Sex education: Principals are uncomfortable with the idea of high school pupils being taught how to be good lovers.

Should high school pupils be taught how to be good lovers?

Sexual health agency Family Planning says school pupils should be taught about pleasure zones in sex education, but the idea has left some school principals feeling uneasy.

Christchurch Boys' High principal Nic Hill said it was "interesting ground" but he could not imagine his staff wanting to "get in to technique".

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"I'm a little surprised. I don't think that will be happening at Boys' High."

Burnside High School principal Phil Holstein, who is also Canterbury Westland Secondary Principals' Association chairman, said he did not feel comfortable with the advice and he was sure his teachers would feel the same.

"Nor is it appropriate in the form of the health syllabus. I don't think it was ever intended that those things be discussed."

IAIN MCGREGOR/FAIRFAX NZ Christchurch Boys' High School principal Nic Hill.

Family Planning raised the topic at the Physical Education NZ 2015 conference session called Taming Terrifying Topics, attended by 280 teachers from around the country.

Family Planning health promoter Vicky Burgess-Munro said traditional sex education focused on "negative findings" like avoiding pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections but research in 2005 by New Zealand-based Louisa Allen showed pupils were looking for a more positive view of sexuality.

"They were sick of being told just the basics ... They wanted to know how to be good lovers, how to get the most, and most positive, out of their relationships."

Scare tactics – in an effort to stop them ever having sex – was not an effective tool, she said.

Family Planning suggestions for better sex education activities were "Hot Bods", which had students shading erogenous zones on a human outline and brainstorming elements of a positive sexual experience.

Teachers at the conference in Hamilton on Monday were also encouraged to bring in a dose of realism when it came to talking about orgasms – unlike in the movies, it might not happen every time, Burgess-Munro said.

She said they were not teaching pupils how to have a pleasurable sexual experience specifically. "That's not our job."

Family Planning provides a range of services to schools, including co-teaching, teacher professional development and resources.

Pleasure could be addressed in sexuality education classes, a Family Planning information and evidence briefing said.

"There is a fear of talking about pleasure," it said.

"Pleasure is part of what people, young and old, hope to experience when they have sex, with research suggesting that the pursuit of pleasure is one of the primary reasons people have sex."

For young people to see a sex discussion as real and for educators to be seen as credible, pleasure needed to be included in the context of safer sex, it said.

When pleasure was factored in, body parts might be included in an anatomy lesson and the biology of arousal could also be covered.

But much of the school-level programme encouraged students to think about intimacy, which they often equated with sex, Burgess-Munro said.

The Ministry of Education recently overhauled its sexuality education guidelines for the first time in more than 10 years. Sexuality education: a guide for principals, boards of trustees, and teachers (2015) was released in May.

At the time, student achievement deputy secretary Graham Stoop said schools wanted to be able to give students with the right skills to navigate relationships and keep themselves safe.

Sexuality education is a compulsory part of the health curriculum but schools are free to decide how they teach it.

They do this in consultation with their school community and must consult every two years.