RSE and PSHE
12.2.21 RSE policy publication
Now that pupil, staff and parent consultations have been completed, we are pleased to inform you that on the 4.2.21, the Governing body met and ratified the R.S.E policy for our school. The policy meets the DfE statutory requirements for the R.S.E curriculum which come into effect in the Summer term. We have worked alongside the Archdiocese of Liverpool to produce this extensive documentation and design a tailored curriculum suited to the needs of the children in our school community. To access the policy document, please visit the files section at the bottom of this page. If you require a paper copy please contact the school office.
St Anne’s Catholic Primary School
(RSE) Policy
At St. Anne’s, together in faith, we passionately commit to:
Build a loving, vibrant community with Christ at the heart;
- Within our local and global communities, live, share and celebrate God’s word, together with the core values of our school community.
- Work as one to make a positive difference in all that we do.
- Responsibly keep everyone safe and secure within an environment of tolerance and respect.
Celebrate the uniqueness of all and enable them to reach their potential:
- Value the uniqueness and dignity of all individuals, enabling them to grow, have aspirations and become global citizens of our common home.
- To respectfully hear, listen and respond to everyone’s voice, thoughts and opinions equally.
- Recognise and develop individual qualities to enable all to live life to the full with courage and compassion.
Through our shared vision and values, nurture knowledge and skills for life-long learning and achievement;
- Build a place and a curriculum where everyone matters and everyone succeeds, with high expectations of ourselves and others.
- Develop pupils who grow to care about the world and go on to make a positive difference.
- For children to leave each stage of their learning journey with happy memories, lasting friendships and a desire to fulfil their hopes and dreams throughout their lives.
Raising self-esteem, with commitment, organisation and resilience, we achieve excellence as together we…
“Learn to love, Love to learn in readiness for life.”
Our vision for RSE
Our belief in the unique dignity of the human person as made in the image and likeness of God underpins the approach to all education in our school. Our approach to relationship and sex education therefore is rooted in the Catholic Church’s teaching of the human person and is presented positively and prudently. Stemming from this vision of what it means to be human, we seek to educate the whole child: spiritually, intellectually, morally, emotionally, psychologically, and physically towards our understanding of Christian maturity.
At St. Anne’s we have opted to use the ‘Journey in Love’ RSE programme, recommended by Liverpool Archdiocese and the Catholic Bishops of England and Wales. This programme is authentic to the Catholic faith and supports the teaching and learning of our pupils from Nursery to Year 6.
Through RSHE we aim to:
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- To encourage pupils’ growth in self-respect, acknowledging we are all created in the image and likeness of God.
- To help pupils develop an understanding that love is the central basis of relationships.
- To help pupils to understand the nature of relationships and to encourage them to reflect on their own relationships and respect differences between people.
- To develop pupils’ confidence in talking, listening and thinking about feelings and relationships.
- To help pupils acquire the personal and social skills necessary to develop and sustain positive (healthy) relationships.
- To offer sex education in the wider context of relationships.
- To ensure that pupils protect themselves and ask for help and support when needed. • To ensure that pupils are prepared for puberty.
- To educate and increase understanding of the child’s own growth and development and the different rates at which changes take place (puberty).
- To develop a respect for their own bodies and the bodies of others.
- To provide an acceptable vocabulary for all parts of the body.
- To promote the belief that each human person has a unique and special dignity and worth and is not dependent on an individual’s age, abilities, social acceptability or any other characteristic.
- To enable the development of well informed, balanced persons capable of making choices and accepting responsibility for the consequences of their actions. • To be sensitive and tolerant to the decisions and choices that people make.
- To foster the attitude that what we say with our bodies should reflect what we mean in our hearts and minds.
- To help pupils to develop a healthier, safer lifestyle.
- To prepare pupils to play an active role as citizens and to understand the Catholic vision of what it means to be citizens of the Kingdom/reign of God
Organisation
Our teaching of RSE is rooted in our Catholic faith and the teaching of the Gosepl Values.
Education for Personal Relationships is taught in a cross-curricular way beginning in the Foundation Stage and continuing throughout Key Stages 1 and 2. The 'Journey in Love' scheme of work is followed for RSE.
In order to ensure accessibility to all our pupils, the lessons are differentiated to reflect the level of understanding that pupils are demonstrating.
The class teacher will be responsible for the delivery of RSE as part of the planned schemes of work. The School Nurse may provide additional support when requested.
The programmes of study for PSHE form an integral part of St Anne’s Curriculum and these are modified to take into account the needs of all pupils, ensuring progression as the pupil moves through the Foundation Stage, Key Stage 1 and 2. Advice and support from outside agencies will be sought as and when necessary.
Teaching and Learning Styles
The person leading the lesson provides a balanced and sensitive approach to personal relationships education within the broad framework of RSE and the programme is taught mainly on a mixed gender basis. Where appropriate, boys/girls may be given opportunities to clarify issues separately – if this is deemed appropriate by the teacher. The class teachers will also be responsible for the planning and delivery of work, ensuring differentiation addresses individual pupils’ needs. The subject is also reinforced via cross-curricular means which includes aspects of different learning styles.
Teaching and Learning Strategies
To engender a sensitive approach to relationships education, it is essential to make sure the group feels safe. To achieve this, aspects of the following learning strategies will be in place:
- Group rules
- Privacy of rooms
- Dealing with sensitive issues
Use of Visitors Advice and support from outside agencies will be sought as and when necessary. They will be given copies of the school’s policy statement prior to their work in school and they will be required to act within the guidelines given there. Sessions from outside agencies will be planned and delivered in conjunction with the RSE Subject Lead and the school Well-being Managers.
Child Protection
If sensitive issues are raised the recommendations given in the Child Protection Policy will be adhered to.
Parental Involvement
Information, examples of work and contents of pupil’s files are available to parents enabling them to follow up any issues raised in school thus fostering the close liaison developed between school and parents in this sensitive area.
At the bottom of this page, in the files section, you will find further information, including a parents guide and Medium term overview of the curriculum across the school.
RSE is delivered throughout the year but parents are informed by letter when their child will be receiving relationships/sex education. They will be signposted to the Archdiocese website to review resources, be informed of intended learning outcomes and how these will be delivered through the schemes of work. In the same invite, parents will be informed of the procedure for withdrawing their child from personal relationships education if they so wish. Alternative lessons will be provided for any child who is withdrawn. Parental concerns will be dealt with individually by the class teacher and UKS2 Lead. Any parent who wishes to view materials or discuss issues further will be invited into school.
Monitoring
The Subject Leader in conjunction with the Head Teacher, will present the RSE Policy for the Governor’s approval and always act within their agreed guidelines. It is the responsibility of the teacher delivering the lessons to monitor and evaluate pupil progress.
It is the responsibility of the Subject Leader to:
- Keep under review, and make suggestions for the updating of all equipment
- Research the range of resources appropriate to the needs of the pupils at St Anne’s.
- Liaise with SLT and staff re: the development of teaching and learning of this subject throughout the school.
- Review, on a regular basis, the provision for this subject at St Anne’s in line with new government initiatives.
The RE/RSE Subject Leaders are released from their classrooms in order to enable the subject leader to:
- Support teachers in their own classrooms
- Support teachers in the development of subject teaching
- Monitor and evaluate the quality of subject teaching throughout the school
Evaluating the Programme
Ongoing assessment through teacher observation and daily/weekly recording of pupils’ work informs evaluation of the termly targets and future target setting. Teachers use the information contained in the termly assessments with regard to pupils’ achievements and progress in this subject to inform the Annual Review process, end of Key Stage Assessments and reporting to parents.
Development
The RSE Policy will be reviewed within the cycle of policy reviews for the school and feedback will be invited from staff and governors. The impact of this policy will be evident in the way in which our children develop a growing awareness of and a positive response to the demands of living in today’s world.
The RSE curriculum has strong links with our PSHE curriculum and as a Catholic community, the subject leads work collaboratively to ensure that the curriculum provision supports the vision and teachings of the Catholic Church. For more information about our PSHE curriculum, please click the link below.
R.S.E Pupil Voice
RSE Pupil Voice Summary
Strengths:
- Pupils enjoy their RSE lessons and see the importance of their learning
“Working in a group is a lot better because you get more ideas from different people and if you don’t know you can ask someone in the group and they can help you learn together.” Emelia Y5
“We learn about love and about people’s relationships to see if we can get married like them and have a beautiful life. The lessons are important because they can tell you about how to succeed in your life and enjoy it.” Leo Y4
“All of our learning will help us to make friends and get better jobs when we are older.” Leo Y3
“I like learning about how to rebuild friendships and how to know who is actually your friend.” Isaac Y4
“We do group work and flat chats. We also use power points. I enjoy learning about how we can resolve issues and what happens when we are older.” Ruby Y6
“We do group work and talking to a partner about our opinions and point of view.” Olivia Y6
- Pupil’s recognise the need to cover the physical aspects of the curriculum in Upper Key Stage 2.
“It was a bit embarrassing but we need to learn about these things so we know what to expect as we grow and change.” Emelia Y5
“My Mum had told me some of the information at home to get me ready, I did get a bit upset during the sessions but the teachers helped us all to understand that it is really important for us to learn about.” Olivia Y5
“I enjoy learning about our body and what we will experience as we get older. It is important to know.” Olivia Y6
- Pupils feel that our whole school curriculum helps us to talk about and recognise different types of families and members of society.
“We support everyone in every way and show love for one another.” Emelia Y5
“We share our own stories and use different books to learn about others.” Isaac Y4
“We had a person from the council to talk about young carers and we also talk about it in our PSHE and RE lessons.” Ruby Y6
Areas for development:
- Our pupils said they would love a different range of activities during RSHE lessons so they aren’t always writing. Viktoria in Y3 suggested acting out different situations so we can practise how we would react.
Ruby of Y6 “I love our RSHE lessons just as they are. However, I would love to do more of it as it is useful information.”
- The pupils suggested that we could have more stories in our curriculum that show different types of families and members of society.
- The pupils in Year 6 enjoyed a visit from somebody talking about Young Carers. They would like more outside visitors to give them a wider knowledge of the community around them.