At Saint Joseph’s Catholic Primary School, we endeavour to provide a high-quality Relationship and Health, RHE curriculum in accordance with the Catholic Church’s teaching. All learning about love and relationships in Saint Joseph’s is rooted in what it is to be truly human in Christ, what it means to live well in relationships with others. The learning is presented within the positive framework of Christian virtue, with a keen focus on the importance of healthy relationships to all human well-beings. It will emphasize the centrality of virtue in guiding human living and loving whilst recognizing the contemporary context we are living in today. In partnership with parents and carers, it will teach our children about the importance of marriage and family life, stable and loving relationships, respect, love and care. It will address the physical and psychological changes that accompany puberty and how love plays an essential and sacred role in procreation, whilst ensuring that the children are not exposed in school to erroneous information. The curriculum will be intrinsically woven into the spiritual, emotional, moral, social and intellectual development of all pupils, underpinned by our belief that we are made in the image and likeness of God.
During their time at Saint Joseph’s, the Borough, children are provided with opportunities to develop their knowledge and understanding of RHE all three Key Stages. At Saint Joseph’s we use the programme ‘Life to the Full’, published by Ten:Ten Resources, the framework of which is taken from the Model Catholic RSE Programme developed by the Catholic Education Service. Taught with a spiral approach to learning, pupils will revisit the same topics at an age appropriate stage through their school life, the programme includes teaching about personal health, physical and emotional wellbeing, strong emotions, private parts of the body, personal relationships, family structures, trusted adults, growing bodies, puberty, menstruation, life cycles, the dangers of social media, where babies come from, an understanding of the Common Good and living in the wider world. It also includes sessions on basic first aid, Alcohol, Tobacco and Drug abuse. Some content will be delivered in discrete RHE sessions, while other content is more appropriate for discrete RE and Science sessions. Clear, factual scientific information will be provided throughout the programme at age-appropriate levels. The programme consists of three modules that are covered throughout the school: Created and Loved by God – focussing on the importance of valuing oneself as the basis for personal relationships; Created to Love Others – focussing on the basis of all Christian morality being the command to love and Created to live in the community – focussing on our exchange with others and our mutual service for the good of society. These modules in turn consist of units to follow such as ‘I am unique’, ‘Good secrets and bad secrets’, Sharing isn’t always caring’ and ‘A community of love’. Religious understanding is a core strand that spans all three modules in each year group. As the primary educators of our pupils, parents and carers are invited to engage with the Life to the Full resources in order that they may convey consistent messages from school to home. The materials are made available upon request, allowing parents and carers to be informed about content that may be of a more sensitive or personal nature. Within school, these sensitive topics will be approached in a supportive classroom climate of discussion where firm ground rules have been established.
The large majority of our pupils will be working at least at age-related expectations for their year group at the end of each school year in 2020 and a significant proportion will be working beyond these expectations (according to assessment within the programme outlined above). The RHE curriculum has been developed with the formation of the whole person at the forefront as a framework for the outset of their lifelong learning. Our children will be equipped with the ability to make practical judgements about the right thing to do in particular circumstances. We earnestly hope that the children will negotiate the challenges of their physical, moral and emotional development in striving for a happy and successful adult life in the Kingdom of God.
They will understand that we all need to learn lessons in love, in order to find joy and fulfilment in life as ambassadors of Christ.
