Cowley Hill
RSE
Cowley Hill RSE Curriculum Statement
Intent:
Cowley Hill Primary School considers that Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) is an integral part of the Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE) and Citizenship curriculum, which is also linked to Science. We aim to offer children a thoughtfully planned programme on human development, relationships, sexuality and family life within a safe, comfortable atmosphere and in a relaxed relationship between teacher and child. The programme is set within a moral framework and matched to the children's level of maturity. This policy reflects the requirements of the new Relationships Education, Relationships and Sex Education and Health Education document.
Consultations with parents/carers follow the National Guidelines, giving parents the right to withdraw their child/children from Sex Education (but not Relationships or Health Education).
We aim to equip pupils with cultural capital, preparing children with the essential RSE educational knowledge and skills for what comes next. The exploration of new skills and experiences helps to nurture resilience, curiosity and creativity. Through this journey, children develop new forms of cultural capital that makes a difference in individual mind-sets, which consequently shapes their future.
Implementation:
We teach RE, RSE, HE through different aspects of the curriculum and carry out the main RE, RSE, HE teaching in our PSHE curriculum following the ‘Jigsaw’ scheme primarily in the ‘Changing Me’ Unit taught in the Summer Term. Through this scheme maps out progress for each year group which returns to themes as children move through the school. We also teach RE, RSE, HE through other subject areas (eg Science, PE and R.E.), where we feel that they contribute significantly to a child’s knowledge and understanding of his or her own body, and how it is changing and developing. Linked with R.E. children reflect on family relationships, different family groups and friendship.
RSE takes place within mixed or single gender groups as deemed appropriate and relevant with the child's usual class teacher. Teaching is conducted in a safe learning environment through the use of ground rules and distancing techniques so that children are not put on the spot or expected to discuss their own personal issues in class.
Teachers will be careful to ensure that their personal beliefs and attitudes do not influence the teaching of RSE. To this end ground rules have been agreed to provide a common framework to teach within.
These ground rules are as follows:
1, Children will be given preparation so that they will know how to minimise any embarrassment they feel.
2, No one (adults or children) will be expected to answer a personal question.
3, No one will be forced to take part in a discussion.
4, Only correct names for body parts will be used.
5, Meanings of words will be explained in a sensible and factual way.
Impact:
The SRE subject leader regularly evaluates the programme of study. The views of students and teachers who deliver the programme are acknowledged to make changes and improvements to the programme on an ongoing basis.
We continuously assess the implementation and impact of our RSE curriculum in order to achieve the highest outcomes possible across all year groups and ensure we provide the support that is necessary for all children to have a good understanding of the complexities of relationships and sexual matters and a secure knowledge and skills base to navigate their way through these, now and in the future. Through our RSE curriculum, we believe we can enhance children’s education and help them to become confident individuals who have positive body awareness, an in-depth knowledge of how to keep themselves safe and healthy and who will, through respect, tolerance and understanding, forge and maintain positive relationships with a diverse range of family and friendship groups.
The impact of our curriculum is under constant review and development to ensure that it appropriately meets the needs of our children, supporting and challenging pupils to achieve their full potential.
Our curriculum is regularly monitored by:
- Assessing children’s existing understanding and vocabulary, before and after the unit is taught.
- Assessing children’s’ learning behaviours working towards an objective such as confidence, engagement, self-motivation, resilience, curiosity.
- Moderation of effective planning and lesson sequences.
- Summative assessment of children’s discussions about their learning.
- Assessment of recorded work, which may include work in books, images of practical activities, electronic work stored on Google Classroom.
- Interviewing the children about their learning (pupil voice).
- Moderation staff meetings where children’s books are scrutinised and there is the opportunity for a dialogue between teachers to understand their class’s work.