Relationships, Sex and Health Education (RSHE)
From September 2020, it became a statutory requirement that all schools in England and Wales teach Relationship and Sex Education as a fundamental part of the curriculum. Due to school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic, this deadline was extended to Summer term 2021.
As part of implementing the RSE curriculum, school completed a stakeholder consultation in order to ensure that there is a general consensus on our approaches to policy and the curriculum content.
Policy Development
This policy has been developed in consultation with staff, pupils and parents. The consultation and policy development process involved the following steps:
- Review – Clare Williams (Deputy Head Teacher) and Anna Addy (PSHE lead) reviewed the policy, referencing DfE statutory guidance.
- Staff consultation – all school staff were given the opportunity to complete a questionnaire regarding their understanding of RSHE and to identify CPD needs (January 2021)
- Parent / stakeholder consultation – parents and carers were invited to provide feedback on draft policy and provision for RSHE through an online survey due to COVID-19 restrictions in place at the time of the policy review (February 2021)
- Review - following additional discussion with staff, Jigsaw programme of work reviewed and changes made to year group expectations for RSE. RSE lessons identified, and information leaflets shared with parents / carers (May 2021)
- RSHE mapping across curriculum areas fully completed (July 2021)
- Ratification – once final amendments were made, the policy was shared with governors and ratified (July 2021)
As a school we will continue to use Jigsaw as our PSHE / Health & Well-being Programme; it offers a comprehensive programme which includes the statutory RSE in an age appropriate way.