Post-Primary

These resources have been developed over a number of years. They may be used to support the leadership of Catholic Schools ,whole school staff development and the classroom teacher as appropriate. They will be updated from time to time so please do check back.

  • Relationships and Sexuality Education Guidance for Catholic Post-Primary Schools (ROI)

The Catholic Education Partnership, (CEP), would like to share with you the “Relationships and Sexuality Education Guidance for Catholic Post-Primary Schools”, prepared by the Council for Education of the Irish Episcopal Conference and published by Veritas.

This document is for leaders and teachers in Catholic Post-Primary schools in their work in the area of Relationships and Sexuality Education (RSE). The guidance has been developed by the RSE Education Working Group which includes teachers and school Principals. The Group was well supported in its work by a number of organisations and experts in the area of RSE. Furthermore, the RSE Working Group consulted with very many students, parents, principals, teachers and chairs of Boards of Management in Catholic primary and post-primary schools as part of the work of the Council for Education in RSE over the last number of years.

The guidance document has received many endorsements from principals, for example: 

“This is a really useful document for schools and will be very well received. It very cogently gives a clearly understandable rationale regarding how and why RSE can be / should be delivered. The practical guidance in Section B is extremely well thought out and translates the aspirational in to clear, concrete guides for teachers and schools. The appendices are a top class resource. Well done to all involved in a document that will undoubtedly be very much welcomed in our schools. “

The RSE guidance document seeks to provide guidance in two ways. Firstly, it provides the rationale for RSE in a Catholic school. This includes important guiding principles underpinning a Catholic school’s RSE provision, important contextual background for RSE in a Catholic school, and aims and objectives for RSE in a Catholic school. 

Secondly, it seeks to assist Catholic schools in the area of RSE by providing important information and practical guidance for the school’s work on the development of the school’s own RSE policy. Copies of the guidance have been sent to all Catholic post-primary schools. 

Click here to download this resource RSE Post Primary Schools Republic of Ireland

  • Living Love – Relationship and Sexuality Education resource (pilot)

To compliment the above guidance, the following Relationship and Sexuality Education resources have been developed by the Council for Education of the Irish Episcopal Conference for use in Catholic post-primary schools in Ireland.

The resources are published as a final-draft to be used in a number of schools as part of a pilot process to inform their final development. However, all schools are encouraged to engage with the resource. Feedback from schools not included in the pilot process is most welcome and should be addressed to the school’s trust or patron.

These resources have been developed in harmony with the NCCA’s draft SPHE (incorporating RSE) junior-cycle short-course curriculum specification. The resource will be reviewed once the final specification is approved by the Minister for Education (ROI). The resources are also in harmony with the curricular requirements in place in Northern Ireland.

As the resources is approved for use in both jurisdictions within Ireland, the Years are referred to as A, B, and C.

Introductory Material:

Introduction to Lessons

Start here – explaining the Christian foundation

The Virtues: Life skills for a loving life

Year A resources:

Year A. Lesson 1. Who am I?

Year A. Lesson 2. What do I want in life?

Year A. Lesson 3. Love people, use things

Year A. Lesson 4. The language of the body

Year A. Lesson 5. Puberty

Year A. Lesson 6. Friendship

Year A. Lesson 7. Building relationships

Year A. Lesson 8. What is love?

Year A. Lesson 9. Feelings of attraction

Year A. Lesson 10. Making decisions

Year A. Lesson 11. Good choices, bad choices

Year A. Lesson 12. Brain Development

Year A. Lesson 13. Peer Pressure

Year B resources:

Year B. Lesson 1. The truth about me

Year B. Lesson 2. Stereotypes

Year B. Lesson 3. Searching for happiness

Year B. Lesson 4. Body Image

Year B. Lesson 5. Dignity and respect

Year B. Lesson 6. Growing in Friendship

Year B. Lesson 7. Building good relationships

Year B. Lesson 8. Sexual Attraction

Year B. Lesson 9. Love and intimacy

Year B. Lesson 10. Growing in Responsibility

Year B. Lesson 11. Consent

Year B. Lesson 12. Taking care of my body

Year B. Lesson 13. Alcohol Awareness

Year B. Lesson 14. Women’s safety

Year C resources:

Year C Lesson 1. The real me

Year C Lesson 2. Following a moral compass

Year C Lesson 3. Free to love

Year C Lesson 4. My body and my identity

Year C Lesson 5. Friendship

Year C Lesson 6. Romantic love

Year C Lesson 7. Dating with integrity

Year C Lesson 8. Sex and Marriage

Year C Lesson 9. Decision making

Year C Lesson 10. Alcohol and Drugs

Year C Lesson 11. Consent Pt2

Year C Lesson 12. STI Awareness

Year C Lesson 13. The Gift of Fertility

  • Credible Catholic RE Programme for Catholic voluntary secondary schools

Credible Catholic is a Religious Education programme made available for senior cycle non–exam RE by the Council for Catechetics of the Irish Episcopal Conference. It is designed for use in Catholic Voluntary Secondary schools in Ireland. An earlier version was written and produced by Fr Robert Spitzer SJ and the Magis Centre (California, USA) in 2018 and has been almost entirely re-developed for the Irish context, in line with feedback from RE teachers and theological advisors in Ireland.

Credible Catholic aims to stimulate dialogue, encourage reflection and critical reasoning, foster religious literacy, build community, and nurture faith, and in doing all of these things, to promote student well being. It is an optional resource which will be very helpful to teachers of Religious Education.

Click here for more on the programme and a full suite of downloads.