Personal, Social, Health, Relationships and Sex Education
An introduction to RSE and PSHE at Carlton Road
RSE (relationships and sex Education) and PSHE (personal, social and health education) are fundamental subjects in our curriculum. At Carlton Road Academy we have implemented a whole-school, creative programme to enhance our children’s learning in PSHE (Personal, Social and Health Education) lessons. The programme – Jigsaw: A mindful approach to PSHE – has been written by teachers and a psychotherapist and substantiated in reliable psychology, offers a comprehensive, nurturing scheme in developing our children into compassionate and well-rounded human beings as well as building their capacity to learn.
This engaging, inclusive programme has six key areas which children will progress through building on key skill, knowledge and understanding. These six areas are:
Relationships and Health Education
The Changing Me Puzzle includes lessons to help children understand their bodies, the changes puberty brings and how human reproduction happens. There is a very serious safeguarding aspect to this work and obviously the younger year groups are not looking at these issues directly and explicitly but rather learning correct terminology for body parts and doing the foundation work for later year groups. Upper Key Stage 2 lessons look more fully at puberty and human reproduction.
We hope you will agree with us that this work is vitally important for children, that it needs to be done age-appropriately and that the Jigsaw Programme gives us a secure framework in which to do this.
Parents’ Views and Consultation
The government Department for Education (DfE) has made Relationships Education and Health Education statutory for all primary schools – guidance can be viewed here: Relationships Education, Relationships and Sex Education and Health Education guidance
Parents do have the legal right to withdraw their children from some aspects of this work, that which is related to Sex Education in Key Stage 2, in consultation with the school. Please note that children can not be removed from the core teaching of Health and Relationships Education or science lessons.
"Parents do not have the right to withdraw their pupils from relationships and health education, nor can they be withdrawn from topics taught as part of the science curriculum, including science topics related to puberty or sexual reproduction." DfE 2025
Our statutory RSE policy can be found on our policies page. Whilst we hold a formal consultation on our RSE policy every year, due to the higher than average pupil mobility at Carlton Road, consultation on RSE is an ongoing process. Parents have the opportunity to review their child's participation in the selected curriculum content at any time. The links below explain all of our curriculum content, Much - though not all the sex-education content can be found in the units in "Changing Me" and "Relationships" and can be seen in the link Jigsaw Content below.
We value this opportunity to share the curriculum we intend to teach the children, why we feel this is so important, and the aspects parents have the right to withdraw their children from – all of which can be seen from the links below.
If, after viewing the materials, you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the school addressing any queries to Mrs Lorraine Reed – Deputy Head teacher. Parental contributions consultation and the school’s practice are always valued and may contribute to our learning in school.
We hope you, like us, will see the materials in Jigsaw as educationally sound and beneficial to our children, helping to safeguard them, and look forward to any feedback you would like to share with us.
