St Catherine's School
RELATIONSHIPS AND SEX EDUCATION (RSE) AND HEALTH EDUCATION (HE) POLICY
(Prep)

Reviewed by:	Head of Prep
Last Reviewed:	January 2025
Next Review:	January 2026

SCHOOL MISSION We are inspired by St Catherine of Siena, who said ‘Be who God wants you to be, and you will set the world on fire’, to form young women of confidence and compassion, ready for service and leadership in the world. We fulfil our mission through these values:   Community: a place of cheerfulness, dignity and tolerance, where all are welcome Faith: a Christ-centred school with time for reflection; a culture of gratitude and friendship Courage: with self-knowledge, resilience and integrity, and a readiness for challenge Scholarship: where gifts are developed through curiosity, imagination and ambition Service: commitment to others, to stewardship, and to justice and hope for all

Principles

At St Catherine’s Prep, pupils are taught about relationships and health, within the context of an inclusive and caring Catholic ethos, which emphasises personal worth, Gospel values, wellbeing, and healthy, positive relationships. 

Relationships Education and Health Education are statutory in UK primary schools. Sex education is not compulsory in primary schools, and parents have the right to withdraw their daughter from this part of the curriculum. 

The focus at St Catherine’s is to continue to teach the fundamental building blocks and characteristics of positive relationships, with particular reference to friendships, family relationships, and relationships with other children and with adults. 

We believe parents are the ‘first educators’ of their children. The School seeks to work with and support parents, as affirmed by John Paul II  in Familiaris Consortio:

“... any educative activity, related to education for love and carried out by persons outside the family, must be subject to the parents’ acceptance of it and must be seen not as a substitute but as a support for their work. In fact, sex education, which is a basic right and duty of parents, must always be carried out under their attentive guidance whether at home or in educational centres chosen and controlled by them...”

Policy

Relationships education at St Catherine’s Prep has the following objectives:

• To give pupils information and skills to make healthy choices;
• To promote tolerance and respect for others;
• To prepare Key Stage Two pupils for the changes of puberty;
• To develop the skills to form and maintain healthy relationships;
• To give pupils information on who can help if they do not feel safe;
• To promote and support pupil safeguarding.

The programme will cover the statutory areas of:

1. Relationships

• Families and people who care for me
• Caring friendships
• Respectful relationships
• Online relationships
• Being safe

2. Physical Health and Wellbeing

• Mental wellbeing
• Internet safety and harm
• Physical health and fitness
• Healthy eating
• Drugs, alcohol and tobacco
• Health and prevention
• Basic first aid
• Changing adolescent body (puberty)

The programme will be delivered by class teachers, based on resources from the Ten Ten program, in line with the Catholic Education Service framework, and, in some cases, specialist speakers. It will also be embedded in the PSHCE scheme and schemes for Science and ICT.

Teachers will deliver lessons in a balanced, non-judgemental way and teaching will be inclusive of all pupils and families and their needs. The subject will be monitored and evaluated through the scheme of work, tasks and observations, workshops and open discussion with parents.

Sex Education for Year 6 Pupils 

The non-statutory elements of sex education will be included in Year 6 to meet the needs of our pupils, following DfE guidance that ‘primary schools should have a sex education programme tailored to the age and the physical and emotional maturity of the pupils’. Parents can withdraw their child from these elements in the Year 6 programme, but no other part of the RHE programme. Parents should request the withdrawal of their daughter by contacting the Head of Prep in writing, outlining the reasons for their request. The parents are likely then to be invited in for a discussion.

The national curriculum for science includes subject content in related areas, such as the external body parts, the human body as it grows from birth to old age (including puberty) and reproduction in some plants and animals. 

It is important that the transition phase before moving to secondary school supports pupils’ ongoing emotional and physical development effectively. The programme builds knowledge of the human life cycle,  and how a baby is conceived and born, and ensures pupils are prepared for the changes that adolescence brings. Lessons will also recognise the significance of context, family situations, and pupils’ special educational needs or disabilities.

Managing questions

Primary-age pupils will often ask their teachers or other adults questions pertaining to sex or sexuality which go beyond what is set out for Relationships and Sex Education. Question boxes will be used in Key Stage Two to help pupils to ask questions and these will be answered in a factual, sensitive, and age-appropriate way. 

Questions relating to sexuality and/or gender identity may arise either in discussion or in a particular circumstance. These will be handled according to the same principles of tolerant, caring and supportive dialogue with pupils, and partnership with parents (and, where relevant, outside agencies), that underpin all pastoral care and education at St Catherine’s.