Blog
Practical guidance for RSE teaching, curriculum planning, and bringing relationships education to life in schools.
For help planning and teaching RSE, start with our guidance for schools.
Showing 12 of 25 posts
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RSE in PracticeMasculinity and Misogyny: What Do Boys Actually Think?
Two pictures of boys circulate, and neither survives contact with the evidence intact. The first is that this is a media panic and boys are…
Masculinity and misogyny -
Guidance and PolicyAn RSE policy checklist for 2026
The 2025 RSHE statutory guidance has applied in England since 1 September. So this is no longer a planning exercise. If your policy has not…
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Guidance and PolicyWhat the 2026 guidance changes for primary RSE
The updated guidance came into force this month and, for primary schools, most of what it asks for is what you were already doing. The…
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RSE in PracticeHow to reduce withdrawal requests from sex education
Parents withdraw their child from sex education for all sorts of reasons: religious or moral conviction, a belief that this belongs at…
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Guidance and PolicyParental right to withdraw, explained for schools
Parents "have the right to request that their child be withdrawn from some or all of sex education delivered as part of statutory RSE"…
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Guidance and PolicyWhat the 2026 guidance changes for secondary RSE
Open your Key Stage 3 scheme at the first relationships unit and check what pupils actually covered in primary. This year’s Year 7 finished…
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Guidance and PolicyRSE policy questions governors ask
These questions help a governing board examine the evidence behind its school's RSE policy and curriculum.
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Guidance and PolicyConsulting parents on your RSE policy
Schools must proactively engage and consult parents when they develop and review the RSE policy (paragraph 12 of the July 2025 RSHE…
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RSE in PracticeTeaching the hard topics when you're not a specialist
There are RSE lessons that many teachers can pick up and teach without much anxiety. And then there are the ones that make you look at the…
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Our WorkWork Out: Consent, Masculinity, and a Room Full of Athletes
Earlier this year I spent time working on a project called Work Out — a collaboration between Somerset House Studios, King's College…
Consent -
Guidance and PolicyA Complete Guide to Developing RSE in Special Schools
I've worked with special schools across the country on their RSE provision, and the conversation almost always starts the same way. The…
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Our WorkConsent for Film and TV: Running Sessions at RADA Before Intimacy Coordination Was a Job
For several years I ran regular consent sessions at RADA — with third-year acting students, and separately with directors and producers.…
Consent -
RSE in PracticeWhat Young People Actually Want to Know About Sex and Relationships
We run a platform called Okay to Ask where young people submit questions about sex and relationships anonymously, with no teacher watching…
Bodies and anatomy -
Our WorkA Question Box in the Great Court: Anonymous Q&A at the British Museum
I once got an email from Ashley Almeida, who runs the Young People's Programme at the British Museum, asking if I'd be up for spending an…
Consent -
RSE in PracticeSharing Nudes, Sextortion and Deepfakes: What Schools Need to Know in 2026
Last week I came across one of my old lesson plans on online safety. It was from around 2010. I opened it up and went through it, just to…
Sexting and sharing nudes -
Our WorkRunning RSE with the Red Cross Youth Group in Angel
The British Red Cross runs a youth group at its office near Angel. It's called the Refugees and Befriending Project — R'n'B, if you're in…
Healthy relationships -
Guidance and PolicyWhy Your RSE Programme Needs More Than a Drop-Down Day
For a lot of schools the drop day is the RSE programme. One day, a specialist in the building, every year group covered, and the rest of…
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Our WorkGive & Get: Porn Literacy at Tate Modern
At one point I was asked to be part of a weekend at Tate Modern called Bedfellows: Sex Re-Education — a residency at Tate Exchange built…
Pornography and media literacy -
RSE in PracticeTeaching Porn Literacy: What It Is, Why It Matters, and How to Start
Most teachers handed pornography to teach are clear about why it belongs on the curriculum and stuck on what an hour with a Year 10 class…
Pornography and media literacy -
RSE in PracticeThe Drop Day That Taught Me More Than It Taught the Kids
Last year, I took part in a drop day at a secondary school. The topic was healthy relationships, and as usual, I was armed with a session…
Healthy relationships -
RSE in PracticeHow to Teach Consent Beyond "No Means No"
I was observing a consent lesson in a secondary school last year. The teacher was clear, confident, well-prepared. She explained the legal…
Consent -
RSE in PracticeRSE for Pupils with SEND: Practical Approaches That Work
I was running a session on healthy relationships in a special school in Oxfordshire a couple of years ago. I'd planned it carefully,…
Abuse, exploitation and violence -
Guidance and PolicyTeaching Puberty Before It Happens: A Guide for Primary Schools
A Year 5 teacher told me recently that one of her pupils had started her period at school and was convinced she was dying. Nobody had told…
Puberty -
RSE in PracticeTalking to Boys About Masculinity, Misogyny and Online Influencers
<p class="blog-postskip"><a href="#teaching-it-well">Skip to the classroom practice</a></p>
Masculinity and misogyny -
Guidance and PolicyHow to review your RSE against the 2026 guidance
An RSE review has to fit around lessons that are already being planned and taught. If you're responsible for the curriculum, it can be…