PARENT/CARER CONSULTATION REGARDING RELATIONSHIPS AND SEX EDUCATION (RSE)

PARENT/CARER CONSULTATION REGARDING RELATIONSHIPS AND SEX EDUCATION (RSE)

The Department for Education has made teaching of Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) and Health Education compulsory in all secondary schools since September 2020. However, due to the pandemic the compulsory implementation of this curriculum was delayed to Summer 2021. The statutory guidance can be found here.

 The new guidance 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. Whilst the teaching of these areas is already embedded within our curriculum, the new guidance has been a valuable reference to help us refine our schema and ensure that we are fully catering for our students’ needs and meeting all statutory guidance. We have made updates to our curriculum for 2021-2022 to ensure that our curriculum explicitly educates our students about sexual abuse and sexual harassment following the Ofsted review of sexual abuse in schools and colleges in the wake of the Everyone's Invited website and the murder of Sarah Everard in 2021.

This guidance will form part of the curriculum which is taught throughout the school in every year group and is monitored and reviewed regularly by the staff and the Governing Body. All teaching will take place in a safe learning environment and be underpinned by our school ethos and values. A variety of opportunities will be provided for students to ask questions to further their understanding and to find out more about what affects them personally.

All of the lessons your child will receive as part of their Relationships, Sex and Health Education will be age-appropriate and meet the needs of all students in the class. To ensure this, we have reviewed our RSE curriculum and RSE policy so we can be sure our provision is appropriate for our students based on their:

• Age
• Physical and emotional maturity
• Religious and cultural backgrounds
• Special educational needs and disabilities

There is flexibility with how we run the RSE provision, therefore to ensure students are supported both at home and school your feedback would be greatly appreciated. As a school community, we are committed to working with parents. Therefore, we would like to invite parents and carers to complete this online consultation on our RSE policy and the RSE education your children receive. The closing date for feedback is Wednesday 24th March 2022. The RSE policy can be found here and contains an overview of our RSE curriculum and important information for parents and carers who may wish to withdraw their children from these classes. Once we have considered all the feedback, the finalised RSE Policy will be approved and signed by the Governors. The final version will then be and uploaded to the Woodcote website.

Consultation Outcomes

We would like to thank Parents and Carers for their participation and feedback regarding the RSE Curriculum. To view the outcomes, please click HERE

Further Useful Links:

To further inform the feedback you may wish to provide, you may find the following links useful:

1. Department for Education – “Understanding Relationships, Sex and Health Education at your child’s secondary school: a guide for parents” 
2. Department for Education – “Relationships education, relationships and sex education (RSE) and health education: FAQs”
3. Sex Education Forum – “Frequently Asked Questions”
4. Sex Education Forum – “SRE – The Evidence” (March 2015)