official resource for Year 4 by the scheme of work we use.'We had parent consultation before writing our RSE policy and some resources were shown.
"The policy was written as a result of that consultation and parent consultation is an ongoing process and continues.'It is not our intention to sexualise our children whatsoever.
"Advance notice is given to the parents prior to the teaching of those units and we have reacted on this one particular resource by not using it.
"We are still teaching about puberty but not that content.'It wasn’t the focus of the lesson and that’s why we have removed it."
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A spokesperson for Coram, the charity that helped make the video, said: "These lessons are normally taught from Year 4. The timing of puberty lessons are a matter for individual schools, but are generally taught in the spring or summer term of that year.
"However, this is a decision made by schools who judge the age and developmental stage of their pupils."
