RSE
RSE Curriculum Intent
We chose the TEN:TEN ‘Life to the Full’ programme for the delivery of RSE. Life to the Full teaches Relationship, Sex and Health Education (RSHE) within the context of a Christian understanding of human sexuality rooted in the wisdom and teaching of the Catholic Church. Addressing the needs of young people where they are at in today’s world, the programme is fully inclusive of all students and their families.
Intent
We chose the TEN:TEN ‘Life to the Full’ programme for the delivery of RSE. Life to the Full teaches Relationship, Sex and Health Education (RSHE) within the context of a Christian understanding of human sexuality rooted in the wisdom and teaching of the Catholic Church. Addressing the needs of young people where they are at in today’s world, the programme is fully inclusive of all students and their families.
Implementation
Year 7: The core religious understanding taught at the outset of this programme of work is that we are created by God as one whole person, both body and soul. Building on the religious understanding of the body, students will explore changes in puberty, including physical and emotional changes. In other sessions pupils identify what contributes to their self-esteem, understand sexual intercourse within a scientific, moral and religious context, what makes a positive relationship, awareness of their presence online and social responsibility and respect for others and themselves.
Year 8: The foundational session helps students at the beginning of the Year 8 programme to develop an appreciation that our deepest identity is in God: as people created, chosen and loved by Him. Other sessions look at gender stereotypes and sexual attraction. Later lessons look at the miracle of birth, from conception to birth, prejudice and discrimination and the legal nature of sharing sexual images.
Year 9: The RSE lessons begin in Year 9 by exploring the search for love that is part of human nature, but is not ultimately satisfied by another human being, however wonderful this may be. Pupils will learn that human love is a sign of the “greater love” of God. This is followed by lessons looking at sexual attraction and difference between love and lust and the importance and benefits of delaying sexual intimacy. Later lessons examine controlled conception, marriage, consent and issues around sexual exploitation.
Key Stage 4: The early sessions explore issues such as peer pressure, virginity, love, sex and responsibility, sessions discuss the objective reality of sex: pregnancy and chemical bonding between two people and asks them to consider what it means to be a parent. Later sessions ask pupils to examine their own views on abortion, introduces different types of abuse and explores the Catholic Social Teaching principle of ‘integral ecology’, where dignity, human rights and concern for the poor are intertwined with a concern for nature, the environment and the whole of creation.
Link to Curriculum Booklets
Curriculum Overview