Overall planning in sexuality education

Overall planning consists in an annual planning of the implementation of all sexuality education activities. Its development must include the Culture and Citizenship in Québec (CCQ) program as well as the compulsory content prescribed in complement to the CCQ program. It may also include elements of sexuality education that are optional to schools, such as a workshop promoting romantic relationships presented by a community organization or an activity offered by a school stakeholder on the prevention of sexually transmissible and blood-borne infections.

Planning the activity offer for sexuality education allows for these to be spread out throughout the school year so as to foster the reinvestment of learning and ensures continuity.

It is the teacher’s responsibility to plan the teaching of the CCQ program. 

The planning of the compulsory content in sexuality education that is not part of the CCQ program must be approved annually, at each school, by the school’s governing board.
The governing board must approve the conditions for implementing the compulsory content (who, when, how) and not the compulsory content itself (educational aims and content elements covered). 

The school principal is responsible, in collaboration with school staff, for determining who will be providing  the sexuality education content that is not part of the CCQ program. This responsibility could be divided among different stakeholders, such as:

• school staff, namely teachers, education professionals (psychoeducator, personal development and community involvement animator, social worker, sexologist), etc.
• school partners: professionals from the health and social services network, community organization, sexologist, etc.

Sexuality education is a shared responsibility from which more benefit is gained when many people are involved. This joint effort makes it possible:

• for stakeholders to work together and help each other
• to bring together different expertise
• for young people to find someone with whom they feel comfortable enough to talk to from among the school staff, health professionals and facilitators from community organizations, if necessary,  thereby creating a safety net around them

Here is an example of overall planning in sexuality education in Elementary 4.

Plan learning and evaluation situations that contribute to the development of the competencies prescribed in the CCQ program based on the elements of content related to sexuality set out in the program.

Example: learning activity in which students identify similarities and differences between friendships , love and attraction  
 
When: October

Plan a learning situation that allows students to read and appreciate a novel, the theme of which is related to the topics covered in the CCQ course, and to reinvest this knowledge by means of an activity. 

Example: reading of a book about friendships and discussion on the themes of the book as a class
 
When: December

Plan and lead a promotion and prevention activity that covers topics related to sexuality education.
 
Example: leading of a prevention activity in class that covers managing misunderstandings and conflicts in friend and family relationships 
 
When: February

Support the school team by providing training on the different themes to school staff or presenting workshops on various themes to students.
 
Example: a community organization offering school staff training on being comfortable providing sexuality education 
 
When: At the start of the school year, on pedagogical days.

Take on a leadership role in terms of taking any necessary steps and mobilizing school staff with regard to sexuality education. 
 
Example: release of school staff to participate in training related to sexuality education
 
When: At the start of the school year, on pedagogical days.