Relationships and Health Education

Relationships and Health Education

At St. Stephen’s our priority is that all children feel included, respected, celebrated and empowered to become their happiest selves. Learning how to form and maintain healthy relationships is a key part of this and integral for our children’s wellbeing. Relationships and Health Education is a new topic however it links with many of the subjects that PSHE (Personal, Social, Health and Economic) has traditionally covered. From September 2020, Relationships and Health Education is a formal lesson in our weekly timetable where each child’s class has a delegated (but not exclusive) time to explore and discuss topics around: friendship, family, the importance of their physical and emotional wellbeing, mental health, working together and British Values in a safe, respectful environment. 

We believe that Relationships and Health Education links with every other subject on our time table from working well in a team to solve a math’s puzzle, making sure all our friends are included in a game at playtime or simply children understanding their new and changing emotions as they get ready to become an active, courteous, Christian member of society. Supported by the class teacher and the teaching assistant, children will explore the units:

• Me and My Relationships
• Valuing Difference
• Keeping Myself Safe 
• Rights and Responsibilities
• Being My Best 
• Growing and Changing 

Each year, the children will further develop their understanding of each topic through a spiral curriculum structure.

All teachers follow lessons planned by Coram Life Education  https://www.coramlifeeducation.org.uk/

who also deliver a session to each class in the Spring term.  Teachers use formal assessment at the beginning and end of each unit as well as informal assessment throughout the units to help inform their teaching sequence and address any misconceptions or stimulate necessary conversations/additional lessons. 

In their day to day learning, children are supported in applying their learning from Relationships and Health Education (RHE) with a ‘working wall’ in their classroom which exhibits their ‘Long Term Learning’ questions, as well as thoughts and queries on the topic. Each class also has an RHE book which they can reflect on throughout the day. We believe that as this subject tackles many universal topics, the children should use their RHE learning throughout the day, every day, not just in the designated lesson slot.