God’s Loving Plan – updated guidance on the teaching of relationships education in Catholic primary schools – was launched at the CHAPS conference for Scotland’s Catholic Primary Head Teachers on Friday 5th September 2014.
Following extensive consultation, God’s Loving Plan has been published by SCES to guide teachers on how children can be helped to develop healthy and respectful attitudes to their bodies and to relationships with families and friends. This important resource connects children’s learning about who they are and how they relate to others, to their learning about God and their relationship in faith. It helps children to understand how love can be at the heart of their lives.
In using this resource, teachers are encouraged to work closely with parents and carers to ensure that young people are supported as they grow, particularly when coming to deal with the physical and emotional impact of puberty. Good communication between home and school is encouraged to ensure that the more intimate aspects of children’s growth are dealt with sensitively and skilfully by parents and teachers working together.
The detailed planning framework in God’s Loving Plan connects learning in Religious Education (RCRE) to aspects of Health & Wellbeing (H&WB) taught from Primary 1 to Primary 7. This learning is organised under four THEMES, dealing with God as the source of all life who is delighted when we use our unique talents (including our bodies) for good, who calls us to be loving people and who guides us to make choices that are good and responsible.
More details of the resource and an order form can be found by clicking here.
In the Foreword to the document, Archbishop Tartaglia speaks on behalf of the Bishops of Scotland when he says: “The Church urges parents to ensure that their children develop a healthy regard for their bodies and are formed for love which is true and faithful. . . It is the wish of the Bishops that ‘God’s Loving Plan’ will be used faithfully by teachers in all Catholic primary schools.”