Relationship and Sex Education (RSE)
Your child’s teacher will be delivering Relationship and Sex Education to their class during the two weeks from 20th June. This may be taught as a block of learning or through daily lessons.
The Wilfred Owen school follows the Shropshire ‘Respect Yourself’ scheme of work. This is also supplemented by our work on PSHE in line with guidance from the PSHE association.
RSE is a whole school approach and means these lessons will be taught from Year 1 up to Year 6 at an age-appropriate level. There will be a sequence of lessons, delivered by the class teacher, that allow children to work in mixed or single-gendered groups. There will be certain strategies and techniques used by the teacher to approach and deal with sensitive issues. This includes assessing children’s knowledge prior to the lesson, creating a safe and comfortable learning environment, having a question box for questions that are unable to be answered during the lesson and using characters to explore delicate subjects.
During these sessions when referring to the body parts the correct terminology will used by the class teacher. This isn’t to say that the names you use at home are to stop being used, but to expect children to come home and know the biological name for their body parts. It is essential that we teach about this important subject throughout your child’s school life, mainly for a safe-guarding point of view. The learning and discussion that will take place in these lessons will not only give your child the facts rather than hearsay off the playground, but also allow them to ask questions that may have been troubling them, discover more about themselves and help them keep safe in school and in the outside world by understanding what is appropriate and what isn’t.
As a parent, you are able to withdraw your child from all or parts of the RSE programme, that is not covered by the statutory Science curriculum programme of study. However, I would ask that you consider the resources and discuss with the class teacher or myself first.