Sex Education

Sex Education is one part of the personal development curriculum we teach at Barnes Primary School. (To see the personal development page, please click here). It is recommended that Sex Education is taught in primary schools, in age-appropriate manner. We feel it is an important part of our job to help prepare children for the future, teaching them about respectful relationships, consent, privacy, body parts and conception.

This page is to help you to support your child at home with this learning and ensure you have a clear understanding of what we are teaching in school and why we are teaching it. We hope it is informative and clear. We welcome any feedback on how we can help you further with this topic.

We will send you information before your child has a lesson on puberty or sex education so you can continue the conversations on at home.

The top three preferred sources to learn about sex from young people are

1. School
2. Parents
3. Health professionals

Young people who receive effective Relationships and Sex Education are

• More likely to report sexual abuse
• More likely to delay first sex until they are ready
• More likely that first sex is consensual
• More likely to use contraception and condoms
• Less likely to have unplanned pregnancy or sexually transmitted infection

(Research taken from sexeducationforum.org.uk/resources/evidence/sre-evidence)

Sex Education is learning about the physical, social, legal and emotional aspects of human sexuality and behaviour, including human reproduction in an age-appropriate way. This includes puberty, relationships, consent, sex and the different ways to make a baby.

At Barnes Primary School, we take the approach that Sex Education is best taught in an integrated way. It is a recommended primary school subject rather than a compulsory one, however many compulsory subjects do overlap, such as:

• science (body parts, human life-cycle, life process of reproduction,)
• health education (changing adolescent bodies both physically and emotionally, menstrual wellbeing)
• relationship education (friendships, recognising and reporting concerns or abuse, appropriate physical contact, LGBTQIA+ relationships)

There are no hard boundaries between these subjects and aspects of Sex Education. Children are naturally curious and will ask questions which overlap between these areas. Therefore, the integrated approach means children can make connections between the related content and not be made to think they have done wrong. A safe environment, with open questions, is an essential part of learning.

We will manage questions in compulsory lessons as much as possible to respect any parents wishing to withdraw their child from Sex Education. Please see the ‘dealing with questions’ section in the SRE policy for more information.  We hope that the transparency of what we are teaching ensure all parents feel comfortable with the topics covered.

Names of the body parts, including genitalia. They are taught the vocabulary: penis, testicles, vagina and nipples. They discuss which parts they would find on a male, female or both.
They also discuss some of differences between children and adults and males and females. This part of the lesson is child-led and discussion based.

These lessons are all compulsory as they are part of the health education, relationship education and/or science curriculum.

These lessons are all compulsory as they are part of the health education, relationship education and/or science curriculum.

These lessons are non-compulsory lessons. Please speak to your class teacher if you would like your child to opt out of some or all of these lessons.

We are a listening organisation and welcome the support and feedback from parents to help our organisation. In the summer of 2020, a parental questionnaire on our teaching of Sex Education was completed. From that, we learnt that they felt the subject was sensitively covered and the children felt informed. We also learnt that parents would like more detail about the lessons we are teaching so they can continue the conversations at home. This webpage is designed to do just that.  

In the summer of 2021, our subject leader formed a working party with parent reps from throughout the school. The aim of this was to for parents and teachers to work together to ensure the best support for the children in our school in an age appropriate manner. It was a highly successful meeting where different approaches and views were discussed. Key messages were fed back to the Key Stage 2 teachers who implemented them in the teaching in 2021.  

Talking to your child about online sexual harassment – a guide for parents 

Please click here to see the SRE policy on the policy page of our website.

• kidshealth.org
• thinkuknow.co.uk/
• childline.org.uk

• Let’s Talk About the Birds and the Bee:s Starting Conversations About the Facts of Life by Molly Potter
• Making a Baby: An Inclusive Guide to How Every Family Begins by Rachel Greener
• Bodies, Babies and Belly Buttons by Lynnette Smith
• No Means No by Jayneen Sanders
• My Boday! What I Say Goes! by Jayneed Sanders
• Who Has What?: All About Girls’ Bodies and Boys’ Bodies by Robie H Harris
• Hair in Funny Places by Babetter Cole
• Your Body Belongs to You by Cornelia Spelman
• The Period Comic by Florence Igboayaka
• Brilliant Questions About Growing Up: Simple Answers About Bodies and Boundaries by Amy Forbes-Robertson and Alex Fryer