Relationships and Sex Education (RSE)

Relationships and Sex Education at Willow

At Willow Primary School, we have always recognised the crucial role PSHCE (Personal, Social, Health and Citizenship Education) plays in the education and wellbeing of all our children. It is an integral part of our curriculum, taught both as stand alone sessions, through cross curricular learning and curriculum enhancement. 

Relationships Education is not a new subject for Willow Primary School and we are continuously developing it further. From September 2020, we will be continuing to develop RSE in school by using the governments new statutory Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) and Health Education guidance.

The purpose of our RSE curriculum is to provide knowledge and understanding of safe and healthy relationships based on respect. As ‘Respect’ is one of our ASPIRE Values, we believe RSE Education is important for all pupils as it encourages the development of safe and healthy relationships throughout life. The subject is entirely age appropriate and it is designed to help children from all backgrounds build positive and safe relationships, and to thrive in modern Britain.

Our RSE curriculum will be delivered within PSHCE lessons and through Big Talk Education. 

In order to ensure that all the statutory requirements are covered throughout school in a sensitive and age appropriate way, we are following an online scheme of work, provided by 'Me, You and PSHE'.  In addition to this, we also use the Big Talk Education 'Growing Up Safe Programme'. We have selected the whole school Big Talk approach,  where a specialist team of facilitators work with pupils, parents and school staff. This high quality, age appropriate RSE programme is designed to keep children safe, healthy and happy. 

Our You, Me and PSHE scheme along with the Big Talk programme does not only ensure that the statutory objectives are taught but also combines them with additional PSHE objectives, ensuring our children are given the tools to become, life long learners and acquire personal skills and attributes to help them in their future lives.

What does a good quality RSE lesson look like for us at Willow?
We dedicate teaching time to RSE in every school year, so that our pupils can revisit and build on what they have learned. 

Techniques we use to deliver RSE lessons:

• Games
• Storybooks
• Circle time and question box activities
• Drama and role play
• Art
• Videos

Pupils in specific year groups will also receive sessions from the school nursing service each year. Information about this will be shared with individual year groups. 

All the resources we use in lessons are completely age appropriate and allow our pupils to deepen their understanding. 

Some of our RSE may be taught as a whole-class exercise, but at times children may also be split up into boys and girls or small groups at times: for example, children might be taught about puberty in single-sex groups. We set ground rules for our lessons and ensure we provide an environment that is safe, inclusive and respectful. All answers are answered carefully and thoughtfully. 

If you have any questions about our RSE curriculum, please do not hesitate to contact school or speak with your child’s class teacher.