Brook and Netflix’s Sex Education

Brook is a proud partner of Netflix’s Sex Education. In this blog, Isabel Inman, Assistant Director of Policy and Public Affairs, explains why Brook’s expertise and reputation, combined with Sex Education’s reach and popularity, makes this partnership a powerful force for good.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you will know that Netflix’s Sex Education series four is now streaming. And this season is bittersweet – while it’s a joy to see our favourite characters from Moordale return to our screens, it’s sad to know that this is the final series.

Brook prides itself on the honest, non-judgmental support we offer, and on our unwavering commitment to fighting the societal stigma that negatively impacts health outcomes. We know that many 16-17 year olds feel their Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) in school is leaving them unprepared for modern challenges.

Sex Education is known for its frank and open portrayal of sex and sexuality and for tackling so many of the real issues that young people face today – with a healthy dollop of humour.

Sex Education celebrates friendship and affection. It emphasises communication, honesty, safety and mutual respect. These are all the ingredients of healthy relationships that Brook promotes in classrooms around England and Wales every day.

Since the first series aired in 2019, Brook has worked behind the scenes providing expertise to the show’s creators and sharing helpful resources and signposting for viewers – in particular the episode in series two in which Aimee is sexually assaulted on the bus on the way to school.

For Sexual Health Week 2020, while Brook celebrated the implementation of mandatory RSE in schools, we teamed up with Netflix and the Sex Education team to help young people to learn about healthy relationships, consent and how to stay safe online.

To celebrate the fourth and final series, we’re going out with a bang.

We’re working together to destigmatise pleasure and promote self-pleasure through the brand new DIY Diaries with our favourite hosts Aimee and Jean. And with Otis, Eric, Aimee, Isaac and Ruby now at college, we thought it would be fitting to educate freshers about sexual health and ensure they know where to go for help and advice if they need it. That’s why this September we’ve been touring universities across England and Wales, distributing free condoms and offering information on free STI testing and treatment with a shared mission of:

• Empowering young people to make informed decisions about their sex lives.
• Promoting positive and inclusive attitudes towards sex and relationships.
• Challenging stigma and misinformation about sex.
• Providing young people with accurate and up-to-date information about sexual health.

Rolling Stone described Sex Education Series four as an explosion of ‘colour and queerness’ and the show is widely celebrated for its promotion of inclusive and diverse experiences of sex, gender and sexuality.

In so many ways, Sex Education has broken ground and had a significant impact on the way that sex and sexuality are portrayed in popular culture.

We are so proud to be part of this movement.

While we wish that every school had an Otis, and every young person had a parent like Jean Milburn, we are reassured to know that the legacy of Sex Education will live on for years to come.