Relationships Education teaching is a mandatory requirement for all primary schools. It is vital because it helps children understand themselves and others, and learn how to form positive, respectful connections. By exploring topics such as friendship, empathy, communication, and managing conflicts, children develop the social and emotional skills they need to build strong relationships, navigate challenges, and grow into caring, confident members of their community, embracing the challenges of a happy and successful adult life.
Relationships Education will form part of children’s learning about the world around them and how they interact with others. Like all areas of the curriculum, Relationships Education will be taught objectively, without bias. Children will not be taught to question their own gender identity but will become aware that we are all different and that our differences should never be a cause for fear, conflict or disrespect.
Early Years (Nursery and Reception) – focuses on fostering secure attachments, emotional regulation, and social skills in children (0-5 years) to promote healthy development. Key areas include teaching kindness, turn-taking, managing feelings, and understanding personal space, integrated into the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) framework under Personal, Social, and Emotional Development (PSED).
Key Aspects of Early Years Relationships Education:
Key Aspects of Relationships Education (KS1 – Years 1 and 2)
Key Aspects of Relationships Education (KS2 – Years 3 to 6)
As part of our PSHE provision to pupils, we deliver a comprehensive Relationships and Health Education curriculum. We ensure that all statutory objectives are adequately covered so that all children learn about different relationships, different families, physical/mental health and wellbeing and staying safe. Children will also learn about puberty and their changing bodies. At our school, this learning takes place in years 2, 4 and 6.
Relationships and Sex Education is statutory for all primary children meaning that parents and carers cannot withdraw their child from these lessons, or any lessons that cover National Curriculum Science objectives. This includes all the information on puberty and how the body changes. However, parents may withdraw their child from lessons covering any non-statutory objectives.
Parents will receive a letter in the half-term preceeding this teaching, outlining content of all lesson objectives that will be taught, with non-statutory objectives highlighted.
Through our Twinkl Life scheme, Sex Education is taught through the topic ‘Growing Up’. Please click on the crosses below the overviews for this topic and a sample presentation for years 2, 4 and 6.
In July 2025, the Department for Education published updated Relationships and Health Education Guidance. This replaces the previous guidance from 2019 which outlined objectives that pupils must meet by the end of Primary and Secondary school. From September 2026, schools will be required to follow this new guidance, giving you a year to begin exploring and implementing the changes.
Given the topics included in the Relationships and Health Education (RSHE) guidance, it was always intended to be a changing document with regular reviews/updates. This is to make sure that our young people are best-prepared for the world they live in. Many of the 2026 updates are based on the changing digital world and the way children and young people engage with it.
Some other changes reflected in the guidance answer requests for further guidance on sharing RSHE content with parents and teaching about gender.
At the core of the RSHE guidance are curriculum objectives that all children and young people should meet by the end of Primary/Secondary. Key additions here include:
The guidance reiterates that sexual orientation and gender guidance are protected characteristics and must be taught as such, with equality and respect emphasised throughout.
A key new area of focus is the prevention of misogyny, sexual harassment and violence. The RSHE guidance is clear that developing positive relationship skills should be at the core of this for all age groups.
Twinkl has a clear plan ahead for updating their resources, ready for full implementation in September 2026.
Below are some useful parent/carer documents and guides based around your child’s learning in RSE.