Relationships, Health & Sex Education
‘Today’s children and young people are growing up in an increasingly complex world and living their lives seamlessly on and offline. This presents many positive and exciting opportunities, but also challenges and risks. In this environment, children and young people need to know how to be safe and healthy, and how to manage their academic, personal and social lives in a positive way.’ (DfE guidance, Secretary of State Foreword, 2021).
To embrace the challenges of creating a happy and successful adult life, pupils need knowledge that will enable them to make informed decisions about their wellbeing, health and relationships and to build their self-efficacy. Pupils can also put this knowledge into practice as they develop the capacity to make sound decisions when facing risks, challenges and complex contexts. Everyone faces difficult situations in their lives. These subjects can support young people to develop resilience, to know how and when to ask for help, and to know where to access support.
Relationships Education is compulsory for all pupils receiving primary education. This compulsory subject content must be age appropriate and developmentally appropriate. It must be taught sensitively and inclusively, with respect to the backgrounds and beliefs of pupils and parents while always with the aim of providing pupils with the knowledge they need of the law
At Barling Magna Primary Academy teachers deliver Relationships Education as part of a timetabled RSHE programme and in the context of a broad and balanced curriculum. Effective teaching of these subjects will ensure that core knowledge is broken down into units of manageable size and communicated clearly to pupils, in a carefully sequenced way, within a planned programme or lessons.
The focus in primary school is on teaching the fundamental building blocks and characteristics of positive relationships, with particular reference to friendships, family relationships, and relationships with other peers and adults. This starts with pupils being taught about what a relationship is, what friendship is, what family means and who the people are who can support them. From the beginning of primary school, building on early education, children should be taught how to take turns, how to treat each other with kindness, consideration and respect, the importance of honesty and truthfulness, permission seeking and giving, and the concept of personal privacy.
Respect for others is taught in an age-appropriate way, in terms of understanding one’s own and others’ boundaries in play, in negotiations about space, toys, resources and so on. From the beginning, teachers talk explicitly about the features of healthy friendships, family relationships and other relationships which young children are likely to encounter. Drawing attention to these when they are encountered in a range of contexts should enable pupils to form a strong early understanding of the features of relationships that are likely to lead to happiness and security. This will also help them to recognise any less positive relationships when they encounter them.
Sex education is not compulsory in primary schools and the content set out in this policy therefore focuses on Relationships Education. However, in addition to the requirements of the Science national curriculum we believe it is important that the transition phase before moving to secondary school supports pupils’ ongoing emotional and physical development effectively. The Department of Education continues to recommend therefore that all primary schools should have a sex education programme tailored to the age and the physical and emotional maturity of the pupils. We ensure that both boys and girls are prepared for the changes adolescence brings and – drawing on knowledge of the human life cycle set out in the national curriculum for science - how a baby is conceived and born. In addition, we cover the physical changes that take place during puberty, why they happen and how to manage them.
Through Relationships Education, we give pupils the opportunity to gain the knowledge they need to recognise and to report abuse, including emotional, physical and sexual abuse. In school, this can be delivered by focusing on boundaries and privacy, ensuring young people understand that they have rights over their own bodies. This also includes understanding boundaries in friendships with peers and also in families and with others, in all contexts, including online. Pupils will be given information on how to report concerns and seek advice when they suspect or know that something is wrong. At all stages it will be important to balance teaching children about making sensible decisions to stay safe (including online) whilst being clear it is never the fault of a child who is abused and why victim blaming is always wrong. These subjects complement Health Education and as part of our RSHE programme and whole school approach, this knowledge can support the safeguarding of children.