The Government introduced compulsory Relationships, Sex and Health Education at Secondary level from September 2020. This is not new for us in Catholic schools as emphasis has always been placed on the development of the ‘whole person’ through our distinctive education, which seeks to form as well as inform young people in their preparation for life.
Building on the teaching at Primary school, Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) aims to give our young people the information they need to help them develop healthy, nurturing relationships of all kinds. Throughout their time at St Paul’s students will be given opportunities in the whole curriculum but especially PHSE, Assemblies and RE Lessons opportunity to explore families, respectful relationships including friendships, online media, being safe and intimate and sexual relationships, including sexual health.
We will provide information to young people in both PHSE, PE and Science lessons to make good decisions about their own health and wellbeing especially mental wellbeing, internet safety and harms, physical health and fitness, healthy eating, drugs, alcohol and tobacco and the changing adolescent body.
Our approach to RSE is rooted in the Catholic Church’s teaching of the human person and presented in the framework of the Christian belief that we are created and loved by God, to love our self as we are made in the image and likeness of God and to understand ourselves as the basis for personal relationships. We are created to love others and to live in community with one another.
We use materials prepared by an organisation called Ten Ten following a programme called ‘Life to the Full’. This organisation is endorsed by the Catholic Education Service and our own Nottingham Diocese Catholic Education Service. Their website gives further details on the content covered. www.tentenresources.co.uk/secondary/
Life to the Full addresses the needs of young people where they are at in today’s world. The teaching includes lessons on puberty, personal hygiene, fertility, menstruation, family and friends, sexual intimacy, delaying sex, an understanding of the body, sexuality, marriage, gender, LGBT, online relationships, social media, consent, grooming, pressure, STI’s, contraception and natural family planning, abortion/miscarriage, the effect of drugs and alcohol on relationships, FGM, pornography and sexual exploitation.
Much of the Sexual Relationships teaching will be taught in Year 9 during RE lessons in the Summer Term ensuring that topics are dealt with sensitively and appropriately, whilst also providing them with the relevant facts and information, church teaching and awareness.
We acknowledge that parents are the ‘first teachers’ of their children. The school seeks to compliment parents in this partnership. Parents do have the right to withdraw from lessons on Sex Education covered in Year 9 but not from the Health or Relationships element. The science curriculum also includes content on human development, including reproduction, from which there is no right to withdraw.
Please contact Deacon Seamus O’Looskan the RSE co-ordinator if you have any questions, who will be able to discuss with you precisely how RSE is delivered.
DfE Statutory Guidance for RSE