JL Dutaut’s digest of the week’s educational research. Click on the headings to access the source materials Out Wednesday, marking a year since a new sex and relationships education curriculum became compulsory, a joint NASUWT and NSPCC survey revealed the level of challenge remaining to its implementation. Of 1,034 secondary school teachers surveyed, 98 per cent said they felt SRE was important to creating a culture of safeguarding in their school. Yet 46 per cent said they didn鈥檛 feel confident to deliver it, and over a quarter (26.4 per cent) said they were not confident about answering difficult or sensitive questions in lessons. Sexuality and gender identity (39.69 per cent), pornography (40.45 per cent) and intimate and sexual relationships (30.4 per cent) were the three topics teachers most reported having no confidence in teaching. More worryingly for a compulsory element of the curriculum, 91.62 per cent of those surveyed felt support from government to deliver SRE was less than good, with 57.21 per cent rating it as poor. With last week鈥檚 call from the National Crime Association to work together to tackle a rise in online harms relating to relationships and sexual abuse, there鈥檚 evidently a long way to go before the new curriculum delivers on its promise. The NCA is promoting its resources and support for schools, and the NSPCC has joined them this week with their own package, .The charity is also calling on Kit Malthouse to prioritise new guidance and support materials for this important part of the curriculum. Perhaps a word in the ear of the new Oak National Academy. Amid this week鈥檚 other findings, Teach Tapp鈥檚 data revealed a growing problem of parental abuse. Three years ago, six per cent of Tappers reported having been threatened or subjected to abuse on social media in the past 12 months. This year, that鈥檚 up to 10 per cent. Factoring in in-person abuse, nearly one-third (31 per cent) say they鈥檝e experienced it. It鈥檚 worse still for headteachers, a whopping 73 per cent of whom report having been on the receiving end of abusive behaviour. Teacher Tapp report that primary teachers (perhaps because they have more playground contact with parents) are more likely to suffer this, as well as those serving the most deprived communities. It鈥檚 all a far cry from the community cohesion schools spearheaded during lockdowns 鈥� and perhaps a further symptom of the collapse of other family support services. The always seminal Good Childhood Report by the Children鈥檚 Society was published as we went to print last week and its key findings this year make for grim reading. UK children鈥檚 happiness with their lives continues to decline, and happiness with school and schoolwork is significantly lower among children in lower-income households. But while 85 per cent of parents and carers are concerned about the impact of the cost of living crisis on their family over the next 12 months, there is some good news for schools. On average, though children (aged 10 to 15) were least happy with how much they are listened to in school, they were most happy with how safe they feel there. The socioeconomic context may not lend itself to increasing anyone鈥檚 happiness, but a place of safety is a port in a storm 鈥� and a launch for recovery when the clouds part. Snatch some milk Finally, this Wednesday marked World School Milk Day, and the School and Nursery Milk Alliance (SNMA) analysed the latest available data from the Department of Health and Social Care and the Rural Payments Agency, revealing that on average, England provided 13 portions of milk per primary school-age child per year, compared with 38 in Wales. Wales, of course, continues to provide free milk for all children in key stage one, rather than just subsidising it 鈥� which may explain the gap. Indeed, the SNMA thinks the biggest problem is that 鈥渇ar too many schools are unaware of the different available programmes that could be giving their pupils free healthy milk鈥�. These include DHSC鈥檚 (providing free milk to children under the age of 5) and DEFRA鈥檚 , providing subsidised milk for all pupils between five and 11 who attend Ofsted-registered schools.