Intent

At Fittleworth Primary School, our intention for providing high-quality relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) is to empower our pupils with the knowledge, skills and attitudes that they need to navigate healthy, happy and safe lives as they grow up. Our RSHE programme aims to be inclusive, comprehensive and age-appropriate. We have chosen to use the E4S platform to deliver our RSHE curriculum. E4S (Education for Safeguarding) has been endorsed by West Sussex as an online toolkit with 4 main cornerstones and a whole school approach to teaching safeguarding. 

Please see our Long Term Plan for teaching the RSHE curriculum. Each unit comes under one of the 4 main cornerstones and will be covered in both Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 to ensure consistency across the school. A typical RSHE lesson will include much discussion and questioning, giving the children ample opportunity to explore their own feelings as well as find out and appreciate the thoughts and opinions of their peers. 

The School Council will be representatives from each class as the pupils' voice, and will meet regularly to discuss whole school issues relating to our RSHE curriculum. Parents views are also valued and so regular surveys will be sent out to give parents the chance to have their say in relation to any issues arising at home which may be relevant to our learning of RSHE or safeguarding.  

Implementation

We implement our RSHE programme in a number of ways. Firstly, we ensure that we work in partnership with families to create a shared understanding of our intentions and to support open and honest conversations about RSHE at home, as well as in school. We communicate regularly with parents and carers, providing them with clear and accessible information about the statutory requirements for RSHE and sharing our school’s objectives, content and lesson plans. We also engage with other relevant professionals to ensure that all our policies and procedures are up-to-date and in line with best practice.

Our RSHE curriculum is delivered by trained teachers and takes into account the developmental stages, cultural backgrounds and learning needs of all our pupils. It is based on a range of reliable and diverse resources and materials, including those recommended by the Department for Education (DfE) and Ofsted. We use a combination of interactive activities, group discussions, role-plays and story-telling to help our pupils build the knowledge, skills and attitudes that they need to stay healthy and safe in all aspects of their lives, from making and maintaining friendships to puberty, relationships and online safety. We also ensure that we provide pupils with opportunities to learn about and celebrate diversity in all its forms, so that they can develop respect and empathy for themselves and for others.

Our RSHE programme is reviewed and evaluated regularly to ensure that it remains effective, relevant and engaging for our pupils. We use a range of feedback mechanisms, including surveys, questionnaires and focus groups, to gather the views and opinions of pupils, staff and parents on how well our programme is meeting its intended outcomes. We also use our monitoring and self-evaluation processes to identify areas for improvement and to drive ongoing development of our RSHE provision.
 

Impact

Our RSHE programme has a clear impact on the health and wellbeing of our pupils, as well as their academic achievements and social development. We see evidence of this impact in a range of ways, including improvements in pupils’ confidence, self-esteem and resilience, as well as their relationships with peers and adults. Our pupils are more knowledgeable about healthy living, including diet, exercise and mental wellbeing, and are better able to make informed decisions about their health and safety. They also have a greater understanding of the importance of consent, respect, tolerance and diversity, and are able to apply these values in their daily lives both inside and outside of school.

We also measure the impact of our RSHE provision through our monitoring and evaluation processes, as well as external feedback from Ofsted, parents and other stakeholders. We use this feedback to continually improve our RSHE programme and ensure that it remains outstanding in the eyes of Ofsted and the wider community.