Last reviewed: 1 September 2025 Next review: 1 September 2025

Rationale and Ethos

In ‘Relationships Education, Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) and Health Education’ (DfE, 2021), relationships education is deﬁned as: ‘teaching the fundamental building blocks and characteristics of positive relationships, with particular reference to friendships, family relationships, and relationships with other children and with adults.’

Relationship and Sex Education at Orchard House School will ensure that our pupils:

Have an awareness and understanding of themselves
Know how their bodies change
Know how to manage their feelings and express themselves
Have the skills to become happy, conﬁdent and independent individuals
Are able to make informed decisions about their health and wellbeing

Deﬁnition

Relationships Education

“Relationships Education is learning about the physical, social, emotional and legal aspects of human relationships. These include friendships, family life and relationships with other children and adults. Relationships Education supports our children to be happy, healthy and safe in their connections and interactions with others, now and in the future.”

Health Education

“Health Education is learning about the characteristics of good physical health and mental wellbeing and the equally important role that each of these plays in our everyday lives. It explores the important role that physical health has on our mental health and vice versa. Health Education supports our children to be happy, healthy and safe in their health-related choices and behaviours, both physically and mentally, now and in the future.”

Sex Education

“Sex Education is learning about the physical, social, emotional and legal aspects of human sexuality and behaviour, including human reproduction. Aspects of sex education are covered in the context of learning about lifecycles in science.”

Purpose

The purpose of this policy is

To provide guidance and information on relationships education;
To provide a clear framework within which teachers may teach the subject;

To clarify the legal requirements and responsibilities of the school;
To outline the school’s approach to relationships education;
To provide guidance on developing, implementing and monitoring the relationships education curriculum;
To provide a basis for evaluating the effectiveness of the school’s relationships education curriculum.

Context

At Orchard House, relationships education is taught within the context of the school’s aims, ethos, and values and with due consideration to the attitudes, values, personal and social skills, and knowledge and understanding that the school considers appropriate for the pupils in our care.

Relationships education is incorporated into the curriculum on the basis that:

It is taught with reference to friendships, long-term relationships, cohabitation, civil partnerships, marriage and an inclusive understanding of family life.
It is situated in the broader context of social, moral, spiritual and cultural (SMSC);

development and personal, social, health, citizenship and economic education (PSHCEE);
It is important to build positive relationships with others involving trust and respect;

Pupils are taught to respect and care for their own bodies and to keep themselves safe.

Furthermore, relationships education may also provide an opportunity for pupils:

To clarify and understand their own attitudes, morals and values;
To develop self-esteem and the skills to manage relationships;
To develop the children’s ability and conﬁdence to make informed choices; to keep others safe by minimising risk from harm;
To develop a positive attitude towards their bodies and emotions.

Aims of relationships education

The aims of the relationships education curriculum are:

To equip all pupils with accurate, unbiased knowledge and understanding about relationships;
To provide pupils with opportunities to acquire life skills that will help them to form positive, successful relationships with others;
To give pupils opportunities to explore and respect their own and others’ opinions, attitudes and values;
To nurture pupils’ self-esteem, self-awareness, conﬁdence and emotional well-being, especially in their relationships with others;
To promote the skills needed for a healthy lifestyle and the responsibility children have towards their own body;
To encourage pupils to take responsibility for and accept the consequences of their own actions;
To help pupils develop skills needed to be members of society and to value themselves and others;
To provide guidance on where to ﬁnd information and support;
To develop and use critical judgement to respond to the inﬂuences of their peers and the media;
To help pupils develop their personal moral framework with regard to sex and relationships;
To prepare pupils for adolescence and adulthood.

Roles and Responsibilities

The PSHCEE Lead, Ms Zackey, oversees the provision of RSE. The Form teachers deliver the lessons, and they receive training, support, and CPD from the PSHCEE Lead and the Jigsaw Programme.

Legislation and guidance

This policy has been written with regard to the following documents:

Relationships Education, Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) and Health Education (DfE, 2021) RSE Guidance
The Children Act (2004)
Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage (DfE, September 2025)

Safe and effective

To promote equal opportunity and inclusion for all, the school’s approach to the teaching of relationships education will be mindful of:

The needs of boys and girls

The school shall consider the particular needs of boys and girls and adopt gender-inclusive teaching styles. The school shall also be proactive in identifying and challenging sexism and sexist bullying.

Gender and sexuality

Relationships education may include discussions of gender and sexuality in a balanced and sensitive manner that will positively represent a variety of gender and sexual identities. At an age-appropriate level, teachers shall also confront the social problems of homophobic bullying and stereotyping based on gender and sexuality.

Ethnic and cultural diversity

The school will consult pupils, parents, and carers about any specific views and values they may have that arise from ethnic or cultural backgrounds and promote respect for, and understanding of, the views and values of different ethnic and cultural groups regarding relationships education.

Religious backgrounds

The religious background of pupils will be taken into account when planning teaching so that topics are appropriately handled.

Home backgrounds

The school recognises that our pupils come from a variety of family circumstances and home backgrounds. The school shall ensure that teachers do not make assumptions or use language that leads to children feeling excluded due to their family circumstances and home backgrounds.

Special educational needs

The school recognises that there are children of different abilities in all classes and seeks to provide suitable learning opportunities for all children by matching the tasks to the child’s ability. The teaching of relationships education will include differentiated tasks to ensure that all pupils are able to access the relationships education curriculum.

The teaching of relationships education will take account of children for whom English is an additional language. Visual aids will be used to help pupils understand vocabulary and the concepts taught, in addition to differentiated tasks and teacher support.

Answering difﬁcult questions

Sometimes a pupil will ask a difﬁcult question during a relationships education lesson. Such questions will be handled sensitively and may be addressed individually after the lesson. Individual teachers are expected to use their professional judgement and discretion if such a situation were to occur and to seek guidance from the head if they are concerned. There are ‘worry boxes’ in each classroom where children can write any questions they have, and ground rules, different from classroom rules, are established before discussing topics.

Safeguarding and conﬁdentiality

RSE may bring about disclosures of safeguarding children issues. All teachers are familiar with the procedures for reporting concerns. Teachers should make clear to pupils where the boundaries of conﬁdentiality lie before pupils make personal disclosures. The following will help to establish clear boundaries for conﬁdentiality between pupils and teachers:

Establishing ground rules in lessons
Having an anonymous questions box (Ask Me Box)
Reassuring pupils that their best interests will be maintained
Encouraging pupils to talk to their parents or carers and providing them with the support to do so
Ensuring that pupils know that teachers cannot offer unconditional conﬁdentiality

If possible, if abuse is disclosed, teachers will follow the school’s child protection policy and procedures.

Curriculum design

The RSE curriculum is a spiral curriculum building on skills and understanding year on year and following the guidelines from the DFE. It is embedded into the PSHCEE curriculum, which has been created from plans from the Jigsaw Programme. The following principles are used with the teaching of RSE: effectively

Teaching starts from where the pupils’ progress is assessed
Classroom visitors are used effectively
Scare tactics are not employed- there is no shock, horror approach
Teaching is inclusive and sensitive, and distancing techniques are used
The lessons develop knowledge, skills and attitudes and are relevant to young people’s lives, including life online
Pupils’ questions are well handled
Further support and advice is signposted
The lesson is closed effectively.

The teaching programme for relationships education

Early Years Foundation Stage

Children learn about the concept of male and female and about young animals. In ongoing PSED work, they are introduced to the concept of personal safety, develop skills to form friendships and think about relationships with others. How relationships education is covered in the Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage (DfE, September 2025)

Physical development

‘Health and self-care: children know the importance for the good health of physical exercise and a healthy diet, and talk about ways to keep healthy and safe. They manage their own basic hygiene and personal needs successfully, including dressing and going to the toilet independently.

Personal, social and emotional development

Self-conﬁdence and self-awareness: children are conﬁdent trying new activities and saying why they like some activities more than others. They are confident speaking in a familiar group, will talk about their ideas, and choose the resources they need for their chosen activities. They say when they do or don’t need help.

Managing feelings and behaviour: children talk about how they and others show feelings, talk about their own and others’ behaviour, and its consequences, and know that some behaviour is unacceptable. They work as part of a group or class and understand and follow the rules. They adjust their behaviour to different situations and take changes of routine in their stride.’

Making relationships: children play co-operatively, taking turns with others. They take account of one another’s ideas about how to organise their activity. They show sensitivity to others’ needs and feelings and form positive relationships with adults and other children.

Understanding the world

People and communities: children talk about past and present events in their own lives and the lives of family members. They know that other children don’t always enjoy the same things and are sensitive to this. They know about similarities and differences between themselves and others and among families, communities and traditions.

The world: children know about similarities and differences in relation to places, objects, materials and living things. They talk about the features of their own immediate environment and how environments might vary from one another. They make observations of animals and plants and explain why some things occur, and talk about changes.

Key stage 1: In religious education and PSHCEE lessons, children reﬂect on family relationships, different family groups and friendships. They learn about rituals and traditions associated with birth, marriage and death and talk about emotions. The children begin to cooperate with others in work and play and begin to recognise the range of human emotions involved in social interactions and ways to deal with them. Through their work in science, children learn about the life cycles of some animals, understand the idea of growing from young to old and learn that all living things reproduce. They learn about the importance of personal hygiene to maintain good health and about the importance of personal safety.

Key stage 2: In religious education and PSHCEE lessons, children continue to develop an understanding of relationships within a family, between friends and the community and that there are different types of friendship. The children develop the skills needed to form relationships and respond intelligently and sensitively to other people’s emotions and feelings. They consider how to make simple choices and exercise some basic techniques for resisting peer pressure. In Form 5 and Form 6, designated relationships education lessons are taught and focus on developing skills and attitudes rather than merely acquiring knowledge. All pupils learn about the physical and emotional changes that both sexes undergo and the importance of positive relationships. In science lessons, the children build upon their knowledge of life cycles and learn about the basic biology of human reproduction, including the birth of a human baby in Form 5. This knowledge is emotional and social changes at puberty, including maintaining a good standard of personal hygiene.

By the end of Form 6

Families and people who care for me

Pupils should know

that families are important for children growing up because they can give love, security and stability;
the characteristics of healthy family life, commitment to each other, including in times of difﬁculty, protection and care for children and other family members; the importance of spending time together and sharing each other’s lives;
that others’ families, either in school or in the wider world, sometimes look different from their family, but that they should respect those differences and know that other children’s families are also characterised by love and care;
that stable, caring relationships, which may be of different types, are at the heart of happy families and are important for children’s security as they grow up;
that marriage represents a formal and legally recognised commitment of two people to each other, which is intended to be lifelong;
how to recognise if family relationships are making them feel unhappy or unsafe, and how to seek help or advice from others if needed;
Marriage in England and Wales is available to both opposite-sex and same-sex couples. The Marriage (Same-Sex Couples) Act 2013 extended marriage to same-sex couples in England and Wales. The ceremony through which a couple get married may be civil or religious.

Caring friendships

Pupils should know

how important friendships are in making us feel happy and secure, and how people choose and make friends;
the characteristics of friendships, including mutual respect, truthfulness, trustworthiness, loyalty, kindness, generosity, trust, sharing interests and experiences and support with problems and difﬁculties;
that healthy friendships are positive and welcoming towards others and do not make others feel lonely or excluded;
that most friendships have ups and downs, and that these can often be worked through so that the friendship is repaired or even strengthened, and that resorting to violence is never right; friendship is making them feel unhappy or uncomfortable, manage conﬂict, manage these situations, and seek help or advice from others if needed.

Respectful relationships

Pupils should know

the importance of respecting others, even when they are very different from them (for example, physically, in character, personality or backgrounds), or make different choices or have different preferences or beliefs;
practical steps they can take in a range of different contexts to improve or support respectful relationships;
the conventions of courtesy and manners;
the importance of self-respect and how this links to their own happiness;
that in school and in wider society they can expect to be treated with respect by others, and that in turn, they should show due respect to others, including those in positions of authority;
about different types of bullying (including cyberbullying), the impact of bullying, responsibilities of bystanders (primarily reporting bullying to an adult) and how to get help;
what a stereotype is, and how stereotypes can be unfair, negative or destructive;
the importance of permission-seeking and giving in relationships with friends, peers and adults.

Online relationships

Pupils should know:

that people sometimes behave differently online, including by pretending to be someone they are not;
that the same principles apply to online relationships as to face-to-face relationships, including the importance of respect for others online, including when we are anonymous;
the rules and principles for keeping safe online, how to recognise risks, harmful content and contact, and how to report them;
how to critically consider their online friendships and sources of information, including awareness of the risks associated with people they have never met;
how information and data are shared and used online.

Being safe

Pupils should know

what sorts of boundaries are appropriate in friendships with peers and others (including in a digital context);
about the concept of privacy and the implications of it for both children and adults; including that it is not always right to keep secrets if they relate to being safe;
that each person’s body belongs to them, and the differences between appropriate and inappropriate or unsafe physical, and other, contact;
how to respond safely and appropriately to adults they may encounter (in all contexts, including online) whom they do not know;
how to recognise and report feelings of being unsafe or feeling bad about any adult;
how to ask for advice or help for themselves or others, and to keep trying until they are heard;
how to report concerns or abuse, and the vocabulary and conﬁdence needed to do so;
where to get advice, for example, family, school or other sources.

Mental Well-being

Pupils should know:

that mental wellbeing is a normal part of daily life, in the same way as physical health.
that there is a normal range of emotions (e.g. happiness, sadness, anger, fear, surprise, nervousness) and a scale of emotions that all humans experience in relation to different experiences and situations.
how to recognise and talk about their emotions, including having a varied vocabulary of words to use when talking about their own and others’ feelings.
how to judge whether what they are feeling and how they are behaving is appropriate and proportionate.
the beneﬁts of physical exercise, time outdoors, community participation, voluntary and service-based activity on mental well-being and happiness.
simple self-care techniques, including the importance of rest, time spent with friends and family and the beneﬁts of hobbies and interests.
isolation and loneliness can affect children, and that it is very important for children to discuss their feelings with an adult and seek support.
that bullying (including cyberbullying) has a negative and often lasting impact on mental well-being.
where and how to seek support (including recognising the triggers for seeking support), including whom in school they should speak to if they are worried about their own or someone else’s mental well-being or ability to control their emotions (including issues arising online).
It is common for people to experience mental ill-health. For many people who do, the problems can be resolved if the right support is made available, especially if accessed early enough.

Internet safety and harms

Pupils should know

that for most people, the internet is an integral part of life and has many beneﬁts.
about the beneﬁts of rationing time spent online, the risks of excessive time spent on electronic devices and the impact of positive and negative content online on their own and others’ mental and physical wellbeing.
how to consider the effect of their online actions on others, know how to recognise and display respectful behaviour online, and the importance of keeping personal information private.
why social media, some computer games and online gaming, for example, are age-restricted. bullying and harassment can take place, which can have a negative impact on mental health.
how to be a discerning consumer of information online, including understanding that information, including that from search engines, is ranked, selected and targeted.
where and how to report concerns and get support with issues online.

Physical health and ﬁtness

Pupils should know

the characteristics and mental and physical beneﬁts of an active lifestyle.
the importance of building regular exercise into daily and weekly routines and how to achieve this; for example, walking or cycling to school, a daily active mile or other forms of regular, vigorous exercise.
the risks associated with an inactive lifestyle (including obesity).
how and when to seek support, including which adults to speak to in school if they are worried about their health.

Healthy eating

Pupils should know

what constitutes a healthy diet (including understanding calories and other nutritional content).
the principles of planning and preparing a range of healthy meals.
the characteristics of a poor diet and risks associated with unhealthy eating (including, for example, obesity and tooth decay) and other behaviours (e.g. the impact of alcohol on diet or health).

Drugs, alcohol and tobacco

Pupils should know

the facts about legal and illegal harmful substances and associated risks, including smoking, alcohol use and drug-taking

Health and prevention

Pupils should know

how to recognise early signs of physical illness, such as weight loss or unexplained changes to the body. sun damage, including skin cancer.
the importance of sufﬁciently good quality sleep for good health and that a lack of sleep can affect weight, mood and ability to learn.
about dental health and the beneﬁts of good oral hygiene and dental ﬂossing, including regular check-ups at the dentist.
about personal hygiene and germs, including bacteria, viruses, how they are spread and treated, and the importance of handwashing.
the facts and science relating to immunisation and vaccination

Basic ﬁrst aid

Pupils should know

how to make a clear and efﬁcient call to emergency services if necessary.
concepts of basic ﬁrst-aid, for example, dealing with common injuries, including head injuries.

Changing adolescent body

Pupils should know

key facts about puberty and the changing adolescent body, particularly from age 9 through to age 11, including physical and emotional changes.
about menstrual wellbeing, including the key facts about the menstrual cycle.

The role of parents

The school acknowledges that the role of parents in the development of their children’s understanding about relationships is vital. Parents are the first teachers of their children, and they have the most significant influence in enabling their children to mature and form healthy relationships. The school wishes to build positive and supportive relationships with the parents of children at the school through mutual understanding, trust and co-operation. In promoting this objective, the school will:

Consult with parents over the development of the school’s relationships education policy and practice;
Share the content of speciﬁc relationships education lessons conﬁdence and answer any questions that parents may have in relation to relationships education;
Answer any questions that parents may have about the relationships education of their child;
Inform parents about best practice with regard to relationships education so that the key messages that parents and carers provide to children at home are supported by relationships education teaching in school. The school believes that, through this mutual exchange of knowledge and information, children will beneﬁt from being given consistent messages about their changing bodies and their increasing responsibilities.

Parents’ and carers’ right to withdraw their child(ren) from relationships education lessons

There is no right for parents to withdraw their child(ren) from relationships education as the Department for Education believes the contents of the subject, such as family, friendship, safety (including online safety), are important for all children to be taught. We are fully complying with the Department for Education recommendations for all primary schools to have a sex education programme tailored to the pupils’ age and physical and emotional maturity. Parents have the right to withdraw their child from Sex Education, but not the right to withdraw their child from any lessons that are in the statutory Relationships, Science and Health Education Curriculum. If a parent wishes to withdraw their child from Sex Education, we ask that they discuss it with the Head Teacher directly. Alternative work will be given to pupils who are withdrawn from Sex Education.

ICT

ICT will be used, where appropriate, to enhance teaching and learning.

Monitoring, reporting and evaluation

The heads of PSHCEE monitor and review the effectiveness of the programme of study through pupils’ questionnaires, class discussions, formative assessment, work scrutinies, teachers’ evaluations and pupils’ self-assessments, feedback from parents, carers and teaching staff. These ﬁndings are used to inform future developments and areas for change. In particular, listening and responding to the views of pupils and parents is viewed positively, strengthening the policy and ensuring that it meets the needs of all pupils

Appendix 1: RSE Questionnaire (Parents)

Appendix 2: RSE Questionnaire (Pupils)

Appendix 3: RSE Questionnaire (Staff)