The Relationships Education, RSE, and Health Education (England) Regulations 2019 have made Relationships Education compulsory in all primary schools for Year 1 upwards. The primary science national curriculum mandates that children should be taught about the human lifecycle, adolescence and how the human body changes.

Whilst Sex Education is not compulsory, the Department for Education continues to recommend that all primary schools should have a sex education programme tailored to the age, physical and emotional maturity of pupils. It should ensure that both boys and girls are prepared for the changes that adolescence brings and – drawing on knowledge of the human life cycle set out in the national curriculum for science - how a baby is conceived and born.

Primary schools that choose to teach sex education in addition to the national science curriculum requirements must allow parents a right to withdraw their children from the sex education elements and we understand that our parents may choose to do this.

With this in mind, here at Woodchester, we have made the decision to use the Kapow scheme for RSE and the wider PSHE curriculum in order to standardise materials used, provide support to teachers and most importantly to ensure that children are taught in an age-appropriate manner with good quality resources. Our children will learn about Puberty in Year 4 covering physical changes in both girls and boys; girls and boys will learn in single sex groups about menstruation in Year 5 whilst Year 6 will be taught about the physical biology of males and females, conception and birth in mixed groups.

A parent consultation meeting was held in June 2023 with the Subject Lead and a small group of parents.  Parent consultation will be held again in Spring 2025 when the policy is next reviewed.

MAY24 Update - The UK Government is now reviewing the current statutory RSE guidance for schools.  Further information can be found here - https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/review-of-the-rshe-statutory-guidance.

	RSE-Presentation-for-Parents	[pdf 4MB]
	Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) Policy January 2024	[pdf 514KB]
	Parent RSE Consultation letter	[pdf 276KB]
	Kapow Parents RSE Guide	[pdf 67KB]