PSHE and Relationship & Health Education

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PSHE and Relationships and Health Education at St Mary's

Intent

Our belief in the unique dignity of the human person as made in the image and likeness of God underpins the approach to all education in our school. Our approach to relationship and sex education therefore is rooted in the Catholic Church’s teaching of the human person and is presented positively and prudently. Stemming from this vision of what it means to be human, we seek to educate the whole child: spiritually, intellectually, morally, emotionally, psychologically, and physically towards our understanding of Christian maturity.

Implementation

To facilitate the teaching of RHE at St Mary's, we have chosen to use the ‘Life to the Full’ programme, recommended by Southwark Archdiocese. This is a fully resourced Scheme of Work in Relationships and Health Education (RHE) for Catholic primary schools which embraces and fulfils the new statutory curriculum.

Taught with a spiral approach to learning, in which pupils will revisit the same topics at an age-appropriate stage through their school life, the programme includes teaching about personal health, physical and emotional wellbeing, strong emotions, private parts of the body, personal relationships, family structures, trusted adults, growing bodies, puberty, periods, life cycles, the dangers of social media, where babies come from, an understanding of the Common Good and living in the wider world.

In addition to the 'Life to the Full' Programme, St Mary's also incorporates the Pol-Ed resources produced by Kent Police to develop in the children a deep awareness of risks, citizenship and the law.

Impact

Through our PSHE and RHE curriculums, we strive

To encourage children’s growth in self-respect, acknowledging we are all created in the image and likeness of God.
To help children develop an understanding that love is the central basis of relationships.
To help children to understand the nature of relationships and to encourage them to reflect on their own relationships and respect differences between people.
To develop children’s confidence in talking, listening and thinking about feelings and relationships.
To help children acquire the personal and social skills necessary to develop and sustain positive (healthy) relationships.
To offer sex education in the wider context of relationships (in close liaison with parents/carers)
To ensure that children protect themselves and ask for help and support when needed.
To ensure that children are prepared for puberty (in close liaison with parents/carers).
To educate and increase understanding of the child’s own growth and development and the different rates at which changes take place (in close liaison with parents/carers).
To develop respect for their own bodies and the bodies of others.
To provide an acceptable vocabulary for all parts of the body.
To promote the belief that each human person has a unique and special dignity and worth and is not dependent on an individual’s age, abilities, social acceptability or any other characteristic.
To enable the development of well-informed, balanced persons capable of making choices and accepting responsibility for the consequences of their actions.
To be sensitive and tolerant to the decisions and choices that people make.
To foster the attitude that what we say with our bodies should reflect what we mean in our hearts and minds.
To help pupils to develop a healthier, safer lifestyle, including when online.
To prepare children to play an active role as citizens and to understand the Catholic vision of what it means to be citizens of the Kingdom/reign of God.