It’s an exciting time for Beyond Secondary. Young people begin to learn about relationships long before they start school. As soon as they enter the social world, they begin to encounter and interact with ideas about gender, relationships and sexuality. These may come from social media, television or from family members, peers and communities. What young people are learning and experiencing can include misconceptions and sometimes challenge adult assumptions or expectations. The new Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) statutory guidance will better reflect the world that we now live in to encourage all young people to grow up with inclusive and accepting attitudes.
If it’s not a subject that you specialise in, it can feel scary to plunge into the world of RSE with your students, as well as ensuring that you are meeting all of the statutory requirements. However, by creating a selection of carefully crafted RSE resources, we’ve broken it down for you, so you will be able to confidently deliver RSE sessions which are relevant, engaging and age appropriate. Our ready-to-go lesson packs are structured yet completely adaptable. For example, they can be used either as a full lesson or be adapted to a shorter session such as form time. The packs aim to provide consistency and continuity for students while delivering the content in a mature, age-appropriate way. Our lesson packs will help to save you time and enable you to teach the topics with confidence.
What exactly is RSE?
RSE is the acronym for Relationships and Sex Education. It is most commonly associated with the statutory guidance from the Department of Education entitled Relationships Education, Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) and Health Education.
From the academic year 2020-2021, all secondary schools in England must teach Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) and Health Education within the wider PSHE curriculum. The government recognises that young people are growing up in an increasingly complex world, both on and offline. The RSE curriculum intends to give young people the information they need to understand what happy, healthy and respectful relationships look like and how to have them, as well as how to make informed decisions about their personal well-being, including how to stay safe on and offline. It also aims to inspire young people to grow up with respectful attitudes towards people who are different to them, so we can live harmoniously.
The statutory guidance from the Department of Education requires schools to cover mental health and wellbeing, physical health (including healthy lifestyles and first aid) sex education and sexual health, as well as safe and healthy relationships (including life online), equality and intimate relationships (including understanding consent).
What is covered in Beyond RSE resources?
There may be a concern that covering certain topics too early can encourage premature experimentation while covering them too late can result in students seeking out advice from other, less credible sources. The bottom line is that the less informed young people are, the more vulnerable they are likely to be. Therefore, it is important that sex and relationships are discussed in an open, safe and age-appropriate way to help them make informed decisions based on facts.
The Beyond RSE lesson packs will be divided up into three overarching themes:
- Sex Education
- Health and Wellbeing
Below is a summary of some of the areas covered within these themes:
- Respectful relationships and friendships
- Online and media
- Staying safe
- Criminal behaviour (in relationships)
- Sexual orientation and gender identity
- Intimacy, including sexual health and consent
- Criminal behaviour (in relationships as well as sex-related criminal behaviour)
Health and Wellbeing
- Mental wellbeing
- Internet safety and harms
- Physical health and fitness
- Healthy eating
- Drugs, alcohol and tobacco
- Health and prevention
- Basic first aid
- Changing adolescent body, including puberty
Statutory guidance also states that LGBTQ+ content should be integrated throughout the RSE programme of study. However, students must have a comprehensive understanding of what LGBTQ+ means before this can be achieved. It is important to remember that teaching around LGBTQ+ content is not necessarily inherently sexual and includes topics such as gender identity, families and romantic relationships. Any LGBTQ+ content which is specifically related to sex education will be taught at an appropriate time in the curriculum.
It is important to note that crossovers between these themes are inevitable. Students will almost definitely ask questions that transcend the three categories, and this will likely be encouraged if it is relevant and appropriate.
In addition to our lesson packs, we have also created teacher guidance, exemplar learning agreements, and more to support you in confidently delivering the RSE curriculum.
Don’t forget to read even more of our blogs here! You can also subscribe to Beyond for access to thousands of secondary teaching resources. You can sign up for a free account here and take a look around at our free resources before you subscribe too.