Staplehurst School - Relationships, Sex and Health Education (RSHE)

At Staplehurst School, we acknowledge the importance of Relationship, Sex and Health Education (RSHE) in the curriculum as an important element in preparing our pupils for the transition in to adult life. As a school, we are using the Kapow PSHE programme to teach the statutory RSHE.

Health Education:

From September 2020, Relationship and Health Education was made compulsory in all primary schools. The content covered is as follows:
Health Education now includes learning about ‘the changing adolescent body’ to equip children to understand puberty. This is a compulsory section of the curriculum and all children will be taught this.

Sex Education:

As sex education is taught within our PSHE curriculum, parents do have the right to request their child is withdrawn from these specific lessons.

We believe that knowledge empowers and protects children as long as it is age-appropriate. At secondary school Sex Education is statutory and we believe that primary schools should prepare children with accurate knowledge about puberty and human reproduction before they transfer to secondary school.

Correct terminology for body parts is introduced early to normalise this biological vocabulary and to support safeguarding. These words are not used in isolation but always in conjunction, ensuring children know these are private parts of their bodies.

Puberty is introduced gently in Year 4 because some girls may start their periods this early and it is necessary to prepare them for this, so they aren’t scared or worried. (In the puberty lesson there is no mention of periods, but children are taught that changes to their body will occur).

Conception is introduced age-appropriately in Year 6 in the context of understanding why our bodies change during puberty.

Understanding of menstruation and puberty is built upon in Year 5 and then puberty, conception and childbirth is age-appropriately covered in Year 6.

Below is an outline of the RSE lessons in our curriculum and the accompanying teaching presentations/resources as PDFs:

Year 1