RSE Policy

December 2021

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Moat House RSE Policy

This policy covers the statutory RSE requirements which forms part of a more general RSHE programme at Moat House. This policy has been rewritten following the introduction of statutory RSHE in September 2020.

RSHE is delivered to our statutory school age students, whilst a Lifeskills programme covering RSHE topics, where appropriate, is offered to our post 16 cohort. Additionally, we host a variety of events / activities /assemblies which help to educate/ raise awareness around particular topics.

Definition of RSE

RSE is lifelong learning about physical, sexual, moral and emotional development. It is about the understanding of the importance of stable and loving relationships, respect, love and care, for family life. Additionally, it involves acquiring information about to the physical aspects of growing up, having relationships, engaging in sex, and learning about human sexuality and sexual health.

Aims

The aim of RSE is to give young people the information they need to help them develop healthy, nurturing relationships of all kinds, not just intimate relationships. It should enable them to know what a healthy relationship looks like and what makes a good friend, a good colleague and a successful marriage or other type of committed relationship. It should also cover contraception, developing intimate relationships and resisting pressure to have sex (and not applying pressure). It should teach what is acceptable and what is unacceptable behaviour in relationships.

This will help pupils understand the positive effects that good relationships have on their mental wellbeing, identify when relationships are not right and understand how such situations can be managed.

Rationale and Ethos

Moat House has always placed a high value on providing high quality RSE education. As our cohort changes from being exclusively pregnant students and young mothers, to a mixed cohort of students from KS4, we still uphold the importance of RSE and aim to:

• Provide a framework in which sensitive discussions can take place
• Help students develop feelings of self-respect, confidence and empathy
• Create a positive culture around issues of sexuality and relationships

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• Teach students the correct vocabulary to describe themselves and their bodies.
• Ensure our students are physically, socially, emotionally safe and healthy during their time at Moat House and beyond, both online and offline, including understanding of where and when to access appropriate help for themselves and others
• Provide an inclusive curriculum which reflects the needs and ages of our studentsRegular liaison with the SENDCO takes place to ensure that the needs of any students with SEND are met. We ensure that the RSE curriculum fosters gender equality and LGBT+ equality as part of our commitment to British Values and diversity. Religious views are discussed during initial student referral meetings and communicated to the RSHE teacher.
  

  Roles and Responsibilities

  The governing body will approve the RSE policy and will hold the Headteacher accountable for its implementation.

  The Headteacher is responsible for ensuring that RSE is taught to students of statutory school age and managing requests from parents / carers to withdraw their child, if applicable. Students can only be withdrawn from the Sex education element of the RSHE programme. A student may decide to opt back into Sex education from three terms before their 16th birthday.

  RSHE is delivered by an experienced and well trained teacher, who will be responsible for providing a scheme of work, preparing teaching materials, ensuring that they align with current best practice guidelines.

  Legislation

  The DfE introduced a statutory requirement for all schools (including PRUs) to deliver the statutory RSHE curriculum to students in KS4 or below, effective from September 2021 (delayed due to Covid19).

  Curriculum Design

  The RSE curriculum ensures that the new statutory requirements are met. As students come from different referring schools and arrive at different points during the academic year, we focus on covering the KS4 RSE content (see appendix 1) which has 5 main components: families, respectful relationships including friendships, online and media, being safe and intimate and sexual relationships including sexual health.

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In addition to the timetabled RSHE lessons, some topics may be revisited in assemblies, awareness events and during other areas of the curriculum e.g. ICT, Biology, Child Development, Health and Social Care, RE and English. Teaching staff have had training and been given documentation to show the topics covered in RSE / RSHE. However, no assumptions are made that topics will be covered elsewhere as most students follow a bespoke part-time timetable, Similarly, students have attended a variety of mainstream and PRU provisions, so prior learning is diverse.

Resources used to deliver RSE are those which are provided by the DFE, NHS or those which are Quality Assured by the PSHE association. Resources are checked each year to ensure that they reflect current best practice. Teaching methods will include pair and group discussions, role play, watching short video clips, quizzes. Methods will vary according to topic and to the needs and preferences of the cohort. Writing is kept to a minimum and there is a focus on improving oracy skills.

Although there is a RSHE scheme of work which incorporates RSE, this is flexible in approach and sessions can be brought forward or expanded if a need arises, either within the Moat House community or in the wider community. Community data is gathered regularly and used to inform planning.

Safe and Effective Practice

This will be enabled by:

• Speaking to DSLs /pastoral staff before a lesson to ascertain if there are any particular concerns
• Ensuring the topics are displayed and communicated to the students before the lesson
• Having an anonymous envelope for students to ask questions
• Establishing and referring to ground rules surrounding expectations
• Ensuring students are signposted towards appropriate sources of support, within Moat House as well as locally and nationally.
• Using only teaching materials from reputable sources and checking these on a yearly basis
• Attending LA network meetings to ensure adherence to latest good practice
• Being a member of the North West RSHE hub run by the Alliance for learning
• Being a member of the PSHE Association
• Meeting with other provisions to share good practice
• Using distancing techniques to depersonalise situations under discussion
• Ensuring that lessons are not timetabled at the end of the day, to allow students to access pastoral support if necessary
• Ensuring any outside speakers are aware of Moat House safeguarding policies. Moat House staff will attend any sessions given by those outside of Moat House and will evaluate the effectiveness of the session
• Completing regular CPD

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Safeguarding

All staff at Moat House are given refresher safeguarding training each year and follow the latest KCSIE advice. It is possible that topics covered in RSE, can lead to a disclosure of a child protection issue. In this case, the teacher, in line with school policy, will consult with the designated safeguarding lead and in her absence the deputy DSL.

All outside speakers are agreed in advance with the Headteacher. On arrival visitors are required to provide proof of identity, read the Moat House safeguarding declaration and if working with students declare any potential conflict of interests with our families. A member of staff will attend the session.

Engaging Stakeholders

This policy is available for parents / carers to view on the Moat House website. Parents / carers of those in KS4 having RSHE weekly lessons, will be sent further information about the content and timings of the curriculum and will have the opportunity to view the materials being used upon request, to be made to the Headteacher. When applicable, materials are added to the Moat House website to enable parents / carers to have a better insight into some of the topics covered. Students are also encouraged to take materials from the lesson home if they wish to share with their parents / carers, and materials are also available to view on google classroom. Students are regularly invited to offer their views about the curriculum and are encouraged to complete a written evaluation part way through the school year. These views will help amend and improve future planning and delivery.

Monitoring, Reporting and Evaluation

RSHE is part of the Moat House curriculum and therefore forms part of the quality assurance processes such as lesson observations. RSHE will be discussed during governor meetings as it now forms a statutory part of the curriculum for students in KS4, including PRU settings. The curriculum will be evaluated each July by the RSHE lead teacher using information from parents, students and to ensure that any new amendments made by the Dfe or local authority are included. Each student will receive a written RSHE report alongside their examination curriculum reports.

Policy Review Date

This Policy was written in September 2021.

It is to be reviewed July 2023 by the RSHE teacher, Headteacher and the governing body.

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Appendix 1

Based on RSE Guidance by the Department of Education, By the end of Secondary Education, Students should know:

• that there are different types of committed, stable relationships.
• how these relationships might contribute to human happiness and their importance for bringing up children.
• what marriage is, including their legal status e.g. that marriage carries legal rights and protections not available to couples who are cohabiting or who have married, for example, in an unregistered religious ceremony.
• why marriage is an important relationship choice for many couples and why it must be freely entered into.
• the characteristics and legal status of other types of long-term relationships.
• the roles and responsibilities of parents with respect to raising of children, including the characteristics of successful parenting.
• how to: determine whether other children, adults or sources of information are trustworthy: judge when a family, friend, intimate or other relationship is unsafe (and to recognise this in others’ relationships); and, how to seek help or advice, including reporting concerns about others, if needed.
• the characteristics of positive and healthy friendships (in all contexts, including online) including: trust, respect, honesty, kindness, generosity, boundaries, privacy, consent and the
management of conflict, reconciliation and ending relationships.This includes different (non-sexual) types of relationship.
• practical steps they can take in a range of different contexts to improve or support respectful relationships.
• how stereotypes, in particular stereotypes based on sex, gender, race, religion, sexual orientation or disability, can cause damage (e.g. how they might normalise non-consensual behaviour or encourage prejudice).
• 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 people in positions of authority and due tolerance of other people’s beliefs.
• about different types of bullying (including cyberbullying), the impact of bullying, responsibilities of bystanders to report bullying and how and where to get help.
• that some types of behaviour within relationships are criminal, including violent behaviour and coercive control.
• what constitutes sexual harassment and sexual violence and why these are always unacceptable.
• the legal rights and responsibilities regarding equality (particularly with reference to the protected characteristics as defined in the Equality Act 2010) and that everyone is unique and equal.

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• their rights, responsibilities and opportunities online, including that the same expectations of behaviour apply in all contexts, including online.
• about online risks, including that any material someone provides to another has the potential to be shared online and the difficulty of removing potentially compromising material placed online.
• not to provide material to others that they would not want shared further and not to share personal material which is sent to them.
• what to do and where to get support to report material or manage issues online.
• the impact of viewing harmful content.
• that specifically sexually explicit material e.g. pornography presents a distorted picture of sexual behaviours, can damage the way people see themselves in relation to others and negatively affect how they behave towards sexual partners.
• that sharing and viewing indecent images of children (including those created by children) is a criminal offence which carries severe penalties including jail.
• how information and data is generated, collected, shared and used online.
• the concepts of, and laws relating to, sexual consent, sexual exploitation, abuse, grooming, coercion, harassment, rape, domestic abuse, forced marriage, honour- based violence and FGM, and how these can affect current and future relationships. • how people can actively communicate and recognise consent from others, including sexual consent, and how and when consent can be withdrawn (in all contexts, including online).
• how to recognise the characteristics and positive aspects of healthy one-to-one intimate relationships, which include mutual respect, consent, loyalty, trust, shared interests and outlook, sex and friendship.
• that all aspects of health can be affected by choices they make in sex and relationships, positively or negatively, e.g. physical, emotional, mental, sexual and reproductive health and wellbeing.
• the facts about reproductive health, including fertility and the potential impact of lifestyle on fertility for men and women.
• that there are a range of strategies for identifying and managing sexual pressure, including understanding peer pressure, resisting pressure and not pressuring others. • that they have a choice to delay sex or to enjoy intimacy without sex.
• the facts about the full range of contraceptive choices, efficacy and options available.
• the facts around pregnancy including miscarriage.
• that there are choices in relation to pregnancy (with medically and legally accurate, impartial information on all options, including keeping the baby, adoption, abortion and where to get further help).
• how the different sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including HIV/AIDs, are transmitted, how risk can be reduced through safer sex (including through condom use) and the importance of and facts about testing.
• about the prevalence of some STIs, the impact they can have on those who contract them and key facts about treatment.
• how the use of alcohol and drugs can lead to risky sexual behaviour.
• how to get further advice, including how and where to access confidential sexual and reproductive health.