A Year 10 student learns about consent in Tuesday’s PSHE lesson. By Thursday, they’ve heard sexist language go unchallenged three times. On Friday, when something concerning happens, they don’t tell anyone because they’re not sure adults would take it seriously.
This gap between what we teach and what young people experience is exactly why whole-school approaches matter. When relationships education lives only in timetabled lessons, the learning stays theoretical. When it’s woven through every part of school life, it becomes real.
What Is a Whole-School Approach to RSE?
A whole-school approach means everyone in your school community works together to create an environment where healthy relationships aren’t just taught, they’re lived. It connects:
- Curriculum delivery – age-appropriate RSE lessons building knowledge over time
- School culture – policies and practices that model respect, consent, and inclusion
- Staff development – helping all staff understand their role in promoting healthy relationships
- Youth voice – genuinely involving young people in shaping RSE provision
- Family partnerships – working with parents and carers
- Safeguarding pathways – clear routes for young people to access support
- School environment – spaces and displays that reflect inclusive values
Young people learn from everything they experience at school, not just timetabled lessons.
Building a whole-school approach requires two things: a clear framework for how all the pieces connect, and high-quality curriculum content that delivers the learning. Through our partnership with the NSPCC, we’ve created free planning resources. These work alongside Life Lessons’ RSHE curriculum, which provides the lessons, staff training, and ongoing support that make your whole-school approach work in classrooms.
Why Whole-School Approaches to RSHE Matter
Meeting Statutory Requirements
The DfE’s RSHE guidance emphasizes that schools must develop a whole-school approach. With updated guidance arriving September 2026, coordinated provision is essential.
Stronger Safeguarding Outcomes
Research shows young people who receive comprehensive RSE are better equipped to recognize abuse, understand consent, and seek help. A whole-school approach creates environments where young people know they’ll be supported.
Positive Impact Across School Life
Schools implementing whole-school approaches often see fewer incidents of harassment and bullying, students feeling more valued, staff feeling more confident, and improved attendance and wellbeing.
Ofsted Expectations
Ofsted looks for evidence that relationships education is embedded in school culture, not just taught in isolated lessons.
Common Challenges Schools Face
Many schools want to strengthen their RSE but face:
- Uncertainty about where to start
- Limited time and capacity
- Building shared staff understanding
- Meaningfully involving students
- Creating productive conversations with families
The most common question? How do we actually begin?
And even when schools have a clear strategy, there’s the practical reality: where do we find curriculum content that’s comprehensive, engaging, and consistent enough across year groups to support our whole-school values?
Free Planning Resources: Your Whole-School Framework
We’ve worked with the NSPCC to create planning resources that help you map out and implement your whole-school approach.
The framework includes:
- Evidence base showing how whole-school approaches improve safeguarding
- Step-by-step implementation guidance
- Eight key components with clear benchmarks
- Self-assessment tool to review current provision
- Editable action plan template
- Eight school case studies sharing what worked (and what didn’t)
What the framework provides: Strategic planning and coordination guidance.
What comes next: Curriculum content to actually teach. The framework helps you audit and plan – but you’ll still need comprehensive, ready-to-teach lessons that bring your whole-school approach to life.
How to Implement a Whole-School Approach to RSE
1. Form Your Working Group
Include a senior leader, PSHE lead, safeguarding lead, student representatives, and a parent or governor.
2. Self-Assessment
Use the framework’s tool to review your provision across all components – including whether your curriculum adequately covers all eight areas of a whole-school approach.
3. Listen to Students
Explore what’s working, what they’d like covered differently, and what helps or hinders them seeking support.
Life Lessons’ curriculum is built on extensive youth voice research and includes peer-led videos featuring real young people’s experiences.
4. Create Your Action Plan
Focus on what’s most important and achievable. Many schools tackle a few areas at a time rather than everything at once.
5. Support All Staff
Share your approach, build confidence in responding to disclosures, and model respectful relationships.
Many schools find that even with a strong framework, non-specialist staff feel anxious about sensitive topics. Life Lessons provides CPD and teacher guides so everyone feels prepared.
6. Work with Families
Explain your approach clearly, address questions, and create genuine dialogue.
7. Review and Develop
Gather feedback regularly, notice impact, and celebrate successes.
Bringing Your Whole-School Approach to Life: The Role of Curriculum
The framework helps you plan – but you also need high-quality, consistent teaching across every year group.
This is where many schools hit a barrier. Creating comprehensive RSHE lessons from scratch takes months. Piecing together resources from different sources leaves gaps in coverage or inconsistent messaging. And updating everything when guidance changes? Nearly impossible.
This is exactly why we created Life Lessons‘ RSHE curriculum.
What Life Lessons provides:
- Ready-to-teach lessons covering all statutory requirements with consistent messaging across year groups
- Youth voice at the center through peer-led videos and discussion-based learning
- Comprehensive teacher guides and CPD so all staff feel prepared
- Restorative interventions connecting curriculum learning to real situations
- Parent engagement materials
- Regular updates as guidance and student needs evolve
The Talk Relationships framework gives you the strategic structure. Life Lessons’ curriculum gives you the teaching content that brings it to life. Many partner schools tell us this combination is what made their whole-school approach actually work.
Moving Forward
A whole-school approach to relationships and sex education connects the work you’re already doing in ways that help young people thrive. It creates environments where young people experience healthy relationships in practice and feel confident seeking support when they need it.
Start with the framework: Download the free Talk Relationships resources to assess your current provision and plan your whole-school approach.
Build with curriculum: Explore Life Lessons’ RSHE resources to deliver the high-quality, consistent teaching that makes your whole-school approach real in classrooms.
Develop with support: Our staff training, partner school network, and ongoing CPD ensure your whole-school approach grows stronger over time.
Ready to see how Life Lessons’ curriculum supports your whole-school approach? Contact us at hello@lifelessons.co.uk or visit lifelessons.co.uk to book a demo, speak with our partner schools, or explore our resources.
