Consent education set for update in NSW

Primary school students in NSW.
Children from kindergarten upwards are to receive improved sexual consent education in NSW. -AAP Image

Education around sexual consent will be overhauled in NSW schools, with the topic to be clearly taught from kindergarten through to year 12.

Education Minister Sarah Mitchell said the topic of consent is already "embedded" in the curriculum, but in the future it will be taught in clearer terms, from the youngest pupils upwards.

The changes will keep NSW in step with the rest of the country, with consent education updated nationally this year.

"The education ministers from around the country are due to meet next month ... and finalise and sign off on that curriculum," Ms Mitchell told a budget estimates hearing on Wednesday. 

"And that does contain the much more explicit teaching of consent." 

Previously, consent had only been referenced in supporting documents of the curriculum, while it would now be "more of a focus", she said.

Sexual consent advocate Chanel Contos had spoken with education ministers from around the country, and thanked consent advocates for their role in updating the syllabus.

Ms Contos, a former student of private girls' school Kambala in Sydney, compiled accounts of sexual assault victims online as part of her advocacy, helping bring the issue of consent into the national conversation.

The update to the curriculum comes after sexual consent laws were passed in the NSW parliament in November.

The laws require people to say or do something to confirm their partner consents to a sexual activity, otherwise they could be guilty of sexual assault.

Two amendments were added to the bill in the upper house, which include clarifying that cognitive or mental health impairments must be a "substantial" cause for failing to seek consent, as well as writing into law the terms and timelines for a review.

Attorney General Mark Speakman said the "common sense reforms" would simplify the law and ensure "more effective prosecutions of sexual offences".