Relationships, Health & Sex Education (RHSE)
In September 2020, Relationships Education and Health Education became a statutory part of the primary curriculum. As part of our preparations to ensure that these new requirements were being fully met, alongside our ongoing work focused upon curriculum development, a review of our whole school curriculum was undertaken using the WSCC Education for Safeguarding (E4S) multi-agency resource. As required by the Government, we consulted with parents and carers on our approach to our Relationships Health and Sex Education curriculum and policy. The consultation is now closed.
As a part of your child’s education at St. Peter’s, we have taught a comprehensive Personal, Social and Health education (PHSE) programme for some time. Through our curriculum review it was identified that much of what was already being taught closely aligns with the new requirements. In addition, our science, computing, physical education (PE) and religious education (RE) programmes of study also cover some aspects. We strongly believe that the cross-curricular nature of our curriculum, alongside the breadth and depth of coverage, collectively contribute to equipping pupils with the knowledge, skills, attitudes and values to live safe, healthy and fulfilling lives.
The needs-based curriculum overview is built upon four cornerstones: Relationships & Sex Education; Digital Media Literacy; Physical Health & Wellbeing; and Emotional Health & Wellbeing. RHSE is taught throughout the school in every year group and the long-term plan demonstrates how the different key themes are covered in each of our classes. We have mapped these themes in order to show the links to key focus weeks, class topic themes or the wider curriculum, for example our recent work on the Zones of Regulation.
As a school community, we are committed to working in partnership with parents as captured by our ‘Home School Agreement’ and our mission statement, “Hand in Hand we journey together, guided by God.” Thank you to all those parents and carers who took the time to complete the survey regarding our RHSE Policy and Curriculum. All the responses were incredibly supportive of the information shared and the only questions raised were focused upon the definition of ‘family’ ensuring that children are taught to respect the wide make up of families in the modern world. Please rest assured that as the policy states, “there is no stigmatisation of children based on their home circumstances (families can include single parent families, LGBT parents, families headed by grandparents, adoptive parents, foster parents/carers amongst other structures) along with reflecting sensitively that some children may have a different structure of support around them.”
RHSE Policy Appendix 1 RHSE Curriculum Overview Appendix 2 Relationships Education Expectations Appendix 3 Health Education Expectations RSE Primary Schools Guide for Parents
