Personal Development

At St Bede’s RC High School, we aim to provide the skills and knowledge to enable each student to become healthy, independent, curious, and responsible members of society.

Our PSHE curriculum allows students to understand how they are developing throughout their secondary school years personally and socially and tackle many moral, social, and cultural issues that are part of their adolescent lives. Not only can we prepare them for issues that they will face in their adolescent lives, but our aim is to prepare them for life after school.

At St Bede’s we understand the importance and fortune of living in a multi-cultural society, therefore we provide our students with the opportunities to learn about different cultures to help them become a member of such a diverse society. By promoting opportunities to learn about rights and responsibilities both within school and outside of school, students begin to develop the ability to self-reflect and develop their own skills and are encouraged to develop their sense of self-worth by playing a positive role in contributing to school life and within the wider community.

Lesson format

From September 2022, PSHE will be taught to Key Stage Three and Key Stage Four students. This will be delivered in Prep time, with the use of 2 sessions a week. We felt it gave the subject a greater sense of importance rather than it just being taught during drop down days. By teaching PSHE/RSE in Prep time we felt, this will allow for more constant approach as the students and teachers can build relationships and feel comfortable discussing a variety of topics.

Statutory PSHE topics fall into the following three categories:

• Health and Wellbeing
• Relationships
• Living in the Wider World

More information about what topics are in these categories can be found on the PSHE curriculum as well as on the government website – https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/relationships-education-rse-and-pshe.

In addition to these three categories, we also include more bespoke sessions that focus on the needs of our students. This is done in conjunction with safeguarding, discussions with heads of years and any local behaviours. The Department of Education released new statutory content which should have been implemented since September 2020. This new statutory content addresses key areas of life which are becoming more apparent today and therefore we must ensure they are delivered. They are as follows:

• More inclusion of the changing nature of sexuality, including LGBTQ+ and transgender and how they experience sex, their treatment within society and the correct terminology to use.
• The difference between biological sex, gender identity and sexual orientation.
• Mental Health – mental health issues and misconceptions around this will be addressed throughout many sessions throughout the PSHE curriculum.
• Peer pressure – how peer pressure can lead to dangerous behaviours including carrying weapons.
• Strategies for building resilience – this is important throughout school as it is one of our school values and therefore is referred to a lot.
• The use of antibiotics – it is important for students to understand about illegal and legal drugs, but especially the responsible use of legal over the counter medication which includes antibiotics.
• Marriage – its legal status, how to enter a marriage, forced marriage and ending of marriage as well as loss and support.
• Menstrual wellbeing – discussion of period poverty and making menstruation no longer a taboo subject.
• Consent – although the students do cover consent in their KS3 PSHE sessions, it needs to be revisited in KS4 to ensure clarity and to further the discussions to how consent is still important in maturing relationships and the conversations around that and how sexual abuse can happen in a marriage or long-term relationship.
• Childhood Experiences – making explicit references to Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and the impact that this can have on the lives of children and their future. Also, why some people may choose to foster or adopt a child, or why some people may feel it is necessary to give their children up for adoption.
• Online and media – making students aware of how to use the internet and social media safely.
• Being safe – students being staff outside of school with relationships, the environment and within family life.
• Physical Health and Fitness – Understanding the importance of a healthy and active lifestyle.
• Healthy Eating – Knowing a variety of food groups and understanding the nutria value.
• Drugs, Alcohol and Tobacco – Knowing the effects and impacts of taking drugs.
• Basic First Aid – Students given knowledge for how to deal with basic first aid incidence.
• Sexual Harassment Review – in July 2021, the Department of Educated released a review on ‘sexual violence and sexual harassment between children in schools and colleges’, which can be found here – https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/sexual-violence-and-sexual-harassment-between-children-in-schools-and-colleges. This document’s findings highlight the need for us as professionals to ensure that we are aware of what constitutes sexual harassment amongst children to allow us to address that with the students so they do not ‘get away with’ these behaviours. Content around sexual harassment will be put in any appropriate sessions in each year group throughout the PSHE curriculum.

RSE: Relationship and Sex Education

From September 2020 PD and RSE (Relationship and Sex Education) has been made mandatory in all schools by the Government. In order to provide our students with an RSE program guided by our Faith we have joined with Ten:Ten Resources. Ten Ten’s RSE program, Life to the Full, will teach Relationship, Sex and Health Education within the context of a Christian understanding of human sexuality rooted in the wisdom and teaching of the Catholic Church. It has been fully endorsed by both The Catholic Church and Ofsted and ratified by the Government to deliver a balanced and suitable RSE offer to High School children.

catholic education/schools/relationship-sex-education

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Aims and Objectives of the RSE Programme

Our Mission Statement commits us to the education of the whole child (spiritual, physical, intellectual, moral, social, cultural, emotional) and we believe that RSE is an integral part of this education.  Furthermore, our school aims state that we will endeavour to raise pupils’ self-esteem, help them to grow in knowledge and understanding, recognise the value of all persons and develop caring and sensitive attitudes. It is in this context that we commit ourselves, in partnership with parents, to provide children and young people with a “positive and prudent sexual education” which is compatible with their physical, cognitive, psychological, and spiritual maturity, and rooted in a Catholic vision of education and the human person.

Objectives

To develop the following attitudes and virtues:

• Reverence for the gift of human sexuality and fertility.
• Respect for the dignity of every human being – in their own person and in the person of others.
• Joy in the goodness of the created world and their own bodily natures.
• Responsibility for their own actions and a recognition of the impact of these on others.
• Recognising and valuing their own sexual identity and that of others.
• Celebrating the gift of life-long, self-giving love.
• Recognising the importance of marriage and family life.
• Fidelity in relationships.

To develop the following personal and social skills:

• Making sound judgements and good choices which have integrity, and which are respectful of the individual’s commitments.
• Loving and being loved, and the ability to form friendships and loving, stable relationships free from exploitation, abuse, and bullying.
• Managing emotions within relationships, and when relationships break down, with confidence, sensitivity, and dignity.
• Managing conflict positively, recognising the value of difference.
• Cultivating humility, mercy, and compassion, learning to forgive, and be forgiven.
• Developing self-esteem and confidence, demonstrating self-respect and empathy for others; building resilience and the ability to resist unwanted pressures, recognising the influence and impact of the media, internet and peer groups and so developing the ability to assess pressures and respond appropriately.
• Being patient, delaying gratification and learning to recognise the appropriate stages in the development of relationships, and how to love chastely.
• Assessing risks and managing behaviours to minimise the risk to health and personal integrity.

To know and understand:

• The Church’s teaching on relationships and the nature and meaning of sexual love.
• The Church’s teaching on marriage and the importance of marriage and family life.
• The centrality and importance of virtue in guiding human living and loving.
• The physical and psychological changes that accompany puberty.
• The facts about human reproduction, how love is expressed sexually and how sexual love plays an essential and sacred role in procreation.
• How to manage fertility in a way which is compatible with their stage of life, their own values, and commitments, including an understanding of the difference between natural family planning and artificial contraception.

How to keep themselves safe from sexually transmitted infections and how to avoid unintended pregnancy, including where to go for advice.