| dc.description.abstract | Sexuality education in England has been through a prolonged period of turbulence since the 1980s and remains a controversial area of the curriculum today (Thomas and Aggleton, 2016). This instability is attributable to the politics surrounding sexuality education (Alldred and David, 2007). Alongside the chaos of sexuality education reforms, the English education system has increasingly been adopting neoliberal policies which, among others, favour; strict performance management, competition in and between schools and increased choice for its consumers (Keating et al., 2013). Neoliberal reforms have remodelled the school curriculum, which now emphasises 21st century skills and science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). This combination raises the question, where does that leave a subject such as sexuality education? This study draws into question the effects that the contemporary educational policy context has on Relationship and Sex Education (RSE) in four secondary schools with varying performance rankings. It does so through a study of both national and local RSE policy documents, as well as interviews with staff members and student focus groups in four secondary schools. The data collected demonstrates that RSE remains in a volatile position in the curriculum, being replaced by subject areas deemed to be of more value. Despite teachers of the subject and students clearly expressing a desire for more curriculum time, this was denied at the leadership level through top-down decision making. The schools of study all exuded ‘liberal’ discourses of sexuality education and focused heavily on students having the knowledge and skills necessary to make their own choices. This study concludes that while there appears to be growing recognition of the importance of RSE, mostly due to the imminent statutory status (DfE, 2019), neoliberal tendencies in the current education policy climate are preventing the progression of RSE programmes that meet the needs and wants of both the teachers and learners. Going forward, RSE would benefit from developing a status to match the other ‘measurable’ subjects on the curriculum in an if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em mentality – if only for the sake of the young people who, otherwise, are being offered a tokenistic version of sexuality education. | eng |