As part of the development of Great Alne’s School curriculum we aim to promote personal wellbeing and development through a comprehensive programme of Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) education - known as 'Jigsaw'. This gives children and young people the knowledge, understanding, attitudes and practical skills to live healthy, safe, productive and fulfilled lives, both now and in the future.

As you may already be aware, the Department for Education previously announced changes to relationships and sex education (RSE) following nationwide consultation. All schools are expected to comply with the updated requirements. 

The statutory guidance can be found at

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/relationships-education-relationships-and-sex-education-rse-and-health-education

This focuses on healthy relationships and keeping children safe in the modern world. It also covers a wide range of topics relating to physical and mental health, wellbeing, safeguarding and healthy relationships.

Learning about the emotional, social and physical aspects of growing up will give children and young people the information, skills and positive values to have safe, fulfilling relationships and help them take responsibility for their own well-being. Relationships and Sex Education (RSE), along with Health Education will be statutory and form part of the National Curriculum.

This means that our RSE curriculum is appropriate for pupils based on their:

• Age, Physical and emotional maturity

• Religious and cultural backgrounds

• Special educational needs and disabilities

Whilst it is natural that there will be differences of opinion about this, our consultations with parents helped to inform our decisions on when and how certain content is covered, and has enabled us to reach a general consensus.

To help parents to understand the curriculum requirements, links to three overviews of the content are below - each one more detailed than the other depending on how much detail you feel you would like.

If, at any time, you would like to raise any questions face to face, I strongly advise this as the preferred method of communication so that queries are interpreted correctly. Please make arrangements by calling the school office.

I hope this message and attached information goes some way to help you become familiar with the teaching of relationships and sex education in 2024. For Great Alne Primary, the most important thing will always be that children are well-informed, free from unnecessary anxiety and know how to be safe. I believe the revised curriculum does that appropriately.