"Children and young people . . . have the right to be encouraged to make sound moral judgements with an informed conscience and to put them into practice by personal choice . . ."    para 1 Declaration on Christian Education (1967)

The education of children about their health, physical growth and relationships has always been a sensitive issue for teachers and parents. The Church has recognised the need to support parents and teachers to meet their obligations to children and young people.  Over a number of years the CEC has developed materials to offer support to parents and teachers on how to provide appropriate teaching, in line with the teachings of the Church.

following Church guidance

The Bishops of Scotland expect that the following guidance will be used by every Catholic school in Scotland to guide their delivery of appropriate teaching programmes in this area:

• Guidelines on Relationships & Moral Education which outline cross-curricular strands organised for each of seven stages from Primary 1 to 16+;
• Guidance Notes which provide more detailed advice on relevant content and teaching approaches, appropriate to each stage and directly based on Church teaching;
• a CD Rom containing exemplar materials for teachers and parents to use within their own contexts;
• Understanding Relationships & Moral Education in the Catholic School - advice which is intended to help teachers and other professional to share an understanding of the important principles and key features of the Catholic school's approach to this area of teaching.  This offers clear advice on working with partner agencies in addressing this area of the curriculum.

Resources

Many Catholic primary schools have used the Education for Love programme for many years.  Attention is currently being given to how these materials might be appropriately updated.

For Secondary schools, the Called to Love project was established to develop appropriate teaching materials and training for Catholic secondary schools.  Called to Love materials provide a Christian vision of love and relationships, based on CEC Guidelines, recognsing each person's vocation for love.

Click here to go to read more about Called to Love.