Hermitage Academy is aware that children and young people are growing up 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, and how to manage their academic, personal and social lives in a positive way.
The aim of RSHE at Hermitage Academy is to give young people the information they need to help them develop healthy, nurturing relationships of all kinds, not just intimate relationships. It should enable them to know what a healthy relationship looks like and what makes a good friend, a good colleague and a successful marriage, civil partnership or other type of committed relationship. It should also cover contraception, developing intimate relationships and resisting pressure to have sex (and not applying pressure). It should teach what is acceptable and unacceptable behaviour in relationships. This will help students understand the positive effects that good relationships have on their mental wellbeing, identify when relationships are not right and understand how such situations can be managed.
The Relationships, Sex and Health Education (England) Regulations 2019 state that all secondary Academies must provide Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) to all students receiving secondary education as per section 34 of the Children and Social Work Act 2017. The regulations also make Health Education compulsory in Academies.