Whole School RSE
(Relationships, Sex Education)
Policy
2021

Introduction

From September 2019 it has been a statutory requirement that all primary schools deliver a RSE curriculum.
‘RSE is a lifelong learning process of acquiring information, developing skills and forming positive beliefs and attitudes about sex, sexuality, relationships and feelings’. (Sex Education Forum 1999). Effective RSE can make a significant contribution to the development of the personal skills needed by pupils if they are to establish and maintain relationships. It also enables young people to make responsible and informed decisions about their health and well-being.
The programme of study for RSE aims to put in place the key building blocks of healthy, respectful relationships, focusing on family and friendships, in all contexts, including online. This will sit alongside the essential understanding of how to be healthy.

Curriculum Intent

Curriculum intent: To provide a broad, balanced curriculum which is relevant to and widens the experiences of our children in order to prepare them for the challenges they will face and inspire a love of knowledge, learning and life.

Subject specific intent: We want all of our children to grow up healthy, happy, safe and able to manage the challenges of growing up. We aim to provide a broad, balanced curriculum which is relevant to and widens the experiences of our children in order to prepare them for the challenges they will face and inspire a love of knowledge, learning and life. Our curriculum will equip our children with knowledge to make decisions about their wellbeing, health and relationships as well as preparing them for a successful adult life. Specifically, Relationships Education will put in place the building blocks needed for positive, healthy, respectful and safe relationships, including with family, friends and online.

Lord Blyton Primary School believes strongly in the importance of quality PSHE/RSE education. It provides a fundamental foundation to support all children in being prepared for life long learning. We believe that skills for life need to be explicitly taught, as part of a wider broad and balanced curriculum, to ensure that our children are well prepared for life. Our aim to enable our children to become healthy, independent and responsible members of our society and to help them tackle many of the social, moral and cultural issues that are part of growing up. We provide children with the opportunity to learn about respectful relationships, their rights and responsibilities and to appreciate what it means to be a member of a diverse society. Our children are encouraged to develop their sense of self worth by playing a positive role in contributing to school life and the wider community. Children will know how to stay safe online and understand what healthy relationships should look like in real life and online. They will have an awareness of services available to support them in times of need including: NSPCC, Child Line and other organisations.

Statutory Information

The National Curriculum also states that ‘all schools should make provision for personal, social, health and economic education (PSHE), drawing on good practice’. PSHE education contributes to schools’ statutory duties outlined in the Education Act 2002 and the Academies Act 2010 to provide a balanced and broadly-based curriculum. The relationships and health aspects of PSHE education will be compulsory in all schools from 2020.
Relationships:
Relationships Education will put in place the building blocks needed for positive and safe relationships, including with family, friends and online. Children will be taught what a relationship is, what friendship is, what family means and who can support them. In an age-appropriate way, we will teach children how to treat each other with kindness, consideration and respect.
By the end of primary school, pupils will have been content on:
• families and people who care for me
• caring friendships
• respectful relationships
• online relationships • being safe Health:
Health Education aims to give your child the information they need to make good decisions about their own health and wellbeing, to recognise issues in themselves and others, and to seek support as early as possible when issues arise.
By the end of primary school, pupils will have been taught content on:
• mental wellbeing
• internet safety and harms
• physical health and fitness
• healthy eating
• facts and risks associated with drugs, alcohol and tobacco
• health and prevention • basic first aid • changing adolescent body
Equal Opportunities Statement
The school is committed to the provision of RSE to all of its pupils. Our programme aims to respond to the diversity of children’s emotional/physical needs, cultures, faiths and family backgrounds. Equal time and provision will be allocated for all groups
Working with parents and the wider community
The role of parents in the development of their children’s understanding about relationships is vital. Parents are the first teachers of their children. They have the most significant influence in enabling their children to grow and mature and to form healthy relationships.

PSHE/RSE curriculum intent will be shared with parents alongside a key vocabulary list in Summer 2021 following a parental consultation of the updated curriculum and vocabulary to be used in specific year group. Parents will be informed of new curriculum changes and what is compulsory/ non-compulsory and the option to opt out of non-statutory guidance can be given if requested. Parents are not able to withdraw their child from Relationships education because of the importance of the content.

Parents’ Right to Withdraw:
You cannot withdraw your child from Relationships Education because it is important that all children receive this content, covering topics such as friendships and how to stay safe. Our school can choose to teach Sex Education if it becomes applicable to a specific cohort. If you’d like to know more about this, we recommend speaking to the school to understand what will be taught and when. If you do not want your child to take part in some or all of the lessons on Sex Education, you can ask that they are withdrawn. At primary level, the head teacher must grant this request. The science curriculum in all maintained schools also includes content on human development, including reproduction, which there is no right to withdraw from. You will be informed when your child will be delivered Sex Education. We use the School Nursing Service to deliver the Sex Education part of our RSE curriculum. You will be sent the materials to
Key School Contacts

Role	Name	Contact
Headteacher	Ms Joanne Atherton	0192424055
PSHE Lead      Child and Family Manager	Michael Gilmore     Mrs Alison Quinn	0191 4240550     01914240550
Mental Health Champion	Mrs Jill Wales	01914240550
Local Authority Lead	Christina Hardy	01914271717

Email Contact:
Lord Blyton Primary School: info@lordblyton.s-tyneside.sch.uk

Provision and Resources

RSE is firmly embedded in Personal, Social, Health Education following the Local Authority One Life Scheme. A whole school approach is essential and effective because many aspects of school life influence pupils’ personal and social and RSE development. The RSE Curriculum can be delivered through 4 main areas:
● P.S.H.E. designated time
● Teaching in and through other curriculum areas.
● Through enrichment activities and school events.
● Through pastoral care and guidance.

We aim to deliver RSE as a whole school approach in order to provide a full curriculum in the most effective way, providing a breadth of opportunities. The scheme we use provides a whole-school approach to building these essential foundations. This is crucial for children to achieve their best, academically and socially.

Additional PSHE/RSE sessions are timetabled on a weekly basis and are taught with a year group focus, using the comprehensive One Life scheme but there will be additional sessions planned if there is a need within a class e.g. Name calling might lead to a lesson on positive friendships.

The overarching aim for PSHE education is to provide pupils with:
● accurate and relevant knowledge
● opportunities to turn that knowledge into personal understanding
● opportunities to explore, clarify and if necessary challenge, their own and others’ values, attitudes, beliefs, rights and responsibilities
● the skills and strategies they need in order to live healthy, safe, fulfilling, responsible and balanced lives.

In addition we aim to equip children to gain:
● skills to help children to cope through childhood and adult like making informed decisions and choices.
● A sense of self-worth, confidence, independence and responsibility.
● Knowledge and understanding that will make it possible to plan lifestyles that will keep themselves and others safe and healthy.
● Develop effective relationships by helping to cope with their own feelings and to understand the feelings of others.
● Children’s respect for the differences between people.
● Mutual respect, sharing, listening, feeling empathy and responsibility.

We use a range of teaching and learning styles. We place an emphasis on active learning by including the children in discussions, investigations and problem-solving activities. We encourage the children to take part in a range of practical activities that promote active citizenship, e.g. charity fundraising, the planning of school special events such as an assembly or open evening, or involvement in an activity to help other individuals or groups less fortunate that themselves. We organise classes in such a way that pupils are able to participate in discussion to resolve conflicts or set agreed classroom rules of behaviour. We offer children the opportunity to hear visiting speakers, such as health workers, police, and representatives from the local church, whom we invite into school to talk about their role in creating a positive supportive local community.

RSE education should address both pupils’ direct experience and preparation for their future. There is a clear framework for PSHE/RSE across school. This ensures that children are exposed to age appropriate topics and resources that are progressive across school. Our topics will focus on the needs of specific cohorts, the community and the local area. To ensure that topics are relevant to children and provide them with specific knowledge and skills to equip them for life beyond school.

In doing this we aim to equip children with:
● Skills to help children to cope through childhood and adult like making informed decisions and choices.
● A sense of self-worth, confidence, independence and responsibility.
● Knowledge and understanding that will make it possible to plan lifestyles that will keep themselves and others safe and healthy.
● Develop effective relationships by helping to cope with their own feelings and to understand the feelings of others.
● Children’s respect for the differences between people.
● Mutual respect, sharing, listening, feeling empathy and responsibility.
● Personal, social and health education (PSHE) and citizenship enables children to become healthy, independent and responsible members of society. We encourage our pupils to play a positive role in contributing to the life of the school and the wider community. In so doing we help develop their sense of self-worth. We teach them how society is organised and governed.
We ensure that they:
● Experience the process of democracy in school through the school council. We teach them about rights and responsibilities. They learn to appreciate what it means to be a positive member of a diverse multicultural society.

School Monitoring Arrangements

As part of the school’s monitoring cycle, a schedule will be put in place at the beginning of each academic year. This will outline the arrangements for monitoring. Monitoring will be used to inform judgements on the quality of teaching and learning across the school. It will be used to inform development/training opportunities for the whole school, as well as individuals. Good practice will be shared across the federation. PSHE assessments are accurate and up to date for each year group using the curriculum assessment document. Assessments are updated each half term using the appropriate colour code. If children are assessed as not meeting the required standard of the learning intentions of the lesson, then specific intervention/ social stories or small group activities are implemented to ensure that they have grasped the concept of the lesson/ topic.

Monitoring will constitute a range of evidence, in order to gain a holistic view:

• Book scrutinise
• Lesson observations
• Staff discussions
• Pupil discussions
• Learning walks

Development/ action points will be reviewed on a termly basis in order to ensure a cycle of development aimed to improve outcomes for all children. A formal coordinator report will be produced each term, monitoring the progress of development/ action points put in place by the coordinator. The report is shared and monitored by senior management termly to ensure accountability across every layer in school.

Links to Other School Policies

This Policy compliments the following policies:
• Child protection/safeguarding
• Anti-Bullying
• Safeguarding
• Attendance
• Behaviour
• Inclusion
• School Visitors

Engaging stakeholders

This policy has been produced through engagement with the Local Authority, Governors, Teaching Staff and Children as well as guidance from the PSHE Association.
We will communicate with parents and carers through Lord Blyton’s school website, Facebook Page as well as letters to parents and discussions during parent meetings.

Outside visitors are used to enhance the curriculum of SMSC overall. Visitors are required to follow the ethos of this policy in line with our visitors policy.

RSE Policy review date

This policy will be reviewed in January 2022 by the PSHE Coordinator and Headteacher. This will ensure that the policy continues to meet the needs of pupils, staff and parents and that it is in line with current Department for Education advice and guidance.