Relationships and Sex Education
Relationships and Sex Education
At Oaks Park High School, we believe that Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) is a key vehicle for promoting equality, inclusion and social justice. We are committed to an RSE curriculum that makes every pupil feel valued and is relevant to them. This includes adapting how we deliver this content for students with SEND.
Our RSE curriculum is inclusive and will seek to challenge all forms of discrimination and prejudice between pupils and promote understanding and respect as outlined under the Equality Act 2010.
Our RSE curriculum is designed to promote gender equality through challenging gender stereotypes and sexism and sexual harassment in schools. We take these issues seriously and ensure that we embed content on gender equality throughout the curriculum. This complements other work on other forms of prejudice and discrimination within the PSHE programme.
What does RSE include?
Relationships Education: Learning about the physical, social, legal and emotional aspects of human relationships including friendships, intimate, sexual and committed relationships and family life.
Sex Education: Learning about the physical, social, legal and emotional aspects of human sexuality and behaviour, including human reproduction. This includes conception and contraception, safer sex, sexually transmitted infections and sexual health.
How do we deliver RSE?
RSE is taught within the personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) education curriculum at Oaks Park High School (CfL lessons in Year 7 and LIFE lessons in Years 8 – 11).
In addition, biological aspects of RSE (including menstruation and sexual reproduction) are taught within the science curriculum. This is a statutory requirement of the curriculum.
In Year 9, 10 & 11, students will also receive stand-alone sex education sessions in their LIFE lessons, delivered by a trained health professional.
For further information, please refer to our RSE curriculum map here.
RSE policy and curriculum development
Our RSE policy and our RSE curriculum have been developed with reference to the required content and in consultation with parents/carers.
Parents/carers are asked to consider the policy and the draft curriculum plan and give us feedback. Once feedback is received the outcomes of the consultation and proposed changes are taken to the Governing Body to update the policy and ratify the final version which is then put on the website for reference. Please see our parental consultation page for reference.
The curriculum is also designed taking into account feedback from staff delivering the programme and the DSL team. We also ask students to give us feedback on the LIFE programme including these aspects and this influences how we deliver the content.
Right to withdrawal
Parents have the right to withdraw their children from the non-statutory components of sex education within RSE up to and until 3 terms before the child turns 16. After this point, if the child wishes to receive sex education rather than being withdrawn, the school will arrange this.
Requests for withdrawal should be put in writing to the Headteacher stating the reasons for their request and which elements they wish to withdraw their child from. The Headteacher may delegate a member of the pastoral or PSHE team to discuss the request further where further clarification is needed.
RSE Curriculum Map
A full outline of when RSE is taught within the PSHE curriculum for each Year Group (including the content covered) can be found below. Please note that Horizon students will cover the same topics as outlined in the curriculum map as part of their CfL lessons but this may take place at different times during the year.
A full version of our current RSE Policy (which forms Section B of our PSHE Policy) can be found on the consultation page. In addition, the current PSHE policy that includes the RSE policy information can always be found on the school policies page.