Intent:

At English Martyrs Catholic Primary School, our Relationships, Sex and Health Education curriculum helps to prepare children for the opportunities, responsibilities and challenges they will meet both now and in the future.

We want children to develop the knowledge, skills and confidence they need to build healthy relationships, look after their physical and mental wellbeing, make safe choices and ask for help when they need it. We also want them to understand their responsibilities towards others and the part they can play within their school, local community and the wider world.

Our curriculum recognises that children are growing up in a diverse and rapidly changing society. It helps them to think carefully about the influences they may encounter, including social media, online communication, unrealistic expectations and other pressures that can affect their wellbeing and relationships. Children learn what healthy and respectful relationships look like, how to recognise when something does not feel right and who they can talk to if they are worried.

As a Catholic school, our approach is rooted in the teaching of the Church and in the belief that every person is created and loved by God. We help children to recognise their own God-given dignity and to treat others with compassion, respect and kindness. This reflects our responsibility at English Martyrs to inspire, believe in and respect one another within our school and wider community.

RSHE contributes to children’s spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. It also supports their understanding of citizenship, democracy, individual rights and responsibilities, while teaching them to listen to others, value every voice and respect difference.

We recognise that parents and carers are the first educators of their children. The education of children in relationships and human sexuality is an important, precious and privileged responsibility, and we approach it in partnership with families. Through open communication, we aim to ensure that children receive consistent, sensitive and age-appropriate support at home and at school.

Implementation

Life to the Full

Following the direction of the Bishop and the Diocese of Arundel and Brighton, we use Ten:Ten Resources’ Life to the Full Plus programme to deliver our RSHE curriculum.

Life to the Full Plus is a comprehensive programme written specifically for Catholic primary schools. It places Catholic teaching at the heart of children’s personal development and supports the statutory requirements for Relationships Education and Health Education.

The programme is based on the understanding that our deepest identity is as a child of God: created, chosen and loved. It provides carefully sequenced, age-appropriate learning from the Early Years through to Year 6.

Learning is organised around three core themes:

• Created and Loved by God, through which children learn about their unique value, their feelings, their bodies and how to look after their physical and mental wellbeing.
• Created to Love Others, through which children learn about family, friendship, healthy relationships, personal boundaries and how to keep themselves and others safe.
• Created to Live in Community, through which children consider their responsibilities towards others and how they can make a positive contribution to their school, local community and the wider world.

Through these themes, children learn about:

• positive friendships and healthy relationships;
• respect for themselves and others;
• physical and emotional wellbeing;
• recognising and managing emotions;
• personal safety and appropriate boundaries;
• online safety and the responsible use of technology;
• changes that take place as they grow;
• rights, responsibilities and citizenship;
• valuing difference and challenging discrimination; and
• how and when to seek help from a trusted adult.

Learning builds progressively as children move through the school. Important ideas are revisited at an appropriate level so that children can deepen their knowledge, develop their vocabulary and apply their understanding to different situations.

Teachers follow the planned programme while taking account of children’s ages, stages of development, previous learning and individual needs. Lessons are taught sensitively, and careful thought is given to the questions, experiences and circumstances children may bring to discussions.

We follow Pathway 3 of Ten Ten’s Life to the Full programme. This is Ten Ten’s recommended delivery model and provides a one-year cycle through which children revisit the programme at each stage of their development. This supports a spiral approach, allowing important knowledge and concepts to be introduced, revisited and developed as children grow.  

The planned Life to the Full teaching begins in Autumn 2 and continues across the spring and summer terms. We do not teach a discrete Life to the Full unit during Autumn 1. This gives teachers time at the beginning of the academic year to establish positive relationships, classroom expectations and a safe environment in which children feel able to listen, discuss and ask appropriate questions.

Although the discrete programme begins in Autumn 2, children’s personal development continues to be supported throughout Autumn 1 and across the whole academic year. This includes safeguarding education, establishing class expectations, online safety, emotional wellbeing, behaviour and relationships, prayer and liturgy, assemblies and teaching linked to the immediate needs of a class or individual pupils.

The full Pathway 3 overview, showing the content and suggested timing for each phase, can be viewed below:

Creating a safe environment for learning

We want RSHE lessons to take place within a safe, respectful and supportive environment. Children are encouraged to listen carefully, take part in discussions and ask appropriate questions.

Clear expectations are established so that children understand the importance of privacy, respectful language and listening to other people’s views. Children are reminded that they should not share personal information during whole-class discussions and that they can speak privately to a trusted adult if something concerns them.

Our teaching recognises that families, experiences and individual circumstances may be different. These differences are approached with sensitivity, while maintaining the Catholic character and teaching of the school. We want every child to feel valued, listened to and included.

Equality and the Protected Characteristics

At English Martyrs, children are taught that every person is created and loved by God and has equal dignity and worth. Through Life to the Full, our wider curriculum and the Catholic life of the school, children learn to respect difference, build positive relationships and recognise and challenge prejudice, discrimination and unkindness.

The document below shows how Life to the Full supports our age-appropriate teaching about equality and the protected characteristics as part of our wider approach to inclusion and personal development.

Responding to the needs of our children

Alongside our planned RSHE curriculum, we use carefully chosen national awareness days, weeks and campaigns to explore issues that are relevant to our children and the world around them.

These may include:

• Anti-Bullying Week;
• Children’s Mental Health Week;
• Jeans for Genes Day;
• age-appropriate learning linked to Holocaust Memorial Day;
• online safety and safeguarding themes;
• charitable appeals and opportunities for social action; and
• other local, national or global events that are meaningful for our pupils.

We do not simply follow the same fixed list of awareness events each year. We consider what will be most helpful and meaningful for our children at that particular time. This may be influenced by something children have experienced, an issue that has arisen within a class or across the school, or an event within our local community or the wider world.

Where we identify a particular need, we may provide additional teaching, discussion or reassurance through assemblies, class discussions, stories, prayer and liturgy, additional lessons, visitors or whole-school activities.

 These opportunities are not separate from our RSHE curriculum or our Catholic life. They help children to connect their learning to real situations and put their faith into action by showing compassion, respecting difference, challenging unkindness and taking responsibility for how they treat others.

Working with parents and carers

Ten:Ten places parents and carers at the heart of the Life to the Full Plus programme. Its parent resources help families to understand what is being taught and provide opportunities to continue conversations, activities and prayer at home.

Parents and carers can use the Ten:Ten Parent Portal to:

• understand the vision and aims of the programme;
• view summaries of the learning;
• access selected resources and videos;
• find suggestions for conversations and activities at home; and
• take part in relevant prayer with their children.

All schools have their own individual logins - please ask at the school office if you would like a copy of this, and we will always welcome any further questions about the programme.