Comprehensive emotional and sexuality education from primary school

<< Background >>We applied for the XSE Erasmus+ project to address the urgent need for proper sexual and affective education during puberty to primarily counteract misleading online contents, gender-based violence and health risks. In Italy, 44% of children aged 11-12 are exposed to pornography, much higher than the global average. This premature exposure distort their understanding of sexuality and relationships, leading to potential sexist and aggressive behaviors and compromising their emotional development. Given the long history of sexual education in some EU countries, Italy and Croatia still lacked comprehensive curricula. XSE aimed, and finally contributed, to bridge this gap by promoting international educator exchanges and introducing advanced sexual education programs in these countries. By adopting best practices from more progressive countries i.e. Finland, XSE sought to build cohesive European societies that value self-care and mutual respect from a young age via the development of concrete, transferable Open Educational Resources around emotional and sexuality education, tailored on the needs of educators and community members, such as parents, while being active with primary-age kids.<< Objectives >>Firstly, we sought to educate children about sexuality from early childhood, following recommendations from the WHO and the Cologne Center for Health Education. Our goal was to promote healthy, aware, and balanced development through holistic sexual education that provides impartial and scientifically accurate information, fostering respectful and open attitudes for building equitable societies.To support the continuous training of educators working with children aged 6-9 on emotional and sexual literacy, and to enhance soft skills and inclusive, respectful attitudes, XSE had the following objectives:- Enable educators to adopt best practices and innovative methodologies to teach the cognitive, emotional, physical, social, and legal aspects of sexuality.- Deepen understanding and support for parenting, recognizing the crucial role families play in shaping gender stereotypes and emotional expression.- Enhance programs to strengthen soft skills through emotional literacy, proven to reduce bullying and sexual harassment, and improve self-esteem, conflict management, trust and cultural sensitivity.<< Implementation >>The consortium implemented the following activities:- Identification and collection of 12 inspiring practices for emotional literacy aimed at sexuality education of children in puberty age, gathering them in a multilingual Compendium;- 3-days Study visit to 3 inspiring realities in Finland, alongside meetings with 3 well known local experts;- Development of a multilingual toolkit for educators (applied methodologies are: art therapy, humanistic coaching, psychodrama, dialogue on feelings, sexuality and relationships), having been piloted in 3 countries, within 3 schools and 1 cultural association, involving tot. 53 kids and 34 parents in 4-9 sessions per country;- Exploitation of results at the national level in the form i.e. of policy reforms (Croatia) and follow up initiatives within schools (Italy), as well as at the European level in the form of a concept note to be submitted in the spring 2025 Erasmus+ KA2-SCH deadline as a full proposal by the consortium and beyond.<< Results >>XSE developed tools to support the continuing education of educators/operators who work with children 6-9 years on the issues of emotional and sexual literacy, for better soft skills and more inclusive and respectful attitudes:- 1 multilingual (EN, IT, HR, PT) Compendium on the cognitive, emotional, physical, social and legal aspects of sexuality for pubertal children. This compendium also included direct experiences gathered through interviews with European sectoral experts;- development and transnational pilot of a comprehensive Toolkit (EN, IT, HR, PT) for emotional literacy tailored for primary school children across Europe. This toolkit, aligned with WHO guidelines, enables children to acquire essential knowledge around 4 learning units: Relationships; Equality, Diversity and Gender; Violence and staying safe; Human body and Sexuality and Sexual behavior;- concept note to be submitted in the spring 2025 Erasmus+ KA2-SCH deadline as a XSE follow up.At the end of the project, the professional involved are more able to:- refer to and adopt good practices and innovative methodologies on the project subject;- deliver programs and creative activities aimed at strengthening the children's sexualy literacy using XSE materials.