RSHE and PSHE curriculum: What schools need in place

Relationships, sex and health education, or RSHE, is one of the parts of the secondary curriculum where getting it right matters most and where the guidance has been most actively contested. The original statutory framework came into force in September 2020. After a review opened in 2023 and a draft consultation in May 2024, the Department for Education published updated statutory RSHE guidance in July 2025. It becomes statutory from 1 September 2026.

That means schools are in a clear transition window. The 2026-2027 academic year is when the updated guidance takes legal effect, so heads of PSHE and senior leaders should be using the time now to map the new expectations onto their existing provision and identify what needs to change. The reasonable questions are: What is genuinely new, what has tightened, and what does a robust RSHE provision under the new guidance actually look like?

This piece walks through where RSHE sits in the secondary curriculum, what the updated July 2025 guidance covers, and what a thoughtful provision tends to look like in practice ahead of the September 2026 deadline.

RSHE is the umbrella term in England for three connected statutory areas: Relationships education in primary, relationships and sex education in secondary, and health education across both phases. PSHE is the broader curriculum subject that RSHE typically sits inside, alongside economic wellbeing, careers and other personal development content. PSHE itself is not statutory in the same way RSHE is, but it is the vehicle through which RSHE is usually delivered.

The statutory secondary content covers families, respectful relationships including friendships, online and media, being safe, intimate and sexual relationships including sexual health, mental wellbeing, internet safety and harms, physical health and fitness, healthy eating, drugs alcohol and tobacco, health and prevention, basic first aid, and the changing adolescent body. That is a lot of ground for what is typically one timetabled lesson a week or a series of drop-down days.

The statutory guidance sets out what should be taught by the end of secondary, not when or how. Schools have substantial freedom in how they sequence, weight and deliver the content, although that freedom comes with the responsibility to make defensible choices.

The Department for Education opened a review of the 2019 RSHE statutory guidance in 2023, ran a public consultation on a draft version in 2024, and published the final updated guidance in July 2025. Schools have a transition year to prepare: The guidance becomes statutory on 1 September 2026.

The key changes from the 2019 version are: Clearer expectations around age-appropriate content and how it should be sequenced; stronger requirements on parental engagement, including transparency about materials used and the providers delivering them; updated content on online harms, pornography, sexting and AI-generated content; expanded coverage of mental health, including suicide and self-harm prevention framed around safe messaging; explicit guidance on the use of external providers and assurance that what they teach aligns with the school's curriculum; and updated content reflecting the realities of contemporary teenage relationships, including incel culture, misogyny and the manosphere.

The new guidance keeps the same broad topic structure as 2019 but is more prescriptive on how schools should handle contested or sensitive content, particularly around gender, and on the assurance schools should have about external providers.

Across schools we have seen do RSHE well, certain features tend to recur. None of these are required by statute, but they make the difference between RSHE that is genuinely effective and RSHE that ticks a box on a curriculum map.

A dedicated subject lead. Schools where someone has explicit responsibility for the quality and coherence of PSHE and RSHE tend to do this better than schools where it is bolted onto a tutor programme without ownership. The role does not need to be full-time, but it needs to exist.

A published, public curriculum map. Knowing what is taught when, and being willing to show parents that map on request, is increasingly an expectation rather than a nicety. The DfE's expectations on parental engagement have only sharpened over the last few years.

Properly trained teachers. Tutors delivering RSHE without training is one of the most common weaknesses. The content includes sensitive topics that need careful framing, and good delivery requires both subject knowledge and confidence in handling pupil questions and disclosures.

A clear policy and procedure for sensitive moments. What does the teacher do if a pupil discloses something? What if a question goes beyond the planned content? What is the route for parents who want to ask questions or view materials? These should be documented before they are needed.

A coherent RSHE curriculum is sequenced so that content builds on itself, age-appropriately, across the secondary phase. The exact mapping is for your school, but the structure below is a reasonable starting point that aligns with the current statutory expectations.

Some RSHE content is straightforwardly factual. Other parts of it sit in areas where pupils have strong views, where families have strong views, and where the wrong word at the wrong moment can derail a whole lesson. The skill is teaching content that pupils need without inadvertently causing harm or generating an avoidable complaint.

Ground rules at the start of each topic. Returning to a shared set of expectations about respectful disagreement, the right to pass, and the difference between asking a question and making a statement, helps create the conditions for honest discussion.

Use scripted answers for predictable difficult questions. Teachers who have to think on their feet about whether to engage with a pointed question are more likely to say something they regret than teachers who have rehearsed responses in advance. A departmental document that captures the typical questions and a recommended response is genuinely useful.

Know what is in scope and what is out of scope for your school's curriculum. Pupils will sometimes ask about topics that are not in the statutory content. It is reasonable to say "that is not what we are covering today, but here is where you could look or who you could talk to". Saying that calmly and consistently protects you and protects the lesson.

Parental engagement on RSHE has been tightened significantly in the updated July 2025 guidance. The 2019 guidance was clear that schools should consult parents on RSHE policy; the 2025 guidance goes further and is more explicit about transparency, including the expectation that schools make materials available for parents to view on request.

The practical implication is that schools should expect to be asked. Parents wanting to see the slides, the worksheets, the videos, or to know which external providers will be delivering sessions, is becoming a normal request rather than an unusual one.

It is worth getting ahead of this by being proactive rather than reactive. A short summary of what is taught when, made available to parents via the school website or the start-of-year information pack, prevents most queries from escalating. Where parents have specific concerns, having a named point of contact, often the PSHE lead, who can talk them through the materials calmly, makes a substantial difference.

Schools often supplement their RSHE teaching with external providers, whether that is local charity sessions on healthy relationships, NHS-linked workshops on mental health, or specialist input on online harms. These can add real value, but the responsibility for the content delivered remains with the school.

The updated July 2025 guidance tightens expectations on the use of external providers. Schools are expected to know in advance what materials will be shown, what positions the provider takes on contested topics, and to have assurance that the content aligns with the school's curriculum. Schools should ask to see materials in advance, attend the session, and have a route to follow up if anything is delivered that does not match the school's curriculum or values.

A short checklist before any external provider works with your pupils is good practice. It does not have to be onerous, but it should exist.

Under the current statutory framework, parents in secondary schools can request that their child is withdrawn from sex education up to three terms before the child turns 16, after which the child themselves can opt back in. Parents cannot withdraw their child from the relationships education or health education parts of RSHE, or from sex education delivered through the science curriculum.

This nuance matters because it can come up in conversation with parents who assume they have broader withdrawal rights than they do. Being clear, calm and accurate about what can and cannot be withdrawn helps maintain trust without overpromising. Your RSHE policy should set out the process clearly.

Assessment in RSHE looks different from assessment in academic subjects. The point is not to grade pupils on their views or experiences but to know whether pupils are learning the content they need to.

A combination of low-stakes formative checks, like quick exit tickets after each topic, and broader pupil voice exercises across the year tends to give a reasonable picture. Some schools also use anonymous surveys to check whether pupils know where to access support for mental health, sexual health and safeguarding concerns. That information is useful for the school and a reasonable proxy for whether RSHE is doing its job. Whatever you use, keep it light.

The Department for Education will continue to update its guidance materials and supporting documents around the September 2026 implementation date. Sign up for the DfE's email alerts on RSHE if you are the subject lead. The PSHE Association is the main subject association for this area and tends to translate official guidance into practical implications quickly. Your local authority or MAT may also issue guidance, particularly on safeguarding aspects.

For day-to-day curriculum support, a small number of well-chosen resources beats a sprawling collection. Familiar materials your team has reviewed and shaped are almost always more useful than a constantly changing set of new ones.