At Burghfield St Mary’s Primary School, we value the importance of Relationships and Sex (RSE) and Health Education. Our curriculum is designed to be accessible for all our pupils and to promote their spiritual, moral and cultural development. By the time children leave Burghfield St Mary’s we want to have equipped them with the information, skills and values needed to ensure that they have safe, fulfilling and enjoyable relationships, and for them to be able to take responsibility for their physical health and mental wellbeing. We believe that RSE must be taught sensitively and inclusively, with respect to the backgrounds and beliefs of pupils and parents.
Burghfield St Mary’s is clear that the primary role in children’s sex education lies with parents and carers. We wish to build a positive and supporting relationship with the parents of children at our school through mutual understanding, trust and co-operation.
RSE at Burghfield St Mary’s takes account of individual needs and stages of development and is offered within the same moral framework as all the other elements of education at the school. It is important therefore that the school, in partnership with the home, offers pupils opportunities to learn about and explore issues about health, relationships and growing up, through a sound programme of relationships and sex education and health education. RSE at Burghfield St Mary’s is inclusive of difference: gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, ethnicity, culture, age, faith or belief, or other life experience.
The aims of RSE and Health Education at Burghfield St Mary’s are:
- To help children know how to be safe and healthy and how to manage their academic, personal and social lives in a positive way
- To nurture skills in relationships, such as mutual respect and care, and to develop sensitivity towards the needs of others
- To develop positive values and a moral framework that will guide their decisions and behaviour
- To respect themselves and others, their views, backgrounds, cultures and experiences
- To develop loving, caring relationships based in mutual understanding
- To allow children to fulfil their potential as happy, healthy and independent individuals with key skills for life
- To allow children to be able to make informed decisions about their health and relationships
- To foster the ability to manage relationships in a responsible and healthy manner
- To promote the value of loving relationships and of family life
- To recognise that marriage is an important, but not exclusive, context for family life
- Prepare pupils for puberty, and give them an understanding of sexual development and the importance of health and hygiene
- Ensure pupils understand what is happening to their bodies and how to keep themselves healthy
- To teach pupils the correct vocabulary to describe themselves and their bodies
- To provide knowledge of human reproductive processes at a level suitable to the pupil’s level of maturity and understanding
- To promote positive mental health and wellbeing
- Teach and empower students in their value and self-worth, including aspects of dignity and self-respect
- Help pupils develop feelings of self-respect, confidence and empathy
- To know how to stay safe online
- To provide a framework in which sensitive discussions can take place developing interpersonal and communication skills
- To recognise and avoid exploitative relationships and how to access additional advice and support