Coram has responded to the updated statutory guidance on relationships education, relationships and sex education (RSHE) and health education published today by the Department for Education.
Harriet Gill, Managing Director of Education and Wellbeing at Coram, said: “We welcome this new RSHE guidance that builds on progress made over the last few years, making sure children and young people get the relationships, health and sex education they need to support their mental health and wellbeing, and prepare them for the changes they will experience as they grow up. We believe this guidance will help them to make healthy choices, recognise and manage feelings, and better enable them to be safe from harm, both online and offline.
“We are pleased that the statutory guidance reinforces a skills-based rather than a one-size-fits-all approach as this flexibility will enable schools to meet the needs of all their pupils. The guidance has been strengthened with a focus on supporting boys to develop a positive sense of masculinity, benefiting both boys and girls by ensuring harmful stereotypes are challenged, thus improving boys’ mental health by enabling emotional expression and promoting help-seeking behaviours. This will go some way to supporting them to develop positive relationships and the skills to navigate boundaries with kindness and respect, as well as putting in early preventative work to tackle sexual violence and abusive behaviour.
“There is also a much-needed focus on equipping children with online safety and awareness skills, enabling them to be critical consumers of the messages they receive online, as well as developing good digital citizenship skills. The guidance reinforces the fact that healthy, loving, relationships include same-sex parents, and that families of many forms provide a nurturing environment for children.”
For now, schools continue to be bound by the statutory guidance that has been in place since 2019 and will have until September 2026 to adapt their curricula to reflect this new guidance. They can start following it from September this year if they wish to. Coram Life Education (CLE) will support the schools we work with to make these changes and update our resources accordingly. For more information about how we work with over 50,000 teachers and 600,000 pupils please visit https://www.coramlifeeducation.org.uk/