Relationships, Sex & Health Education

In our school Relationships, Sex and Health Education is taught throughout the year through Come and See, but also taught explicitly during the year using ‘Journey in Love’. It is taught from Foundation Stage up to Year 6.

Our Lady’s Bishop Eton aims to provide a suitable programme that follows the statutory need to include RSHE into their curriculum from September 2020 which meets the ethos of its Catholic identity and mission.

The purpose of this Relationship, Sex and Health Education (RSHE) policy is to set out the ways in which the school’s provision supports pupils through their spiritual, moral, social, emotional and physical development, and prepares them for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of life growing up in today’s world.

Our School’s mission embraces the spiritual, physical, intellectual, emotional, moral and social development of children and young people, and through an agreed approach to Relationship and Sex Education (RSE) using the Archdiocesan recommended resource ‘Journey In’ Love 2020 we believe that we can promote the development of the whole child, so that children can grow in virtue, wisdom and stature, understanding both the emotional, social and physical aspects of growing spiritually, as well as moral aspects of relationships within a context of a Christian vision for the purpose of life.

A Journey in Love has as its foundational premise the belief that we are made in the image and likeness of God and, as a consequence, gender and sexuality are God’s gift, reflect God’s beauty and share in the divine creativity.

In order that children may grow and develop healthily and holistically towards an understanding of their gender and its implications for successful relationships, they must be at ease with themselves and grow in self- knowledge.

An aspect of the mystery of love is treated in each year group; children and young people are encouraged to marvel at the wonder and beauty of God’s creative love. This is reflected in each stage of a person’s growth in the Primary years through a series of suggested, progressive and developmental tasks, activities and reflections which focus on physical, social, emotional, intellectual and spiritual development.

YR: God loves each of us in our uniqueness
Y1: We meet God’s love in our family
Y2: We meet God’s love in the community
Y3: How we live in love
Y4: God loves us in our differences
Y5: God loves me in my changing and development
Y6: The wonder of God’s love in creating new life

‘Love is the light – and in the end, the only light – that can always illuminate a world grown dim and give us the courage needed to keep living and working. Love is possible, and we are able to practice it because we are created in the image of God.’

Deus Caritas Est 39