Managing difficult questions

Primary-age pupils will often ask their teachers or other adults questions pertaining to sex or sexuality which go beyond what is set out for Relationships Education. Our school’s policy covers how we handle such questions. Given ease of access to the internet, children whose questions go unanswered may turn to inappropriate sources of information.

Meeting these objectives requires a graduated, age-appropriate programme of Relationships Education. Children of the same age may be developmentally at different stages, leading to differing types of questions or behaviours. Therefore, our teaching methods take account of these differences (including when they are due to specific special educational needs or disabilities) and the potential for discussion on a one-to-one basis or in small groups. For every cohort, we consider what is appropriate and inappropriate in a whole-class setting, and which questions are better not dealt with in front of a whole class.