Life Skills
Every student at Goldington Academy studies life skills for one session per week, taught within their form group by their form tutor. Life Skills incorporates Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE), Relationships Education, Relationships and Sex Education (RSE), Health Education (HE), Citizenship, and aspects of our Careers programme through Careers Education, Information and Guidance (CEIAG). We follow the PSHE Association’s thematic approach to cover content in an age-appropriate way.
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Life Skills sessions are designed – by one leader for key stage three and another for key stage four – to encourage positive peer-peer and teacher-student relationships to flourish. Form tutors know their students best, and so honest and open discussions can take place, reflecting the nature of this broad-sweeping subject.
At the core of Life Skills provision is safeguarding. Students are regularly reminded of the importance of trusted adults, anti-bullying approaches, and core British values through Life Skills sessions, form time, and assemblies.
Life skills sessions guide students through information related to significant areas of their lives, encouraging them to make effective and informed choices about moral, ethical and social issues.
Statutory Guidance
The Department for Education publishes Statutory Guidance for Relationships Education, Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) and Health Education. This sets out what schools must cover (Statutory guidance). As a secondary school, we must provide RSE to all pupils as per sections 34 and 35 of the Children and Social Work Act 2017. In teaching RSE, we are required to take notice of guidance issued by the secretary of state, as outlined in section 80A of the Education Act 2002 and in section 403 of the Education Act 1996. At Goldington Academy we teach RSE as set out in this policy. RSE is taught within the personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) education curriculum (life skills at Goldington Academy). Biological aspects of RSE are taught within the science curriculum, and other aspects are included in other curriculum subjects such as religious education. Students may also receive stand-alone sex education sessions delivered by a trained health professional.
RSE is part of the school’s provision for Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural development, and focuses on giving young people the information they need to help them develop healthy, nurturing relationships of all kinds.
RSE Focus Areas
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Families
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Respectful Relationships, Including Friendships
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Online And Media
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Being Safe
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Intimate And Sexual Relationships, Including Sexual Health
These areas of learning are taught within the context of family life, taking care to ensure that there is no stigmatisation of individuals based on their home circumstances, in addition to reflecting sensitively that some children may have a different structure of support around them (for example: looked after children or young carers). All teachers are supported with the delivery of sensitive topics, made clear about confidentiality boundaries and they know where/who to refer students to for confidential advice and support.
Further details about the life skills programme of study can be found on our curriculum summaries and in the document tab 'Big Questions and Learning Questions in life skills' above.
Right To Withdraw
Current regulations and guidance from the Department for Education state that parents have the right to withdraw their children from the aspects of sex education that are not part of National Curriculum Science. We hope, however, that parents will realise the value of their child learning age-appropriate content in a professional and safeguarded environment. The request to withdraw from sex education lessons may be made until 3 terms before the child turns 16. After this point, if the child wishes to receive sex education rather than being withdrawn, the school will arrange this. There is no right to withdraw from Relationships Education or Health Education. Requests for withdrawal from sex education components within Life Skills lessons should be emailed to the Principal, as per our PSHE Policy. For further information about Life Skills provision within Goldington Academy, please contact Miss V Andrews, Assistant Headteacher.