Relationships Education

Relationships and Life Skills at St. Mary’s

From the academic year 2020-2021, all primary schools in England have been directed to teach Relationships and Health Education (RSHE). The government set out guidance about what they expect children to know by the time they leave primary education but it is up to schools to decide how they will teach this. Schools are encouraged to discuss their approach with parents and carers.

There is no legal requirement for schools to teach sex education but the government recommends children learn about some key areas before they leave primary school.

As with other subjects, we work hard to make sure the lessons meet the needs of the children and are age appropriate. These topics are really important in helping children deal with current experiences and also to prepare them for the next stage of their education and ultimately for adult life.
We recognise the important role you play in educating your children and this is especially true for RSHE. It is important that children can discuss and ask questions both at home and at school.

What will your child be learning about?

As a school, we have chosen to use lesson plans from Kapow Primary, an online provider of resources for primary schools. These lessons cover the statutory requirements and have been carefully planned to be age appropriate. They also give the opportunity for children to revisit topics in different year groups. This is important as they will learn more and see things differently as they mature.

The lessons are divided up into three overarching themes:

Families and Relationships         Health and Wellbeing          Safety and the Changing Body

Below is a summary of the areas covered within each theme:

Will your child have to take part?

All the content outlined above is statutory and therefore all children should be taught it. As with any other subject teachers will ensure that the lesson is taught in a way which means children of all abilities will learn. The government is very clear that they want children with special educational needs (SEN) to be included in these lessons.

As a parent, you do not have the right to withdraw your child from any of the statutory content on either relationships or health. You only have the right to withdraw your child from the sex education content that we choose to teach – at St. Mary’s, this relates to two lessons taught at Year 6 only. All other RLS lessons are statutory and therefore parents cannot withdraw their child from them.

Parents and carers are sometimes concerned about the conversations children may have in RSHE lessons, but teachers have lots of ways to make sure children are safe in these lessons. For example, they will have ground rules to make sure children feel confident to share their ideas, they will use things like puppets and stories, so children are discussing a made-up characters’ experiences rather than their own. They also know the children in their class well and will have a sense of their needs and what they teach will be age appropriate.

It is important to balance what children know already and to prepare them for the future. Discussing issues in the safe learning environment of the classroom before they experience them in real life is very valuable for children.

We will be very happy to share more information with you on how they approach these topics and are happy to share resources with you ahead of the lessons taught. To see what your child will be learning in our RLS subject, please download the curriculum guides below and also look through the Parent Guides for more information.