We all want our children to grow up healthy, happy, safe, and able to manage the challenges and opportunities of adult life in modern Britain. The government have recognised this and as a result all primary school aged children must be taught Relationships Education and Health Education, as part of PSHE (Personal, Social, and Health Education) from September 2020.
Relationships Education in our School
We believe Relationships Education is learning about emotional, social and physical aspects of our lives, about ourselves and our relationships. It enables pupils to develop essential life skills for building and maintaining positive, enjoyable, respectful and non-exploitative relationships. It equips pupils with information and skills they need to understand about themselves, their peers and people they meet in the wider community. It explores risks, choices, rights, responsibilities and attitudes. It will help pupils to develop skills to keep themselves and others safer, physically and emotionally, both on and off line. Relationships Education enables pupils to explore their own attitudes and those of others respectfully.
Relationships Education makes a major contribution to fulfilling our school’s aims of ensuring our pupils are tolerant and relate positively with those who share different views; develop happy and secure children who feel confident in school; build resilience by becoming self-disciplined and well-motivated; feel valued as an individual and able to show appreciation for what we have; are inspired to develop inquiring minds and be creative; are empowered to cope with our changing world, developing skills and knowledge relevant to prepare them for the next stages in their lives. By achieving these outcomes, we hope that children THRIVE whilst at Brickhill Primary School and Relationships Education has a fundamental role to play in this.
Context of Wider PSHCE
We deliver Relationships Education as part of our wider provision of Personal, Social, Health and Citizenship Education (PSHCE), which also includes statutory Health Education.
The aims of Relationships Education are further supported by interventions, extracurricular and enrichment activities we provide. For example, developing as a Healthy School, social skills interventions, Anti-bullying week, Making Me resilience and emotional literacy programme and pastoral support.
Intent of our Relationships Education Curriculum
Through the delivery of Relationships Education we intend to further our school’s aims of providing a curriculum which is relevant to the needs of pupils, both now and in the future. It will enable pupils to develop knowledge, skills and attitudes which enhance their personal development and wellbeing. This will have a direct, positive effect on their progress and achievement in school.
All adults in school will work towards achieving these aims for Relationships Education. We seek to enable our children to:
Relationships and Sex Education (RSE)
We recognise that children learn about relationships and their growing and changing bodies at home and at school. We believe that a partnership between home and school is the most supportive environment for learning in this area. At school children learn about RSE topics though planned lessons, but also through wider provision and our inclusive school environment.
In addition to our broad aims for Relationships Education, in our planned lessons on Relationships and Sex Education we aim to ensure that children:
School context
Our topic, RSE, combines elements of Relationships Education (e.g. learning about families, personal safety and emotional wellbeing) with aspects of Health Education (e.g. learning about the spread of illnesses and the changing adolescent body). This combination offers the best location for our provision of non-statutory sex education. Although ‘RSE’ as a subject is not statutory at primary level, many aspects of our RSE topic are statutory parts of Relationships Education and Health Education. Some elements of our RSE topic are part of the statutory National Curriculum for Science (e.g. the biological aspects of puberty, reproduction and the spread of viruses).
We will ensure that children receive teaching about puberty at Y5 and Y6 in order to prepare them for the physical, emotional and social changes they are approaching or undergoing. We will review the age at which puberty is introduced depending on the needs of each cohort.
We understand that at times children will benefit from varying methods of delivering the RSE curriculum. For example, we may use single-sex groups or small group teaching where this will help us to meet the needs of particular children more effectively, we will use team teaching where this enables us to best use teacher expertise. We will ensure there are positive educational reasons for each method of delivery.
Content of Sex Education
The content of our Sex Education programme will be gradually developed in an age appropriate way. The children will not learn about human sexual reproduction until Year 6.
FS/Y1/2/3 will learn that human babies grow inside their mothers alongside learning in Science that adult animals produce offspring like themselves (Cats have kittens. Cows have calves etc.). The children will also learn names for their body parts.
Y4 will learn that every human began when a seed from a male and an egg from a female join together. They will not yet learn about the means by which egg and sperm join.
Y5 will learn about how their bodies change during puberty.
Y6 will learn about human sexual reproduction and other ways that eggs and sperm are joined (eg IVF) in age appropriate detail. They will learn about vaginal birth and caesarean section in age appropriate ways, reflecting the experiences of children and families they know.
Right to be excused from Sex Education
Parents/carers have the right to request that their child be excused from some or all of Sex Education delivered as part of statutory Relationships Education. Before granting any such request the Head Teacher/PSHCE Leader will discuss the request with parents/carers (and if appropriate with the child) to ensure that their wishes are understood and to clarify the nature and purpose of the curriculum. The educational, social and emotional benefits for the child of being part of the lessons will also be discussed.
We will consider compromise arrangements which will enable the child to receive Sex Education at school (e.g. same sex teacher, same sex teaching group).
We will offer support to parents/carers who wish to deliver Sex Education at home.
If a pupil is excused from Sex Education, we will ensure that the pupil receives appropriate, purposeful education during the period of withdrawal.
The parents/carers will be asked to reconfirm their decision to withdraw their children from Sex Education each time a Sex Education element is planned for their child.
For additional information, please read through our Relationships Education Policy including Sex Education document below.
You will also find letters that have been sent to parents in preparation for our RSE units of learning.
Here is a list of useful links and resources to help keep you informed about Relationships Education, Health Education and Sex Education.
Links to national documents:
Children and Social Work Bill 2017.
