Monday 8th June 2026
Dear Parents and Carers
Review of Relationship, Sex and Health Education (RSHE) Curriculum
Consultation
Since 2020 all primary schools in England have been required to teach Relationship, Sex and Health Education (RHSE).
As you may be aware, updated guidance from the DfE has changed this year and, statutory from September, schools are required to ensure they offer a curriculum that includes:
- Respect for everyone within the community
- An awareness of the law – boundaries, privacy and rights
- How to keep safe
- Informed about the challenges faced when growing up
- Fundamental characteristics of positive relationships, including online relationships
Classroom teachers will deliver the programme. We encourage pupils to ask questions and we respond to their issues, concerns and queries in a straightforward manner, using age-appropriate language and factually correct information.
Therefore, as a school, we have revised the materials used to deliver our RSHE curriculum. We have decided to use the materials from the government endorsed ‘Oak National Academy’ as these directly align with the DfE expectations and provide clear learning intentions under the headings of:
- Wellbeing
- Relationships
- Online safety
- Growing up
The developing bodies learning intentions are not taught before year four:
Year 4:
- Know the changes that people go through during puberty.
- Know what menstruation is and how to manage it.
- Know how to stay clean during puberty.
- Know that some parts of the body are private (breasts, pubic hair, anus, penis, testicle, vagina) and no-one should ask to be touch or be touched in these areas (NSPCC Pantosaurus).
Years 5 and 6:
- I can describe the physical changes that happen during puberty.
- I can describe the specific changes that happen to males and females during puberty.
- I can describe the emotional changes that take place during puberty and explain where to get support.
All resources are available online for parents/carers to review: www.thenationalacaemy/teachers/programmes
In order to ensure that parents/carers have time to review the resources to be used, our policy and our curriculum map, we have allowed the month of June for consultation. At Longnor, we always have an open-door policy in school and would like to warmly invite you to explore any questions about RHSE with staff before we begin our teaching of the new curriculum in July.
Parents/carers have the right to withdraw their child from all or part of the sex education curriculum delivered within primary school, other than as part of the science curriculum. The national curriculum for science is statutory and includes subject content in related areas, such as the main external body parts, the human body as it grows from birth to old age (including puberty) and reproduction in plants and animals.
If you have any concerns about the RHSE curriculum for your child, we are available to discuss these and the implications of withdrawal with you.
Yours faithfully,
Mrs L. Edgerton
Policy – Relationships, Sex and Health Education
Overview of knowledge covered through school
RHSE letter to parents 2026