Health for Life
Dunblane Cluster Schools
Sexual Health and Relationships Education
“A practitioner’s reflection on the successes
and challenges of implementing RSHP in a
Primary context”
The Starting Point
Our Self Evaluation of Learning and Teaching
in the area of Health Education identified
major weaknesses with the “consistent and
progressive Sexual Health and Relationship
Education Programme”
Why we all got involved?
To ensure consistency of learning and
teaching within the Dunblane Cluster
 To create positive learning experiences in
S.R.E education
 To fulfil our responsibilities
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Project Structure:Ensuring Ownership and Involvement

Establishment of a steering group consisting of
representation from all community groups, parents, churches,
and schools
Questionnaires and focus groups to canvas thoughts and
opinions of all stakeholders
Creation of stage working parties to pull together
programme of study following parental and staff consultation
Cascade model for whole school staff training
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Partnerships with Parents workshops, leaflets, resource
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open afternoons
Health for Life Pupil Questionnaires
If you already knew a lot
about Sexual Health,
where did you learn
about it?
 Parents (65%)
 Siblings (27%)
 Friends (46%)
 Books (15%)
How did you feel during
Sexual Health Lessons?
 I felt comfortable
(31%)
 I felt embarrassed
(58%)
 I felt worried (20%)
 I felt scared (5%)
Lessons from the Children

Provide increased opportunities to listen to their
worries and concerns and discuss how they feel

Make health lessons appropriate for all children

Use up to date and modern resources
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Create opportunities for children to reflect and
think about health issues and how these issues
relate to them
Parental Audit
“ I feel children should
be given a factual
sexual health and
relationship education,
within a supportive
environment, early in
their primary school
life; P6/7 is too late”
“When my daughter started
her SHR education I was
not aware of the
information she was going
to be given. I would have
liked to have been more
informed of the course
content. I think there was
a lack of communication
between school and
home”
Steering Group:- co-ordinated the project within our individual
schools and ensured continuity and consistency throughout the
creation , training and implementation of the programme
Successes
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Common goal
Commitment
Multidisciplinary nature
Teamwork
Challenges
•Cultural differences
•Timescales
“I will be honest in the early stages I was not happy about being involved in
this project, but now I understand its’ benefits, necessity even, and believe the
whole experience has been very worth while.”
“ I see only positives in working this way”
Working Parties:- representatives from each of the schools
attended SRE training and they became leaders or members of
working parties; responsible for creating the programme,
delivering future training and supporting staff within their school
Successes
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Distributed Leadership
Peer supporters
Confident mentors
Commitment
Challenges
•Co-ordination
•Consistency and coherence
•Timescales
Before the course “I was really uncomfortable at the thought of teaching SRE to
24 children. I thought I can’t do this” After course “Now I feel I could deliver
quite comfortably”
“Your initial feelings of nerves and concerns will be alleviated through staff
training”
Staff Training:• Took place over 18months
• Starting point required the staff to reflect on their personal
experiences of SRE
• Results of this questionnaire and discussion informed the
next stage of training
• The decision was taken as a cluster to run workshops
within individual schools
• Consultation over the draft programme of study across
our cluster of schools
• Staff meeting in stage groups to comment and evaluate
the programme and it’s resources
• Further challenges and concerns identified
• Resources familiarisation within our own establishments
Working with staff
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Reflect on your own experiences of Sexual Health education
pairs discuss:
Who did you talk to about sex and relationships when you were
young?
What was it like?
Where did you get information and ideas about sex and
relationships?
Did you have misconceptions or fears about sex and relationships
when you were a child?
What were they?
What are your feelings about S.R.E?
How confident are you delivering S.R.E?
Staff Training:- Class Teachers
Successes
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Thorough staff training
Support
Knowledge
Confidence
Open and honest
approach
Challenges
•Personal baggage and
experience of own and
that of their children
•Building staff confidence
“I just feel I have to share my concerns that by teaching the
children this we are stealing away their innocence… these
lessons were the only ones my daughter hated at school”
Partnerships with Parents
Successes
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Cluster Open Evening;- an
opportunity to show-case
staff confidence and shared
vision
Parental Involvement
Building confidence and
trust
Challenges
•Personal Agendas
•Instilling confidence in all
parents
•Perseverance
•Vocabulary
“I trust you to do the best for my children in SRE just as you
do in maths and languages”
Implementation
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Support for staff
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Confidence building
 A programme of study
 Collaborative Teaching
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Annual Review and Evaluation:At the end of the first year of implementation the cluster
schools all gathered together for a sharing session
evaluating and reflecting on their teaching experiences
using the new programme
Evaluation
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We have a programme that is workable, sustainable
yet flexible enough that our professional team of
teachers will mould it and use it to reflect their
teaching styles and strengths
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Pupils in the lower stages are interested and eager to
learn about the topic, all feel happy doing Health for
Life lessons
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Children in the upper school prefer the new BBC
resource and appreciate the change to single sex
lessons
Evaluation
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Health for life lesson feedback
P1-3
 Upper School
 Parents
“First I felt embarrassed and then I learned that there wasn’t anything to be
embarrassed about” (P5 pupil)

Feels odd to hear some of the words being taught in P1 being used so freely by the
children however good everything is clear from an early age to prevent
embarrassment and unanswered questions when approaching puberty (hopefully)
(Parent of P1)
Excellent way of introducing the topic for P4 in body project (Parent of P4)
“I learned new things. Mum knew I was having the lessons so I am more able to talk
to her about it” (P6 pupil)