How will you assess Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) at your school?

This academic year all primary age children will learn relationships education and health education, and all secondary age children will learn relationships and sex education (RSE) and health education. As part of these changes the benefits of mental health and wellbeing are now strongly emphasised alongside those of physical health. This new curriculum is compulsory in schools in England from September 2020. Although, the Department for Education has advised that schools who are not ready can delay teaching until the start of the summer term in 2021.

Great news! B Squared’s assessment frameworks have already been updated to fit the new curriculum. This means teachers can easily assess pupils’ progress in relationships education, RSE and health education from day one. Effective ongoing assessment in these new curriculum areas is important because it enables teachers to give valuable feedback to pupils and their parents. It also helps staff to report progress to the governing body, and monitor assessment and continuity in their new schemes of work.

To make assessment easier for teaching staff, we’ve taken a cross-curricular approach, including relevant assessments from our current assessment frameworks where possible. We’ve also added a citizenship profile based on the non-statutory programme of study published by the Department of Education.

Highlights:

  • Compulsory relationships education and health education for Primary pupils

  • Compulsory relationships and sex education and health education for Secondary pupils

  • Benefits of mental health and wellbeing now strongly emphasised alongside physical health

  • Assess pupils’ progress in these new curriculum areas from day one using B Squared’s updated assessment frameworks

  • Assessment made easier for teaching staff with a cross-curricular approach, including relevant assessments from current assessment frameworks

  • New non-statutory citizenship profile added

  • Basic First Aid included

Assess progress for pupils with SEND in SRE

Why has the RSE curriculum changed?

Today’s children and young people are growing up in an increasingly complex world and living their lives seamlessly on and offline. This presents many positive and exciting opportunities, but also challenges and risks. In this environment, children and young people need to know how to be safe and healthy (both mentally and physically), and how to manage their academic, personal and social lives in a positive way.

This is why the Department for Education has made Relationships Education compulsory in all primary schools in England and Relationships and Sex Education compulsory in all secondary schools, as well as making Health Education compulsory in all state-funded schools. Read more on the Department for Education website

What has B Squared changed?

We have updated our Primary Steps and Progression Steps assessment frameworks to fit with the new RSE curriculum. These frameworks are sold in different packs (Core, Plus, Foundation) to meet schools’ different assessment needs. The RSE changes have been incorporated into our Plus packs. View samples pages here.

Primary Steps Plus – for mainstream pupils and pupils with SEND in primary schools – now contains PSHE (including Citizenship and Relationship), PE and Computing. Both PE and Computing have been updated to reflect the additional focus on RSE. Assessment points on the impact of healthy living have moved from PE to PSHE and the new e-safety elements have been combined with the rest of the Computing framework.

Progression Steps Plus – for pupils in special schools and pupils with SEND in secondary settings – now contains PSHE, including Citizenship and both Relationship (primary) and Relationship and Sex Education (secondary) – so schools can choose the relevant content based on the age of their students. Updated PE and Computing frameworks are also included (as explained in the Primary Steps Plus description above). Pupils with SEND must have the opportunity to fully participate in these new curriculum areas and teachers need to monitor their progress. Our assessment frameworks are broken down into small steps to enable teachers to demonstrate even the smallest amounts of progress.

We’ve taken a cross-curricular approach, including relevant assessments from our current assessment frameworks for science (biology), computing (e-safety), citizenship, physical education, and design and technology (cooking and nutrition), where appropriate.

Read our guide Changes to B Squared’s PSHE Assessment for full details.

FIND OUT HOW WE can help you to SHOW PROGRESS WITH the new RSE curriculum

Click on the button to arrange a FREE online meeting to find out how we can help make assessment easier for your school

Book a FREE Online Meeting