The Relationships Education, RSE, and Health Education (England) Regulations 2019 have made Relationships Education compulsory in all primary schools.
All primary school children will be required to learn about relationships and health. Relationships and Health Education comprises two distinct areas:
- Relationships
- Physical health and mental wellbeing
Schools will have a lot of freedom to decide how to teach the new curriculum but must teach in a way that is:
- Appropriate for children’s ages and development stage.
- Sensitive to the needs and religious backgrounds of the children in the school.
The new Relationships and Health Education 2020 curriculum is designed to:
- Help all children grow up healthy, happy and safe.
- Give all children the knowledge to make informed decisions about their wellbeing, health and relationships.
- Support all children to manage the challenges and opportunities of modern Britain.
- Prepare all children for a successful adult lives.
The Relationships part of the new curriculum will teach the children what they need to learn to build positive and safe relationships:
- With family.
- With friends.
- Online.
Schools should teach in a way that is appropriate to children’s ages and will look at the following questions:
- What is a relationship?
- What is friendship?
- What is family?
- Who can children look to for support?
By the time a child finishes primary school, they will have been taught about the following in Relationships Education:
- Family and people who care for them.
- Caring friendships.
- Respectful relationships.
- Online relationships.
- Being safe.
The physical health and mental wellbeing part of the new RSE curriculum will teach the children how to:
- Make good decisions about their own health and wellbeing.
- Recognise issues in themselves.
- Recognise issue in others.
- Seek support as early as possible when issues arise.
By the time children finish primary school, they will have been taught bout the following:
- Mental wellbeing.
- Internet safety and harms.
- Physical health and fitness.
- Healthy eating.
- Facts about drugs, alcohol and drugs and the risks
associated with them. - Health and prevention of illness.
- Basic first aid.
- Changes to the adolescent body.
