“I have come that you may have life to the full.”

John 10:10

‘The whole purpose of Catholic education at home and in the primary school is to connect every aspect of growth: physical, social, emotional, intellectual and spiritual, with love. The ultimate goal is to enable children to grow into adults who fully understand their own self-worth and love themselves (i.e. accept themselves positively) and, in turn, be able to love their neighbour (i.e. make themselves fully available to others).  Parents and teachers are privileged to assist children every moment of their lives to further this link of love with their humanity and thus with God.’ 

Baroness Sheila Hollins

From September 2020, guidance from the Department for Education for Relationships Education, Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) and Health Education becomes mandatory for all Schools, including Catholic Schools. This initiative has been welcomed by the Catholic Education Service (CES), who state clearly that, Catholic schools are also required to deliver RSE in accordance with the teaching of the Church.

As a Catholic school, our mission is to support the spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of all of our pupils, rooted in the wisdom and teaching of the Church. The education of children in human sexuality is an important, precious and privileged responsibility.  The Church teaches us that this is very much a partnership with parents, in which parents are the ‘first educators’ of their children on these matters; ultimately, you confer on us the right to co-educate your children with you.

At St Joseph's Catholic Primary, we use Life to the Full by Ten Ten to support our teaching of this important subject. Ten Ten is an award-winning Catholic educational organisation that is well-respected and very experienced in this field of work.

The Life to the Full programme is based on the structure of ‘A Model Catholic RSE Curriculum’ by the Catholic Education Service. This model curriculum was highlighted as a work of good practice by the Department of Education so we therefore have confidence that the programme will be fit for purpose in supporting the growth and development of your child.

Life to the Full is much more than a series of lessons. It is an entire platform of creative resources that will engage, inform and inspire our children and, indeed, you as parents. This includes interactive video content, story-based activities, employing a wide range of teaching tools, original worship music and an accompanying programme of classroom prayers.

Life to the Full is intended to be a partnership between home, school and church. We know that you already do a fantastic job and we see our new programme, Life to the Full, as a means to further develop, support and enrich the partnership between home, school and church so that your child is fully supported.

Through their programme, Ten Ten understand the foundational role that parents have in educating and nurturing their children on these matters. Within the programme, they have built in resources which will not only keep you informed about what is being taught in school, but will also give you the opportunity to engage your children in discussion, activity and prayer. 

SMILE

Through the Smile Curriculum pupils develop as global citizens with a wide understanding of healthy relationships, physical and mental health, well-being and British values.  We give consideration to Catholic Social Teaching (CST) across our SMILE curriculum and embed a Catholic programme of RHSE.  We aim that SMILE reflects a holistic approach to developing the whole person. 

• At St Joseph’s we wanted to develop a PSHE curriculum that incorporated not just PSHE but also Global learning, we want our pupils to be forward thinking and well informed about global issues.

• As a small-school with a predominately white-British intake (78%) we additionally wanted the children to enquire- is everywhere like this?

• To support the balance of learning about global issues we have taken the GDGs (UN Global Develop Goals) and mapped these across our SMILE year.

• We wanted to make sure there was designated time allotted in our curriculum to teach the children about British values.

• We consider Catholic Social Teaching throughout our SMILE curriculum and are using the CAFOD resources, including the characters which again are mapped across our SMILE curriculum 

• We incorporate Catholic RHSE throughout the SMILE curriculum and include specifically a Diocesan recommended programme of study called ‘Life to the Full’

• E-Safety lessons delivered as part of the Computing curriculum are consolidated through SMILE 

• The PSHE content is taken from the PSHE Association 2020 and incorporates: Living in the Wider-world, Health and Well-being and Relationships.

• We also value financial education and have included a series of lessons using the ‘Financial Education Planning Framework’

The SMILE curriculum is taught weekly for 1 hour, every child has a SMILE exercise book where learning is recorded. Children are also encouraged to show their learning and understanding through class discussion and team talk opportunities/ shared activities. Our SEND students have the support of class adults to ensure they access SMILE learning at an appropriate level.