Planning for relationships (sexuality) education

The GDHR Materials provide a range of activities from which teachers can select those that will help to provide and develop meaningful learning experiences for their students. It is designed to assist teachers to plan and implement a sequence of learning experiences relevant to the needs of their particular students and to monitor student progress related to healthy relationships in each phase of schooling. Teachers are encouraged to examine these activities and modify or devise new learning experiences where necessary, to meet the developmental needs of their students. Each lesson plan is also available in an editable Word document format for this purpose.

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The planning cycle

The planning cycle may be of use to teachers in understanding the process of planning meaningful learning experiences for their students.

Evaluating student needs and outcomes
Identifying resources and planning learning experiences
Addressing student needs and outcomes
Evaluating student learning and the processes

Communication with parents/caregivers

As part of the Health Promoting Schools Framework it is strongly recommended that teachers/schools communicate clearly with parents and caregivers about the nature and content of health-related programs, including relationship and sexual health education. The following sample letters to parents can be adapted for your classroom.

Evaluating student needs and outcomes

When beginning each cycle of planning:

Use knowledge of the outcomes and students' needs and interests to determine the intent and direction of the relationships education learning experiences.
Consider student differences in knowledge, culture, social practices, values, experiences and attitudes.
Identify outcomes within the Health and Physical Education and other learning areas to provide learning opportunities for students to demonstrate progress.
Consider these outcomes in relation to the range of student abilities.
Consider the different rates of student learning.

Identifying resources and planning learning experiences

In conjunction with personal curriculum knowledge and other suitable resources, use the scope section of the Curriculum Framework and the K-10 Syllabus to identify what students need to know, understand, value and to be able to make progress in relation to the outcomes.
Use the learning, teaching and assessment sections from the Overarching and Learning Area statements in the Curriculum Framework to help plan a range of experiences.
Apply a range of assessment strategies to identify what students are achieving as a basis for developing further learning opportunities.
Clarify and negotiate with parents and students to create a curriculum that is responsive to and mindful of cultural differences.
Discuss the program with families and members of the wider community to determine availability of resources and to enhance the range of learning experiences.

Addressing student needs and outcomes

While implementing what is planned:

Determine how to continuously respond to the differences in students' learning styles and needs.
Identify how to appreciate and acknowledge difference by valuing cultural and linguistic diversity.
Engage students in learning experiences and monitor their achievement according to outcomes using a variety of strategies.
Modify and adjust the learning experiences of groups and individual students to ensure the learning outcomes continue to be relevant to the emerging learning.
Review the evidence of student learning to ensure assessment is comprehensive.

Evaluating student learning and the processes

Before commencing the cycle again:

Reflect on students' learning and development to describe and assess the program.
Make judgements about what further learning experiences are needed according to the outcomes initially identified.
Identify learning outcomes being achieved through classroom activities and incidentally through the day.
Reflect on the effectiveness of the strategies employed to make appropriate changes.

Adapted from:

The Curriculum Council of Western Australia 2009.

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