The essentials of teaching caring relationships in RSE
It is statutory for schools to teach children and young people about healthy and caring relationships.
What key stages? Key Stage 1 (KS1) and Lower Key Stage 2 (LKS2) and Upper Key Stage 2 (UKS2)
Relationships play a key part in every child or young person’s wellbeing, in younger years emphasis on teaching them how to be a good friend and how to play well with others, to understanding boundaries and appropriateness, as they mature and progress into adulthood.
Caring relationship lesson plans for Key Stage 1 (KS1), those aged 5-7 should make clear the principles of a caring relationship.
Caring relationships can help a child feel secure and supported, for example a healthy friendship feels positive and welcoming towards others. Unhealthy relationships can make you feel unhappy, sad and lonely, and in some instances can have a long-lasting negative impact on a person.
What to include when teaching children about caring relationships?
In order to meet the statutory guidance, the following must be covered:
- How important friendships are in making us feel happy and secure, and how people choose and make friends.
- The characteristics of friendships, including mutual respect, truthfulness, trustworthiness, loyalty, kindness, generosity, trust, sharing interests and experiences, and support with problems and difficulties.
- That healthy friendships are positive and welcoming towards others, and do not make others feel lonely or excluded.
- That most friendships have ups and downs and that these can often be worked through so that the friendship is repaired or even strengthened; and that resorting to violence is never right.
- How to recognise who to trust and who not to trust, how to judge when a friendship is making them feel unhappy or uncomfortable, managing conflict, how to manage these situations and how to seek help or advice from others, if needed.
It’s important to teach children about trust: who to trust and who not to trust, and when to seek advice from others as needed.
Providing children of this age with the appropriate tools to learn about the above is vital in the provision of an engaging and appropriate lesson plan, which meets the statutory guidance for learning outcomes. When planning ensure to appropriately differentiate so that children of all abilities can benefit from the lesson.
We know it can be challenging to find age-appropriate ways to address the subject and embed learning in a wider context that’s why we developed Growing up with Yasmine and Tom.
Teaching about caring relationships with the support of Yasmine and Tom.
Growing up with Yasmine and Tom is an innovative animated online resource that makes teaching caring relationships, simple. Yasmine and Tom help teachers put the principles of a caring relationship into context via engaging animation, worksheets and presentations.
It makes teaching RSE effortless, with little to no planning you can competently meet DfE guidelines, we’ve even penned a teaching RSE checklist to make the lesson prep even easier!
You can view the full module guidance and how this relates to DfE guidance here.
If you’d like to talk with one of our experts you can schedule a quick 15 minute call, where you can get all of your questions answered.
You can meet Yasmine and Tom during a free trial of our RSE platform, provided so you can appraise the software with your team – don’t worry, there is no obligation to subscribe.
Discover our treasure trove of teaching aids that support teaching RSE in KS1 and KS2.
Explore our resources designed to stimulate conversations about relationships. In particular, we have a variety of leaflets that help make difficult topics, easier to navigate. If you’d like to know more about our RSE literature for pupils, read our article everything you need to know about our ‘best in class’ RSE literature, designed to support teaching RSE in primary years.
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At FPA we have been working with educators for the past 30 years, providing information and resources and enabling teachers to teach subjects they may otherwise not have had the confidence to teach. We make things easier and have been awarded, accredited, and formally recognised for the outstanding support we give to teachers.
