In September 2020, the Department for Education (DfE) introduced statutory relationships education and health education for all primary school pupils. They also issued guidance on non-statutory sex education for primary school pupils. Despite being non-statutory, the DfE continue to recommend that all primary schools should have a sex education programme as part of their PSHE curriculum, which is tailored to the age and the physical and emotional maturity of the pupils. Where schools do provide sex education at key stages 1 and 2, parents will have the right to withdraw their child from the sex education aspects of RSE but not from the statutory relationships education, health education or what is taught in the Science national curriculum.
At Hillview Primary School, we have already been teaching health, relationships and sex education through our comprehensive Jigsaw PSHE curriculum, and we enhance this learning with additional resources, visitors such as the NSPCC and the Life Bus, and our yearly Health and Well-Being Week. The introduction of the new statutory guidance has given us the fantastic opportunity to look at our PSHE curriculum to ensure that it meets the needs of the children at Hillview to enable them to know how to be safe and healthy, and how to manage their academic, personal and social lives in a positive way.
We have reviewed our Personal, Social and Health Education, and Relationships and Sex Education policies, to reflect the new government guidance and clearly show how we are covering the appropriate content within our PSHE curriculum, and to ensure that our RSE provision is appropriate for our pupils based on their:
Age
Physical and emotional maturity
Religious and cultural backgrounds
Special educational needs and disabilities
Effective health, relationships and sex education does not just take place within PSHE lessons. It incorporates all learning that takes place in the classroom, outside of the classroom and at home. We, therefore, welcome any parent and carer feedback on our draft policies and the content of our Health, Relationships and Sex Education curriculum at Hillview Primary School. Whilst I am sure that there will be differences of opinion about this, we hope that consulting with you will help to inform our schools’ decisions on when and how certain content is covered, and enable us to reach a general consensus. What is taught, and how, is ultimately a decision for the school and consultation does not provide a parental veto on curriculum content as schools are legally required to teach the National Curriculum. The right to withdraw children from some lessons is explained within the RSE policy. The policies are shared below and if you would like to share your views, please do so via the google drive link below.
Hillview Primary School RSE Parent/Carer Consultation google form
The RSE consultation will open today, and will remain open until Monday 12th July 2021. This will give you the opportunity to talk to your child and fill in the form following the RSE lessons if you wish. The information from the consultation will then be used to inform future practice.
Thank you for your time
Mrs Thompson