RSE Post-Primary

There are two resources available below. One is a guidance document on Relationships and Sexuality Education for Catholic Post-Primary schools (ROI) and the second is the ‘Living Love’ RSE resource for use in post-primary schools.

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 guidance: RSE Post Primary Schools – Republic of Ireland.

Note: Guidance for RSE Post-Primary – Northern Ireland is available on the Catholic Schools Trustee Service website.

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.

The Resources are available at the link below:

Living Love – RSE resources