Life Lessons response – July 2025

On July 15th the government published updated Relationships Education, Relationships and Sex Education and Health Education Guidance for schools. 

This is the response of Life Lessons Education shared on the day of publication.

Note from Life Lessons Co-CEO Jamie O’Connell

The guidance shared today by the DfE, in its scope and depth, is a bold message to ‘take notice’ for education leaders, parents and to young people themselves. High quality Relationships, Sex and Health Education (RSHE) matters, perhaps it even matters the most in our fast changing world.

The knowledge and skills covered in RHE in Primary and RSHE in Secondary, as described within the guidance, provide essential foundations for young people growing up in the world today covering emotional regulation, physical and mental health, healthy relationships, savvy and safe online habits.

These topics must be spoken about in schools and at home in order to help young people make healthy choices and thrive. This is the overarching message that should be taken from this DfE update – prioritise this subject in education.

We recognise that incorporating these updates into the school curriculum will take time and expertise. To help Life Lessons is committed to two actions:

  1. Today we launch a series of Free webinars to support schools to understand the guidance, what you need to think about for your curriculum and how you can best support parents.
  2. As the leading provider of Whole school Wellbeing and Healthy Relationships Education in the UK we are committed to having our materials fully in line with the new guidance by the end of Autumn term 2025 – we’ve got you covered.

What follows is a breakdown of inclusions we welcome in the new guidance and some recommendations for the DfE for future updates, perhaps as part of the curriculum review. 

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A Welcome Focus on Prevention and Positive Relationships

Contributed by Dawn Aytoun – Product and Learning Development Lead at Life Lessons

We are encouraged by several positive shifts in the overall approach, which align with our core belief in proactive, positive education that responds to the evolving and complex needs of young people today – An RSHE curriculum isn’t static. 

There is a directive to listen and respond to the views of pupils and parents with parent consultation, transparency and control emphasised throughout. 

Early in the document, a set of Guiding Principles for curriculum development is outlined. While many reflect well-established educational practices—reinforcing RSE’s status as a core subject—others signal a welcome move toward delivering RSE in a more distinctive way, with its own measures of success.

Key approaches such as positivity, responsiveness, skilled facilitation, participatory learning, and a whole-school approach have been central to Life Lessons’ work from the start, so their inclusion here is especially welcome.

Promoting a Positive Outlook and the Empowerment of young people

The guidance goes a long way towards framing safety in a positive light. Instead of presenting a frightening list of potential harms, it focuses on what safe and healthy relationships and behaviours look like. This helps young people identify and strive for positive choices while still presenting the skill and knowledge to be able to recognise and safely respond to unhealthy behaviours.

Understanding Gillick Competence: Teaching young people about their right to make informed medical decisions is empowering. This knowledge gives them the confidence to engage with healthcare professionals and take ownership of their well-being, as well as the opportunity to understand why adult support and guidance can be an important source of support in healthy decision making.

A Stronger Emphasis on Prevention

The guidance rightly frames RSHE as a crucial tool for safeguarding. It explicitly acknowledges the link between high quality relationships education and disclosure, and reflects many principles from the Keeping Children Safe In Education (2025) policy such as supporting young people develop strong relationships and identifying harmful behaviours from an early age. 

We believe the move away from the use of age restrictions is positive as it gives schools the ability to ensure content meets the need of their context and young people. This ability for schools to be responsive to the needs of diverse pupils aligns closely with the PSHE Association recommendations for effective preventative education. 

The preventative approach goes further than just social safeguarding, and the place RSE has in improving mental and physical wellbeing outcomes is also given importance with the inclusion of content around healthy eating, sleep and the interaction between behaviours and wellbeing, as well as a clear line of progression around emotional regulation. In step with the NHS Prevention Programme. 

Integrating Online and Offline Worlds

Young people no longer see a distinction between their online and offline lives. This guidance smartly integrates the principles of healthy relationships across both worlds. Acknowledging that online life is a fundamental part of reality for young people is critical to making them feel understood and confident in seeking support, as well as securing skills to cultivate offline relationships that does not imply they are better or more important.

The important inclusion of deeper content explaining the purpose of age restrictions, use of data, experiences of A.I. and nuances exploration of the risks and benefits of the internet is helpful in ensuring accurate and positive messaging around online safety is present in the classroom. 

Acknowledging the rapidity of change in technology and explicitly stating that young people need to develop the skill to critically evaluate new technologies, both in terms of their usefulness and impact on offline behaviour, is a key step in supporting young people stay safe into the future and beyond the classroom.  

Greater depth content for Healthy Relationships 

We strongly welcome the updated RSHE guidance, particularly its deeper focus on relationship skills—such as balancing needs, communication, and setting boundaries—and its firm stance against abusive or violent behaviour. Education is a powerful tool to prevent violence as demonstrated by the new inclusion of information about strangulation and suffocation, with them cited clearly as criminal offences.

We also support the clear effort to challenge misogyny and address everyday sexism. This will help young people recognise harmful behaviours and feel empowered to respond.

This guidance takes a proactive approach by defining healthy relationships, promoting positive role models, and teaching safety and responses to harm. We applaud the emphasis on kindness and care as the foundation of healthy relationships. This approach moves beyond rules, helping students understand the emotional depth of consent, respect, and connection.

Opportunities for Further Development

While the guidance is largely positive, we believe a few areas could be strengthened to ensure its success on the ground.

  • The Challenge of Curriculum Time: This enhanced curriculum requires adequate time to be delivered well. With content demands growing, schools are under immense pressure. A recent survey conducted by the Sex Education Forum (2024) found that many young people already feel there isn’t enough time for RSE. If this guidance is to achieve its critical goals, it must be backed by a commitment to ensure sufficient, high-quality curriculum time. 


We are also disappointed to see that the extension of the statutory content beyond 16 has not been reflected in this guidance, and are keen to see if further policy comes out to cover this important movement.

  • From Knowledge to Practical Skills: The Children’s Commissioner (2022) found that young people want RSHE to equip them with practical life skills. While the guidance has taken big steps away from the reliance of discrete knowledge, it lacks specific detail and prioritisation. We urge for more development in this area to ensure staff receive the training to facilitate skills development and students leave school with the ability to apply their knowledge in real-world situations with confidence and adaptability.
  • Supporting Educators: This new guidance covers increasingly intense and sensitive topics. Teachers need and deserve high-quality training, resources, and support to deliver this content effectively and safely. We were pleased to see specific guidance on handling sensitive issues such as eating disorders and suicide, but this level of support should be extended to other potentially triggering topics and RSE best practice in general to protect both students and staff. This is especially important given that many schools now adopt a delivery model for RSE that involves a wide range of staff, including form tutors and non-specialist teachers, who may be required to address complex social issues without specialist training.
  • Greater Clarity on Teaching Gender: We want to start by recognising the increased detail with which gender and sexual orientation are considered in this guidance. It prioritises equality and respect in its encouragement to cover the facts of the key issues. However, we caution that the lack of inclusive content and the inclusion of the following excerpt could be misinterpreted and result in a lack of education that directly addresses gender stereotypes and could inhibit support seeking behaviour around gender. 

‘…should not teach as fact that all people have a gender identity. Schools should avoid language and activities which repeat or enforce gender stereotypes’

Page, 37, Statutory RSE Guidance, DfE, 2025

We await the Gender Questioning Guidance, hoping that it provides clarity and empowers educators to be able to proactive and adequately support vulnerable young people. 

Conclusion

Life Lessons views this new guidance as a positive and welcome development. It places prevention, kindness, and practical safety at the heart of education.

We believe that by focusing on the areas for development—practical skills, teacher support, clarity on gender, and curriculum time—we can ensure this policy delivers on its promise to help every young person navigate life with confidence and thrive in safe, healthy, and respectful relationships.

Life Lessons recognises the importance of providing timely and accessible support for schools wanting to approach and implement this guidance conscientiously and quickly. 

We will be hosting a webinar to highlight the key changes and their implications for curriculum and delivery on Thursday 17th July 2025 at 3.30pm. If you wish to attend you can sign up here. 

If you would like to receive further guidance from us, including events tailored to Primary and Secondary application of the guidance, and documentation supporting the understanding of the changes, contact us or sign up to our newsletter on the Life Lessons website. 

We remain committed to working with the government and schools to support the successful implementation of this vital guidance.