RSHE at St Matthias

From September 2020, the new curriculum for Relationships and Health Education is compulsory in English schools, ‘to provide pupils with the knowledge, understanding, attitudes, values and skills they need in order to reach their potential as individuals and within the community’ and we want to teach our St Matthias children these valuable skills. We understand the importance of the role that parents and carers play in teaching RSHE and have had, and will continue to have, informative sessions with our community, alongside Fr David, our incumbent and one of our governors. Content that is covered in our weekly RSHE lessons varies from physical and mental wellbeing to forming healthy relationships, being safe online, and being active, democratic citizens. Some of these are also taught through PE, computing and science.

At St Matthias, we teach our pupils content  in an age appropriate and developmentally appropriate way, ‘with respect to the backgrounds and beliefs of pupils and parents while always with the aim of providing pupils with the knowledge they need’. This is why we are confident that when we have discussions with our pupils, we do so in a safe, respectful and clearly thought out manner, ensuring that our pupil’s safety and wellbeing is at the forefront of our minds.

At our school, we follow the Jigsaw Programme, which we have tweaked to suit the needs of our children. It progresses through the following units across the school, all of which follow the guidance of the Department for Education. Classes may also have additional ‘circle times’ to support this.

Please see here for coverage and progression with the Jigsaw RSHE programme that we follow. Letters will go out to parents and carers before we teach anything that is not compulsory, which will be in the summer term. You can also find our school’s RSHE policy here.

Following on from our parent consultation, we have put together some possible questions that you may have, along with any resources you may want to look at. These can be found here. If you would like to request any of the resources, please contact the school and we can see what we can provide.