The Legal Framework
Our school policy outlines our commitment to provide effective Relationships, Sex and Health Education for all pupils in support of that offered by parents, who are the first educators of their children in this area. It has been written with regard to the DfE Relationships Education, Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) and Health Education guidance 2019 and other relevant guidance documents and statutory requirements.
The Relationships Education, Relationships and Sex Education and Health Education (England) Regulations 2019 made under sections 34 and 35 of the Children and Social Work Act 2017 make Relationships and Health Education compulsory for children receiving primary education.
To meet the needs of our pupils, we also offer sex education to Year 6 children only. Parents/carers are provided with an information session and notified when this will be taking place in the summer term of Year 6, so that they have the option of withdrawing their children from this element of the curriculum. There is no right to withdraw from Relationships Education or Health Education.
What is Relationships, Sex and Health Education?
RSHE is lifelong learning about physical, moral and emotional development. Through RSHE children learn about relationships, diversity, respect, healthy lifestyles, safety, the body and how it changes, reproduction and birth in a sensitive and age-appropriate way. In the primary school we are building the foundations of skills and knowledge that will be developed further at secondary level.
Our key aim in providing RSHE throughout the school is to safeguard our pupils. During their time at Windmill, children will learn key knowledge and skills to help keep them safe and prepare them for adult life. RSHE is taught in an age-appropriate manner throughout the school.
Why RSHE is important in our school?
Our values, vision and mission at Windmill L.E.A.D. Academy underpin and creates a tolerant and respectful platform to teach RSHE where relationships, diversity, respect, healthy lifestyles and safety can be explored in a safe and educational setting. Our RSHE curriculum is a key component of how we educate children about keeping themselves safe.
The RSHE Curriculum
RSHE will be taught in each year group throughout the school. There is a whole school long term curriculum overview (please see below). The curriculum we deliver is age-appropriate and progressive, building the children’s knowledge, understanding and skills year on year. We work to objectives in each year group that support the outcomes outlined in the government RSHE statutory guidance.
Below is a list of topics covered by our RSHE programme:
- Families and people who care for me
- Caring friendships
- Respectful relationships
- Online relationships
- Being safe
- Mental wellbeing
- Internet safety and harms
- Physical Health and fitness
- Healthy eating
- Drugs, alcohol and tobacco
- Health and prevention
- Basic First Aid
- Changing adolescent body
Please click here to view the detail of what children should know about Relationships and Health Education by the end of their primary education.
Some elements of RSHE are delivered through the science curriculum:
| Year 2 Pupils should be taught to: – notice that animals, including humans, have offspring which grow into adults – describe the importance for humans of…..hygiene. |
| Year 5 National Curriculum statutory requirements state that pupils should be taught to: – describe the changes as humans develop to old age. Notes and guidance (non-statutory) Pupils should draw a timeline to indicate stages in the growth and development of humans. They should learn about the changes experienced in puberty. Pupils could work scientifically by researching the gestation periods of other animals and comparing them with humans; by finding out and recording the length and mass of a baby as it grows. |