1.  Vision and Guiding Principles

At Carshalton Boys Sports College, Personal Development and Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) are central to the school's mission, preparing young men for healthy relationships, emotional resilience and modern life. Our RSE provision is built on five guiding principles:

• Knowledge that liberates.  Providing students with real, accurate knowledge about health and relationships to empower informed choices and resist exploitation.
• Character that endures.  Developing essential inner qualities — empathy, integrity, grit and civic responsibility — through every aspect of the programme.
• Equity at the core.  Designing the entire programme with the most vulnerable students in mind, so that disadvantage does not dictate outcomes.
• Community and belonging.  Acknowledging the specific context of the South London community while expanding students' horizons beyond it.
• Preparation for life beyond school.  Supporting students from Year 7 onward to navigate long-term relationships and their futures with confidence and integrity.

2.  Statutory and Legal Framework

This policy is fully compliant with all relevant national frameworks and meets the school's statutory duties under the following legislation and guidance. The table below provides a direct mapping between each statutory requirement and the section of this policy that fulfils it.

Statutory Requirement	How This Policy Complies
DfE RSHE Guidance (2020)	The curriculum fully meets all statutory requirements for Relationships Education, Sex Education and Health Education at Key Stage 3 and 4. All statutory content areas are mapped to year-group delivery in Section 3.
Children and Social Work Act 2017	RSE is delivered as a statutory entitlement to all registered pupils. The programme satisfies all legislative requirements mandated for secondary schools.
Equality Act 2010	Protected characteristics, discrimination awareness and the Public Sector Equality Duty are explicitly embedded throughout Key Stages 3 and 4. Content is inclusive of all backgrounds, family types and identities.
Keeping Children Safe in Education (2024)	The policy links directly to safeguarding duties by addressing online safety, county lines, domestic violence, sexual violence and abuse, and upskirting. The Designated Safeguarding Lead is involved in curriculum review.
Online Safety Act 2023	Digital literacy, data rights, online harms and critical media literacy are addressed explicitly in each year group. Age-appropriate content on harmful online behaviours is included.
Prevent Duty (Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015)	Radicalisation awareness and critical media literacy form part of the Living in the Wider World strand. Staff receive Prevent training as part of their RSE CPD.
Right of Withdrawal (sex education only)	Parents and carers have the right to request withdrawal from sex education lessons (but not Relationships Education or Health Education, which are statutory and cannot be withdrawn from). The procedure is set out in Section 5.

 

3.  Curriculum Architecture and Spiral Sequencing

The RSE curriculum uses a spiral design mapped to the three PSHE Association Programme of Study core themes — Health & Wellbeing, Relationships and Living in the Wider World. Topics are systematically revisited across five years in an age-appropriate, progressive manner, ensuring no student encounters content before they have the foundation knowledge to engage with it meaningfully.

Key Stage 3 Foundations

• Year 7  focuses on foundational relationship literacy: relationship boundaries, different family types, friendship skills, managing peer pressure, bullying and discrimination. Online safety, digital footprints and media literacy are introduced. Puberty and physical and emotional development are addressed in Health Education.
• Year 8  deepens relationship knowledge by introducing the relationship spectrum, early warning signs of unhealthy relationships, power dynamics and coercive control. Content covers physical and emotional changes, menstrual health, digital consent and grooming tactics — including how to report via CEOP.
• Year 9  applies knowledge to situations requiring moral maturity. Lessons explicitly cover enthusiastic consent, personal boundaries, readiness for intimacy, harmful stereotypes and the impacts and media distortions of pornography. This year bridges KS3 foundations into the more explicit content of KS4.

Key Stage 4 Deepening

• Year 10  explores healthy sexual relationships, personal boundaries and communication, building on the KS3 consent framework. A dedicated programme covers safe, responsible and informed sex, contraception, STIs and how to access local sexual health services.
• Year 11  content is concentrated from September until Easter to avoid disruption to examinations. It addresses fertility, conception, pregnancy options and associated emotions, the effects of substances on sexual decision-making, and explicit content on preventing a culture of abuse, sexual violence and sexual coercion.

Statutory Content Coverage Map

The table below confirms coverage of all DfE statutory content areas across the five-year programme.

DfE Statutory Content Area	Year Groups
Families and people who care for me	Y7, Y8
Caring friendships	Y7, Y8
Respectful relationships	Y7, Y8, Y9
Online relationships and safety	Y7, Y8, Y9, Y10
Being safe; consent	Y8, Y9, Y10, Y11
Intimate and sexual relationships, including sexual health	Y9, Y10, Y11
Physical health and wellbeing (including puberty)	Y7, Y8
Mental wellbeing	Y7, Y8, Y9, Y10
Internet safety and digital harms	Y7, Y8, Y9, Y10
Drugs, alcohol and tobacco	Y9, Y10
Contraception and STIs	Y10, Y11
Pregnancy and parenthood	Y11

 

4.  Delivery, Resourcing and Specialist Provision

Standard Delivery

RSE content is integrated into fortnightly Personal Development lessons (50–60 minutes) delivered by form tutors. This is reinforced by weekly 25-minute tutor-time sessions. All tutors delivering RSE receive structured lesson materials, knowledge support and the CPD described in Section 8.

Specialist Delivery

To address sensitive statutory content at the point of greatest developmental need, the school uses extended specialist-led provision. In Year 10, there is a dedicated RSE Drop-Down Day, delivered by the Science Department to provide focused instruction on relationships, consent, sexual health, online safety and fertility. Post-session evaluation by pupils informs future delivery.

Safe Learning Environment

Ground rules, strict confidentiality protocols and clear safe-disclosure procedures are established at the start of each academic year. Students are reminded of these at the beginning of any sensitive topic. Staff follow the school's safeguarding policy when any disclosure is made: confidentiality is never promised to students in a way that conflicts with the duty to protect.

Resources

Lesson resources are drawn from the PSHE Association resource bank, the Sex Education Forum and the school's own materials, reviewed annually for accuracy, age-appropriateness and statutory compliance. Resources involving external speakers are subject to the school's Visiting Speakers Policy.

 

5.  Inclusion, Accessibility and the Right of Withdrawal

Supporting Pupils with SEND

Lessons include adaptations that remove sole reliance on extended writing. Assessment tasks use accessible formats — card sorts, visual representations, scenario discussions — with TA support or adjusted expectations where required under EHCPs. Ground rules explicitly normalise neurodiversity and physical differences.

Supporting EAL Students

Core PSHE and RSE terminology is supported by glossaries and key vocabulary is explicitly introduced at the start of each unit. Structured discussion tools — pair talk, sentence stems and visual prompts — support communication, and topics are delivered with cultural sensitivity and awareness of diverse family and community backgrounds.

Supporting High Prior Attainers

Discussion tasks and scenario analyses offer open-ended challenges, prompting high-attaining students to engage with moral complexity, competing ethical perspectives and nuanced real-world scenarios.

Right of Withdrawal from Sex Education

In line with the DfE RSHE Guidance (2020), parents and carers have the right to request withdrawal from sex education lessons only (i.e. those lessons that go beyond the statutory National Curriculum for Science). This right does not extend to Relationships Education or Health Education, which are statutory and cannot be withdrawn from.

Parents or carers wishing to exercise this right should write to the Headteacher, setting out their reasons. The school will arrange a meeting with the parent/carer before any withdrawal is granted. Where a request is agreed, the school will provide suitable alternative activities for the pupil concerned. Pupils themselves — once they reach the age of 16 — may make their own decision about whether to attend sex education lessons, irrespective of a parental withdrawal request.

 

6.  Consultation, Transparency and Pupil Voice

Parent and Carer Consultation

The school has consulted parents and carers in developing this policy, in line with the statutory duty set out in the DfE RSHE Guidance (2020). A summary of curriculum content is available to parents and carers on the school website and in hard copy on request. Parents may view any RSE teaching materials used in lessons by contacting the school office. The policy is reviewed annually, and parents and carers are invited to contribute to that review through the school's consultation process.

Contextual Risk Factors

The curriculum is directly shaped by the local contextual risk factors facing young men in Carshalton and South London:

• Masculinity and male identity.  The programme addresses pressures placed on young men regarding risk-taking, emotional expression, physical appearance and sexual behaviour, working to support a healthy, confident and respectful sense of masculinity.
• Digital risk.  High levels of urban social media use are countered with targeted lessons on algorithmic manipulation, digital consent, online safety and pornography awareness.
• Safety risks.  Relationship education is designed to reduce the likelihood of students becoming involved in abusive relationships, gang activity or exploitation networks such as county lines.

Pupil Voice

The curriculum remains responsive through an annual cycle of pupil consultation. Student perspectives are collected via year-group surveys, student focus groups, the school council, post-session evaluation forms for the RSE Drop-Down Day, and Year 11 leavers' feedback. Anonymous question boxes are used during sensitive sessions to allow students to ask questions they might otherwise be unable to raise openly. Past pupil voice has directly led to content updates. Students are told how their feedback has shaped the programme.

 

7.  Assessment Framework

Core principle:  Assessment in RSE is formative, ongoing and recorded qualitatively. In line with best practice, no numerical grades are awarded for RSE or Personal Development content. Assessment exists to check understanding, address misconceptions and support growth — not to generate academic pressure.

Assessment Structure

• Baseline assessment.  Brief activities — card sorts, knowledge checks or Likert scales — at the start of units gauge prior knowledge and attitudes.
• Formative tutor-time assessments.  Designated low-stakes sessions use knowledge checks and reflection activities to identify misconceptions without generating academic anxiety.
• Distancing techniques.  All assessment tasks use third-person examples, scenarios and case studies, allowing students to demonstrate evaluative understanding without requiring personal disclosures.
• Self and peer assessment.  Reflection journals and structured check-ins build metacognition and track personal growth against learning goals.
• Summative review.  Students complete an end-of-year portfolio or comprehensive reflection task. Year 11 students complete an end-of-provision summative assessment before the Easter break.

 

8.  Staff Development and Training

All tutors and teaching staff delivering RSE receive appropriate Continuing Professional Development (CPD) before teaching the programme and on an annual basis thereafter. CPD provision includes:

• Training from the PSHE Association, including engagement with Chartered Teacher resources.
• Whole-school INSET on safe handling of sensitive topics, disclosure procedures and maintaining a safe learning environment.
• Prevent Duty training for all staff delivering the Living in the Wider World strand.
• Annual briefing on updates to statutory guidance, local safeguarding procedures and any curriculum changes.

The school actively coordinates training opportunities to ensure instructional standards remain high, safe and legally compliant. No tutor is expected to deliver RSE content without adequate preparation and support materials.

 

9.  Complaints Procedure

Any parent, carer or student who has a concern about the content, delivery or handling of RSE provision should follow the school's standard complaints procedure, available on the school website and from the school office.

In the first instance, concerns should be raised informally with the Head of Personal Development or the relevant form tutor. If the concern is not resolved informally, a formal complaint may be submitted in writing to the Headteacher. The school will respond within the timescales set out in the Complaints Policy. If a complainant remains unsatisfied after the school's procedure has been exhausted, the matter may be referred to the Regional Director (Department for Education).

 

10.  Policy Review, Monitoring and Named Responsibility

This policy is reviewed annually, normally in the summer term, and updated to reflect any changes to statutory guidance, safeguarding requirements or pupil needs identified through the consultation cycle.

Role	Responsibility
Head of Personal Development	Day-to-day oversight of RSE curriculum delivery, staff support, resource review and pupil voice.
Designated Safeguarding Lead	Ensuring RSE content aligns with safeguarding priorities; advising on safe handling of sensitive topics and disclosures.
Headteacher	Approving the policy annually; overseeing parent consultation and withdrawal requests; receiving formal complaints.
Named Governor (PSHE/RSE)	Governor-level oversight and scrutiny of the RSE programme; ensuring the governing body fulfils its statutory duty to have regard to the DfE RSHE Guidance.
All teaching staff	Delivering RSE in line with this policy; attending CPD; following safe disclosure procedures.

Policy approved by:  Headteacher

Date of approval:  September 2026

Next review date:  July 2027

Governor responsible: S O’Neill