Our Relationships and Health Education and Sex Education Curriculum

Our school aims to be a loving, inclusive family, where our core Christian values of love, hope and thankfulness are recognised and developed.  Relationships and Health Education and Sex Education is about the emotional, social and cultural development of pupils and involves learning about relationships, sexual health, sexuality, healthy lifestyles, diversity and personal identity. Relationships and Health Education involves a combination of sharing information, exploring issues and values. 

In Relationships and Health Education and Sex Education (R.H.S.E), we follow the statutory requirements for Relationships Education and Health Education, which aim to ensure that all pupils:

• Understand what a relationship is, what friendship is, what family means and who the people are who can support them.

• Understand how to take turns, treat each other with kindness, consideration and respect, the importance of honesty and truthfulness, permission seeking and giving, and the concept of personal privacy.

• Understand what a positive and healthy relationship looks like and what a less positive relationship may look like, including understanding how to recognise and report concerns and abuse.

• Develop personal attributes including honesty, integrity, courage, humility, kindness, generosity, trustworthiness and a sense of justice.

• Understand the characteristics of good physical health and mental wellbeing.

• Have the skills they need to make good decisions about their own health and wellbeing (both physical and mental), including understanding what benefits health and wellbeing (e.g. daily exercise, good nutrition, sufficient sleep, hobbies, interests, community participation).

• Have the skills they need to understand and talk about their feelings and emotions.

• Have the skills they need to self-control, self-regulate and persevere.

• Understand how to apply these principles and stay safe and healthy in an online world.

• Know about internet safety and harms

• Know about basic first aid

• Learn about the changing adolescent body

• Know how to keep safe and how to report concerns

• Know about boundaries and the concept of privacy.

Please visit our Policies page to view our Relationships and Health Education and Sex Education Policy.

HeartSmart

We are a HeartSmart School and use Heartsmart to deliver our Relationships, Health and Sex Education Curriculum. To find out more about Heartsmart at St Luke's, visit our HeartSmart at St Luke's web page by clicking on the link below our HeartSmart High Five poster. 

Growing up with Yasmin and Tom

In Year, 4, 5 and 6, we also use Growing up with Yasmin and Tom, an online resource, to deliver our Health Education and Sex Education programme. In Year 4, children learn about the key physical and emotional changes of puberty, including menstrual wellbeing. In Year 5, children revisit the above linking with Science learning about lifecycles. In Year 6, in Sex Education children learn about the processes of reproduction and birth, how babies are conceived and born, and how babies need to be cared for. A meeting is arranged prior to content being to taught to inform parents about what is being covered and offer the opportunity to look at resources. 

Milos's Money

In KS1, we use Milo's money to teach children about money and finance. By developing children's financial literacy, we want them to learn about the value of money. In the storybook, Milo completes a painting job for his uncle and earns some money. He learns what money is and begins to consider the many and varied options he has when it comes to using his new coins! To find out more about Milo's money, visit https://milosmoney.co.uk/

How we aim to prevent and respond to sexual violence and harassment between children in school

In September 2021, the Department for Education published a document entitled 'Sexual violence and sexual harassment between children in schools and colleges', providing advice for schools covering children of all ages, from primary through to secondary stage and into colleges and online about how to respond to child sexual violence and harassment. The report highlights a clear recognition and significant concern raised about the prevalence of peer-on-peer sexual harassment and sexual violence, including online, both in and out of schools nationally. Primary schools are not excluded from this. 

As a school, we take this issue very seriously and do all that we can to play a key role in the prevention and response to incidents of sexual harassment and sexual violence. Our whole school approach, aware of the research that highlights the prevalence of sexual harassment and violence, including in primary schools, involves all parts of the school working together with a commitment to preventing and responding to harmful behaviours. Within our ethos and curriculum, we aim to challenge negative influences and attitudes, gender stereotyping, and discriminatory or sexist language. Specifically our Relationships, Health and Sex Education aims to provide children with support, teaching them about appropriate language and to challenge any normalisation of inappropriate behaviour. We specifically make use of Stonewall resources to tackle gender stereotypes. We use HeartSmart to teach our Relationships and Health Education curriculum. Our curriculum aims to include time for open discussion of topics we know children find more difficult, such as consent and sending of inappropriate images. We aim to be proactive as well as responsive. Although sexual harassment, abuse and violence would not be directly covered with young children, the foundations for this learning are introduced in the Early Years with children learning about what makes a good friend. In KS1 and 2 children learn about asking and giving permission, boundaries and privacy and that body parts are private. This essential foundation enables future learning on signs of an unhealthy relationship, the effects of pornography, the concept of consent and so on as pupils progress through later key stages. In addition to this assemblies enhance the taught curriculum.e.g. NSPCC Speak Out, Stay Safe / PANTS assemblies.