RSHE
Relationships, Sex and Health Education (RSHE)
From September 2020, all primary-age children have been taught Relationships and Health Education as a statutory part of the curriculum. Relationships, Sex and Health Education (RSHE) is lifelong learning about physical, moral and emotional development. It is designed to equip children with the knowledge to make informed decisions about their wellbeing, health and relationships, and to prepare them for a successful adult life.
At St Peter Chanel, our mission is to inspire, challenge and empower every child — supporting their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development, rooted in the wisdom and teaching of the Catholic Church.
Our RSHE programme aims
Acknowledge, respect and value the moral teachings of the Catholic Church.
Provide information that is relevant and appropriate to the age and maturity of our pupils.
Develop resilience, helping children know how and when to ask for help, and where to access support.
Develop personal attributes including kindness, integrity, generosity and honesty.
Provide a positive understanding of what constitutes healthy relationships — with friends, family, other children and trusted adults.
Address online safety and appropriate behaviour relevant to our pupils' lives.
Ensure children know how to report concerns and seek advice when they suspect or know something is wrong.
Promote good health and understanding of physical development, respecting and reverencing the wonder of the body.
Life to the Full programme
At St Peter Chanel, we have chosen the programme Life to the Full by Ten Ten Resources to support the teaching of Relationships Education across our school.
Life to the Full is a comprehensive, fully-resourced programme that embraces and fulfils the statutory curriculum within a Catholic context. It is based on A Model Catholic RSE Curriculum created by the Catholic Education Service, and was highlighted as a work of good practice by the Department for Education.
The programme adopts a spiral curriculum approach, so that as our children move through the programme year-after-year, their learning develops and grows in age-appropriate stages, each one building on the last.
The entire teaching is underpinned with a religious understanding that our deepest identity is as a child of God — created, chosen and loved. The programme contains creative resources to engage, inform and inspire our children, including interactive video content, story-based activities, original worship music and an accompanying programme of classroom prayers.
Life to the Full follows a four-stage structure, repeated across four learning stages:
- Early Years Foundation Stage
- Key Stage 1 (Years 1 and 2)
- Lower Key Stage 2 (Years 3 and 4)
- Upper Key Stage 2 (Years 5 and 6)
The three modules
Within each learning stage, the programme is built around three modules drawn from the Model Catholic RSE Curriculum:
Created and Loved by God
- Religious Understanding
- Me, My Body, My Health
- Emotional Well-Being
- Life Cycles
Created to Love Others
- Religious Understanding
- Personal Relationships
- Keeping Safe
Created to Live in Community
- Religious Understanding
- Living in the Wider World
The role of parents and carers
You are your child's first educator
At St Peter Chanel we recognise the foundational role parents and carers play in educating and nurturing their children on relationship and health matters. Ten Ten Resources shares this conviction.
Within the programme there is an Online Parental Portal to keep parents informed about what is being taught in school, with opportunities to engage with your child through discussion, activity and prayer at home. We encourage every family to make use of it.
For full details, please refer to our Relationships Education Policy and Health Education Policy, available on our Policies page.
Parents' right of withdrawal
What you can and cannot withdraw your child from
Under statutory RSHE guidance (DfE, 2019; updated 2025), parents have the right to withdraw their child from sex education within the RSHE curriculum at primary school, except for those parts that fall within the statutory Science National Curriculum.
Parents do not have the right to withdraw their child from Relationships Education or Health Education — these are compulsory.
If you are considering withdrawing your child from any element of the programme, please contact our Headteacher Mr Davies via the school office in the first instance to discuss your concerns. We are committed to working with families and supporting your decision.
Documents and downloads
The documents below provide further detail about the RSHE curriculum, the Life to the Full programme, and the vocabulary used at each key stage.