SPHE Policies & Resources
Social, Personal and Health Education (SPHE)
The Social Personal and Health Education Curriculum (SPHE) is for children from Junior Infants to Sixth Class.
The SPHE curriculum…
- fosters children’s well-being, self-confidence and sense of belonging
- develops children’s sense of personal responsibility for their own behaviour and actions
- promotes children’s self-awareness and understanding by helping them to manage their own feelings, to recognise and appreciate individual abilities, and to cope with change of various kinds
- supports children to become active and responsible citizens.
The 3 main programmes which we use to teach the SPHE curriculum are Stay Safe, RSE & Walk Tall.
Stay safe
Stay Safe is a primary school based approach to the prevention of child abuse. The aim of the programme is to reduce vulnerability to child abuse and bullying through the provision of a personal safety education programme for children at primary school level, continuing professional development for teachers, training for Boards of Management and information sessions for parents.
The Stay Safe programme itself is a personal safety skills programme designed for use with primary school children from Junior Infants through to 6th class. The programme seeks to enhance children’s self-protective skills by participation in lessons on safe and unsafe situations, bullying, inappropriate touch, secrets, telling and stranger danger.
The programme aims to give children the skills necessary to enable them to recognise and resist abuse/victimisation and teaches them that they should always tell (an adult that can help) about any situation which they find unsafe, upsetting, threatening, dangerous or abusive.
RSE
Relationships & Sexuality education (RSE) is a key component of the Social Personal & Health Education (S.P.H.E.) curriculum in primary school. RSE provides children with opportunities to develop knowledge, attitudes, beliefs and practical skills necessary to establish and sustain healthy personal relationships with self and others. In addition to learning about relationships, RSE invites children to explore concepts such as physical development and human sexuality. Topics are explored with children in a developmentally appropriate, spiral nature throughout their primary education. Topics addressed in RSE include exploration of feelings, friendships, inclusive families, puberty, pregnancy and conception. If you would like to view the RSE curriculum, teaching documents and resources, please do so on the following link by the Professional Development Service for Teachers (PDST).
RSE Policy
Download RSE Policy document (106kB)RSE Booklet to support parents (4 - 7 year olds)
Download RSE Booklet to support parents (4 - 7 year olds) document (14254kB)RSE booklet to support parents (8 - 12 year olds)
Download RSE booklet to support parents (8 - 12 year olds) document (1419kB)Walk Tall
The purpose of the Walk Tall programme is to support the provision of educational programmes in primary schools for the prevention of substance misuse.
PDST has launched online the revised Walk Tall classroom materials originally devised in the mid 1990's. This revised edition of Walk Tall has been informed by feedback from teachers regarding structure, content and features of the original programme. All levels are available to view on the PDST website here.