2025 – Parental Consultation
At Gayton we believe in teaching children about healthy relationships with friends and family, developing a good understanding of what healthy future relationships can look like. We work hard to ensure all our children are taught how to be healthy and safe in their lives and choices they make, with a focus on mental health and wellbeing.
From 2021, it became compulsory for all schools to teach from the DfE’s Relationships and Health Education framework for all primary children.
We are consulting with parents from 12th February – 14th March 2025 on our new policy and curriculum. Please see the links below for more information.
Link to Consultation Questionnaire for Parents/Carers
Lesson resources will be available for parents to view in the hall during our Parents’ Evenings on Monday 3rd and Wednesday 5th March.
Outcomes from the 2025 Consultation
Click on the policy below to read the final copy. Additions made following the consultation are highlighted in yellow, for reference.
We received three formal responses to our consultation which can be found below, with information from the scheme and policy to help. Where any amendments were made to the policy, this is highlighted in italics in our responses below.
What year group is your child in?
1 x Year 3; 1 x Year 4; 1 x Year 6
Are there any changes or additions that you think should be made to the RSE policy?
- It looks a full and well thought through policy
- No
- Further clarity regarding the specifics of what is being taught with regards to sex education and mental health. Further clarity regarding how the school manages and encourage respectful disagreement between contradictory worldviews on social and moral topics.
Additional information with regards to what is taught in each year group around changes to the body—not sex education (as explained in the policy: we do not teach this) – can be found on the pages detailing the Programme of Study (above) for each year group. The objectives explicitly taught in the ’Exploring Emotions’ unit of work in Years 4 and 5 can also be found here. We will add references to this information, and how each topic is approached in an age appropriate way (as are all topics within RSE) to the policy, before it goes to governors for ratification after Easter.
Are there any changes or additions that you think should be made to the Planned Curriculum for each year group as outlined in the Programmes of Study? Please be aware that the content must be covered in full by the end of junior school and is compulsory.
- I think that learning about healthy relationships is very helpful at this age and about how their bodies will begin to change (both boys and girls)
- No
- Further thought about how children at different levels or stages of exposure to sexual development, mental health and social media can be both educated about the risks but also not exposed earlier than is really necessary.
We do take on board all responses here. However, as there were only three responses in total, and all were completely different, we will refer back to our previous consultation here, which resulted in us moving our talk to girls about menstruation to the end of Year 4.
We use Growing Up With Yasmine and Tom to deliver this to the children. You can view an example of this resource (Example 3, Periods, menstruation) here. Please contact Mrs Hill at school if you have any further queries.
All other aspects mentioned here are, as mentioned above, dealt with in an age-appropriate way and, most often, discussions are child-led (when we know children are using certain online platforms, etc.). For example, we don’t talk to Year 3 children about social media safety, but we do talk to them about staying safe online.
One question that was raised at the end of the consultation and also through discussions at Parents’ Evening, with response below:
Within a diverse community, when discussing social and moral topics, how do you manage and encourage respectful disagreement between contradictory worldviews on social and moral topics?
Staff at Ridgeway and Gayton shared an INSET with some training on this in January which proved very helpful to staff when teaching lessons on topics such as families with same sex parents: our stance on which is to remind pupils that this is legal in Britain whilst also being mindful to explain that this does not always align with everybody’s religious beliefs and we must listen respectfully during discussions.
2021 – Parental Consultation
At Gayton we believe in teaching children about healthy relationships with friends and family, developing a good understanding of what healthy future relationships can look like. We work hard to ensure all our children are taught how to be healthy and safe in their lives and choices they make, with a focus on mental health and wellbeing.
As you may be aware, the DfE (Department for Education) is introducing compulsory Relationships and Health Education for all primary children from the summer term.
We have consulted with Parents/Carers to get their views on certain aspects of this new addition to the curriculum. Links to feedback following the consultation can be found below.
2021 Consultation Follow-Up Information
2022 – Parental Consultation
Following a consultation with teaching staff, we are proposing the following changes to our Relationships Scheme:
Period Talk (Girls only) from Year 5 to Summer Term Year 4 – this is reflective of emerging needs of some children in school.
Addition of lessons around Body Care (hygiene) into the Summer Term Year 4 curriculum – again reflective of emerging needs of some children in school.
Addition of Keeping Safe lessons into Year 4 Summer Term and repeated in Year 6.
Moving of the Puberty and Changes lessons from Year 6 to Year 5 (Summer Term).
Growing Up with Yasmine and Tom, an online scheme of work recommended by the PSHE Association, is used to deliver relationships education objectives.
No other changes to our policy have been made: learning will still take place in single sex groups following consultation with Year 6 pupils in 2021, where children felt more comfortable receiving information and asking questions in this format. As part of our safeguarding arrangements, two members of staff of the same gender will also be present when delivering learning.
