Video

Members of Newham Student SACRE (Standing Advisory Council for Religious Education) interviewed more than 80 young people with different and no religious beliefs for the DVD “Faith Sensitive Relationships Education”, asking them questions including:

Do you believe in love?
What do you think is the right age to go out with someone?
What qualities do you look for in a partner?
Does peer pressure play a role in underage sex?
Do you think that having sex and relationship education (SRE) makes more young people want to be sexually active?

Representatives from the Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Pagan, Sikh, Humanist, Buddhist and Hindu communities are also filmed answering the same questions.

The idea for the project arose when some students were upset with some of the materials that had been used to teach relationships in school.

They felt that faith should play an integral role when teaching SRE, something that teachers, advisers and agencies in Newham have been working towards in developing faith sensitive SRE.

Antonia Allum, chair of Newham Student Sacre, believes that students will also find it easier to listen to the thoughts of their peers:

"I think this DVD is very important. Resources from other students tend to be more reliable to myself and other students that I know than a resource that comes straight from an adult. We tend to take much more notice of things that other people of our own age have to say rather than a teacher standing in front of us telling us what to think."

Claire Clinton is the Religious Education Advisor for Newham Council who has worked with the students to make the film. It's taken a year to complete but she believes the wait has been well worth it:

"The students wanted a DVD produced by them and not adults and that's why it's taken a long time to make. They came up with the questions and then talked their friends into being filmed. It's really been owned by them and led by them and that's why it's such a powerful piece of work."

Newham has the largest proportion of non-white ethnic groups in the country.

Around 77 per cent of children and young people are from these groups; the largest proportions are of Black African (17 per cent) and Bangladeshi (14 per cent) origin. 

However, the vast majority (85 per cent) of Newham’s under 15s were born in the UK.

Newham set up a Student SACRE in February 2005.

The aim was to provide a place where students from different religious faiths and none could come together across all the secondary schools in Newham to discuss issues that are important to them in the area of faith and religion. 

Sarah-Jade Letch is a longstanding member of Newham Student SACRE. She's proud of what's been achieved in the borough:

"Student Sacre brings together people from different faiths and backgrounds well and tries to be equal to everyone while asking questions in sensitive areas. Maybe the new DVD might help people from different backgrounds to empathise and understand each other better."

It's also hoped that the DVD will become a valuable teaching resource for the SRE curriculum.

It can also be used as a training tool for health professionals and youth workers who are looking to gain an insight into young people’s religious beliefs and their views on relationships.

For now the launch has been confined to Newham but Claire Clinton says there are plans to make the film more widely available:

"Our next stage is to launch nationally. We've set up a website where people can look at clips and find out about the project. We've already started receiving orders from schools around the country which is amazing"

To watch clips from the Faith Sensitive Relationships Education DVD click on the video links above or go to the Student Sacre page on the Newham Secondary website by clicking on the link at the top right hand side of this page.