RSE & Personal Social and Health Education

At Weaverham Forest Primary School, we want our children to be equipped for life. Children will develop respect and tolerance for other faiths, feelings and values. They will enjoy learning about themselves, others and the world as well as recognising when they are using a growth mindset. We strive for our children to be happy, reflective learners well equipped with strategies to support their mental well-being. They will recognise right and wrong and understand consequences. Developing their social skills, children will understand their place and responsibilities in the community and the wider world. British values are woven throughout the curriculum, in parallel to understanding and celebrating other cultures and diversity.

KAPOW, No Outsiders and Zones Regulation lessons are fully embedded within classes across school. Teaching should support children in thinking critically, questioning, debating and working together.

The Zones of Regulation program is an empowering instructional tool to build safe, supportive environments that foster learning and well-being for all. Transitions at lunch and breaks are followed by relaxation including relaxation music or happy breathing. ‘No Outsiders’ sessions based on a picture books suitable to the year group—activities involve discussion, working together, class displays. The Christopher Winter Project (RSE) is delivered to the children by class teachers during the summer term. Each class keeps a large class book which contains evidence of the RSE & PSHE curriculum.

Throughout the year, events are held to compliment the RSHE curriculum e.g. texts for Writing Week are chosen to have a RSHE theme. Awareness days/weeks are celebrated and visitors are invited into school to support the curriculum.

Intent

At Weaverham Forest Primary School, the aims of relationships and sex education (RSE) in our school are to:

Prepare pupils for puberty, and give them an understanding of sexual development and the importance of health and hygiene
Help pupils develop feelings of self-respect, confidence and empathy
Teach pupils the correct vocabulary to describe themselves and their bodies
“To put in place the building blocks needed for positive and safe relationships of all kinds.” (DfE Relationships Education, Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) and Health Education: FAQs)
Ensure that pupils understand Britain is a country rich in diversity and difference. Individual characteristics make people unique; everyone has differences, and everyone is welcome in our school.
Develop an inclusive environment with an understanding and appreciation of British values: democracy, rule of law, individual liberty, mutual respect and tolerance for those with different faith or belief and those without faith.
Provide clear information to parents and carers about the Relationships and Sex Education curriculum (RSE) and content in an accessible way so that they can support what their child is learning in school with their own teaching at home.
Enable pupils to reflect on their own experiences, considering how they are developing character, personally and socially. Teach co-operation skills where pupils behave with integrity, feeling confident about their emerging selves and how they can contribute to school and to society.
Provide opportunities for pupils to explore attitudes and beliefs that are different to their own or those of their family.
Provide opportunities for pupils to consider the meaning and value of community and community cohesion in Britain today. To understand that communities are made up of people with diverse characteristics; for example, disabilities, ethnicities, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, faith, age. British communities are diverse, and difference is a positive not a negative.
Develop an understanding of the different families that exist in Britain today including families with same sex parents. The DfE guidance (September 2020) says, “Primary schools are strongly encouraged and enabled, when teaching about different families, to include families with same sex parents.”
Ensure all students receive the support and respect they need as they move through the school and provide the skills to show empathy and support to peers if and when it is needed. The DfE guidance states, “Teachers should always seek to treat individual students with sympathy and support.”

RSE at Weaverham Forest Primary School links closely with our core values and the British Values – please see our website: http://www.weaverhamforest.cheshire.sch.uk/

Implementation

At Weaverham Forest Primary School RSHE is taught through the personal, social, health and economic (RSHE) education curriculum. Biological aspects of RSE are delivered within the science curriculum and other aspects are covered within religious education (RE). Pupils also receive stand-alone sex education sessions at an age appropriate level.

Relationships education focuses on teaching the fundamental building blocks and characteristics of positive relationships including:

Families and people who care for me
Caring friendships
Respectful relationships
Online relationships
Being safe
For more information about our RSHE curriculum, see Appendices 1 & 2.

These areas of learning are taught within the context of family life taking care to ensure that there is no stigmatisation of children based on their home circumstances – these include, but not limited to:

Single parent families
LGBT parents
Families headed by grandparents
Adoptive parents

Along with reflecting sensitively that some children may have a different structure of support around them, for example looked after children or young carers. Our Curriculum is supported by high quality resources such as ‘No Outsiders’ resources. Where possible, we use high quality picture books, from diverse authors, to support aspects of our curriculum. We believe that RSE should meet the needs of ALL pupils, whatever their developing sexuality or identity – this includes age appropriate teaching about different types of relationships in the context of law.

Impact

Children will demonstrate and apply key skills needed to live a healthy life, form appropriate relationships and to understand and accept differences within the wider world.

Children will demonstrate a healthy outlook towards school – attendance will be in-line with national and behaviour will be good.

Children will achieve age related expectations across the wider curriculum.

Our children will develop a range of strategies to support their wellbeing. The children will understand their place in both the local and wider community and will be able to celebrate both the strengths and differences of others.

No Outsiders at Weaverham Forest

There are no outsiders in our school; to quote the South African social rights activist Desmond Tutu (2004), ‘Everyone is an insider, no matter their beliefs, whatever their colour, gender or sexuality’ (No Outsiders Project Team, 2010, ix).

We use the book, ‘No Outsiders in Our School: Teaching the Equality Act in Primary Schools’ by Andrew Moffat.

The No Outsiders resource includes lesson plans based on children’s picture books. The class discussion is child-led and offers opportunity for the children to make observations and consider the simple messages in the text, which link to the Equality Act in an age appropriate way. The table below outlines the texts used in each year group.

Please click on the files below to view the whole school book list.