St Francis Catholic Primary School

God created man in the image of himself, in the image of God he created him, male and female he created them.

- (Gen. 1:27)

INTENT

In RSE children will learn about their spiritual, social, moral, emotional and physical development in ways appropriate to their age, level of maturity and developmental needs. We aim to promote and teach the importance of love for relationships, including love’s sexual expression in marriage. The teaching of sex, sexuality and sexual health is placed in the context of Catholic Church teaching. The belief in the unique dignity of the human person made in the image and likeness of God underpins our approach to RSE. We believe that everyone possesses a ‘basic dignity that comes from God, not from any human quality or accomplishment, not from race, or gender, age or economic status’. As a consequence, not only is every member of the school community worthy of great respect but gender and sexuality are seen as God’s gift, reflect God’s beauty, and share in the divine creativity.

IMPLEMENTATION

Our Diocesan approved RSE policy can be found here

The design of our RSE curriculum is centred around Christ and the teachings of the Catholic church. To that end, we follow Leeds Diocese approved programme 'Journey in Love'. Through this programme, an aspect of the mystery of love is treated in each year group; children and young people are encouraged to marvel at the wonder and beauty of God’s creative love. This is reflected in each stage of a person’s growth in the primary years through a series of suggested, progressive and developmental tasks, activities and reflections that focus on social, emotional, physical and spiritual development.

Additionally, we teach the relationships strand of the PSHE Associations programme of study through our RSE Curriculum. These learning objectives are often taught through our RE curriculum and our daily collective worship, however discrete lessons are also taught to ensure complete coverage and progression. We collect samples of children's work in our PSHE/RSE big books.

All the materials used in the teaching of the Journey in Love programme can be viewed below:

IMPACT

Through our carefully designed RSE curriculum, rooted in Catholic values and teachings, we provide the support that is necessary for ALL children to have a good understanding of the complexities of relationships and sexual matters (where appropriate) and a secure knowledge and skills base to navigate their way through these, now and in the future. We help our children to become confident individuals who will, through respect, tolerance and understanding, forge and maintain positive relationships with a diverse range of family and friendship groups. We provide our children with increased understanding of the impact that individuals’ actions can have on their own and others’ lives.

Parental Involvement

We recognise that parents (and other carers who stand in their place) are the primary educators of their children. As a Catholic school, we provide the principal means by which the Church assists parents and carers in educating their children. Please see our statutory RSE policy which is in line with the Leeds Diocese model policy. Parents/carers were consulted on our RSE policy before it was ratified by the governors. They continue to be consulted at every stage of the development of our RSE programme.

We provide parents/carers with the materials that will be used in the lessons with the children (please see above). We also provide parents/carers with important information regarding the RSE lessons - please see the parent guides below:

EYFS Parent Info Y1 Parent Info Y2 Parent Info Y3 Parent Info Y4 Parent Info Y5 Parent Info Y6 Parent Info

Parents/carers will be informed by letter when the more sensitive aspects of RSE will be covered in order that they can be prepared to talk and answer questions about their children’s learning. Parents continue to have the right to withdraw their children from Sex Education except in those elements which are required by the National Curriculum science orders. Should parents wish to withdraw their children, they are asked to notify the school by contacting the Headteacher via the school office. Please refer to the DfE guidance for further details on the right to be excused from sex education (commonly referred to as the right to withdraw):

Relationships Education, Relationships and Sex Education and Health Education guidance