New Government guidance on Relationships, Sex and Health Education (RSHE) has been published (15 July 2025) giving schools until 1 September 2026 to follow it. This is the first update to RSHE guidance since 2019 and builds on the historic curriculum changes secured with cross-party support.
The new guidance places 'pupil engagement' top of a list of guiding principles, with parent engagement and transparency, 'positivity', and relevance also featuring.
The structure of the 2025 guidance is similar to the 2019 version. It sets out content for primary and secondary school without age-limits, instead emphasising the need for careful sequencing. It gives valuable new emphasis on teaching children skills alongside knowledge, and a much clearer message about starting RSHE lessons early in primary school.
Disappointingly, there is no mention of extending the mandate on RSE to young people up to the age of 18 attending further education, though sixth form and FE colleges are encouraged to support students by offering these subjects. Detail on tailoring RSHE to meet the needs of pupils with SEND is minimal, yet we know that teachers want to access bespoke support and guidance.
The importance of 'skilled delivery' is backed by the announcement of a training grant for schools. Details are yet to be announced about how much money will be available. However, the commitment to ring-fenced RSHE training budgets is a welcome development and something that Sex Education Forum has called for.
The 2025 guidance includes:
- Transparency with parents as a key principle. Parents should be updated if a school' RSHE provision shifts in ways that aren’t obvious from school policy.
- Strong encouragement for primary schools to 'teach about healthy loving relationships, and to include same-sex parents along with other family arrangements when discussing families'.
- Language learning as a vital tool for safeguarding, for example under 'Health and Wellbeing' primary content on 'Developing bodies' there is specific mention of learning correct names for body parts, including the penis, vulva, vagina, testicles, scrotum, nipples, because 'Pupils should understand that all of these parts of the body are private and have skills to understand and express their own boundaries around these body parts'.
- Skills development to put knowledge into practice, for example around emotional regulation, coping with disappointment, frustration and hurt.
- Avoiding language and activities which repeat or enforce gender stereotypes, plus giving pupils opportunities to develop positive conceptions of masculinity and femininity.
- A factual approach is stressed in relation to biological sex and gender reassignment, and that teachers must not take a particular view.
- New secondary phase content on incels, misogyny, deepfakes and AI, plus updates to sexual health to include PrEP and the law on virginity testing and strangulation.
We will continue to take stock of the changes in the coming days and weeks, and to support our members to provide the best possible inclusive Relationships and Sex Education for children and young people.
Lucy Emmerson, Chief Executive of the Sex Education Forum said:
“The updated RSHE content for secondary schools reflects changes in society and technology. New sections rightly seek to address concerns about social media, misogyny, deepfakes, AI and pornography. Many of these issues have come into sharp focus in the last year. RSHE is a vital tool to tackling these ever-complex challenges but the teaching of these topics requires great skill. Young people have consistently told us that teachers need to feel confident to handle these discussions safely and sensitively.
For primary schools, the benefits of lessons starting early are made clear. There is welcome focus on equipping children with practical skills for communicating respectfully and managing feelings such as disappointment, hurt and frustration. The curriculum content is anchored in a preventative approach, striving to ensure that every child knows what is and isn’t OK, how and when to get help. A well sequenced curriculum is much more effective than age ratings, and will give teachers more confidence to respond to current issues for their pupils.
Overall, this new RSHE guidance builds on the progress made by schools since mandatory lessons began in 2019. It clarifies the key principles for teaching the subject well, including involving pupils and parents and keeping the curriculum connected to reality. It offers sufficient flexibility to be moulded to the needs of children. Lessons in schools are competing with a backdrop of readily accessible material online, so we must not delay in skilling up children and their teachers.
The Sex Education Forum calls on the Secretary of State to ensure that training is universally available to make high quality RSHE lessons a reality for all young people no matter which school they attend.”
Further information
Government guidance on Relationships Education, Relationships and Sex Education and Health Education, July 2025
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