HEALTH, SAFETY, & WELLNESS CURRICULUM
Wellan’s Health, Safety and Wellness (HSW) curriculum is designed to prepare students to take responsibility for:
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Maintaining their physical and mental health
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Protecting their personal safety
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Practicing healthy habits that lead to life-long wellness
The curriculum is designed to address these subjects:
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Safety Practices
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Healthy Body
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Healthy Mind
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Healthy Relationships
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Human Sexuality
Parents are often especially curious about how the School approaches Human Sexuality education. Below is the School’s position statement.
Wellan Human Sexuality Education Statement
Acknowledgement: The Wellan Human Sexuality Education Statement was inspired by a similar statement
from The Park School of Baltimore.
Children are naturally curious about many aspects of human sexuality, including their own and others’ anatomy, human bodily functions, expressions of gender identity, human reproduction, puberty, and physical intimacy.
Children may acquire information about human sexuality from a variety of non-school sources, including family members, physicians, peers, and the media. Some of the information they receive may be inaccurate or biased; may instill fear or shame; or may focus solely on “body parts” rather than also teaching the importance of respect, communication, and decision-making with regard to expressing one’s sexuality.
School-based human sexuality education serves to provide students with a developmentally appropriate, scientifically accurate, and positive perspective on human sexuality.
Learning Goals
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Students will develop a positive, inclusive view of human sexuality as part of everyday life.
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Students will receive scientifically accurate and developmentally appropriate information presented in an open, safe, respectful manner that is aligned with the ways we teach other topics.
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Students will be prepared for the physical and mental changes associated with puberty.
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Students will learn to exercise control over their own bodies at a very young age, understand their right to refuse consent, and know when and how to report “hurtful or secret touching.”
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Students will understand the differences between biological sex, gender identity, and sexual orientation.
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Students will understand the value of delaying sexual activity and ways to prevent sexually transmitted infections and pregnancy.
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Students will develop the decision-making and communication skills they need to care for their sexual health and develop healthy, consensual, mutually satisfying relationships.
Our Teaching Approach
At Wellan, our approach is to normalize the use of vocabulary and sharing of information related to human sexuality by introducing terms and concepts in a matter of fact way that is similar to the way we teach the body parts of a frog or how plants propagate.
We teach specific lessons that fall within the Human Sexuality strand of our Health, Safety, Wellness curriculum. We also provide age-appropriate information in the context of everyday activities, in response to student questions or conversation, and during planned lessons that tie in with other subjects.
Given this integrated approach to human sexuality education, there is no “opt out” program at Wellan. We expect that parents will not only reinforce the school-based curriculum but will engage in dialogue with their children about human sexuality as it relates to their family values.
Wellan offers occasional parent education programs that may be helpful in promoting open, meaningful family conversations. Also recommended:
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Talk to Me First: Everything You Need to Know to Become Your Kids' "Go-To" Person
about Sex, by Deborah Roffman
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Reading List at “Sex Positive Families”