The RSE Curriculum

Since September 2020, Relationships Education has been compulsory for all pupils receiving primary education and Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) for all pupils receiving secondary education. Health Education is now compulsory in all schools too.

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Safety

The key message around relationships education at Birkwood is safety.

This safety includes working with children:

to make them aware of safe and responsible adults
to make them aware of what healthy relationships look like
to stay safe by knowing and understanding what safe behaviour from all of us is
the use of accurate, scientific and medical terms to describe body parts so that children are able to describe any potential health problems in an accurate and appropriate way with medical professionals and their main carer

Curriculum

The RSE curriculum at Birkwood is founded on the Relationships Education, Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) and Health Education (2019) guidance and with reference to the PSHE Association which supports schools and organisations in teaching children to develop healthy relationships in various contexts, and to know when to seek help. Our bespoke, well sequenced, timely and safety-netted curriculum allows us to confidently teach engaging, age-appropriate and inclusive lessons.

We use the 1Decision programme and NSPCC PANTS rule to resource our RSE curriculum. Our curriculum is taught in an age-appropriate manner and provides pupils with the time to ask questions in a safe environment and ultimately receive information based on facts, rather than hearing content second-hand or via online platforms.

As a part of our curriculum, our school delivers some Sex Education content. Some elements of the Sex Education content are taught in Year 5 through 1decision’s puberty topic. The Sex Education content is also delivered in Year 6 and is taught through 1decision’s conception topic.

RSE Curriculum Overview:

PSHE- Year 1 - Friendships

PSHE- Year 2 - Body Language

PSHE- Year 3 - Touch

PSHE- Year 4 - Appropriate Touch

PSHE- Year 5 - Puberty

Our Additional Sex Education content is available to view if parents/carers would like to see this. Please request this information from school.

RSE Parents meeting

Our school hosts an annual RSE parents meeting to ensure parents/carers are informed of their children’s learning. Resources and policies are shared in the meeting and emailed out parents/carers to be transparent about our RSE curriculum delivery.

We review our RSE policy annually to ensure we are following government guidance and are meeting the needs of our children. If any changes are needed in our RSE policy, governors, teaching staff and parents/carers are consulted.

Our current RSE policy and resources were consulted with governors, staff and parents in 2023.

Parents and carers are asked to see our RSE Policy on the school’s website and request a withdrawal letter from school if they would like to withdraw their child from the conception or the Sex Education elements of the puberty unit.