Relationships and Health Education
Today’s children and young people are growing up in an increasingly complex world and living their lives seamlessly on and offline. This presents many positive and exciting opportunities, but also challenges and risks. In this environment, children and young people need to know how to be safe and healthy, and how to manage their academic, personal and social lives in a positive way.
This is why, in 2020, The Department for Education have made Relationships Education compulsory in all primary schools in England and Relationships and Sex Education compulsory in all secondary schools, as well as making Health Education compulsory in all state-funded schools. The key decisions on these subjects have been informed by a thorough engagement process, including a public call for evidence that received over 23,000 responses from parents, young people, schools and experts and a public consultation where over 40,000 people contacted the Department for Education.
Thank you for your feedback on the curriculum, and the wider policy.
The DfE first introduced its statutory guidance on what must be taught in schools in September 2020. The consultation for this newly proposed Relationships and Health Education policy ran from March 2020. The DfE have made further updates to this policy in terms of curriculum content, for first teaching in September 2026. In summary, these updates provide more in-depth curriculum content on:
- Understanding boundaries and consent
- Understanding online risks, including grooming and scams
- Understanding digital footprints and permanence
- Change and loss, including bereavement
- Vaping and nicotine addiction
You can read the school’s full scheme of work, per year group, for Personal Social Health Education (PSHE) and Relationships and Health Education (RHE) here:
Please click on the links below for further information:
Relationship and Health Education Policy
Dfe Guidance for Relationships Education, Relationships and Education (RSE) and Health Education
