Relationships, Sex and Health Education: 3 topics your child could soon be taught - including 'incel culture'
School relationships, sex and health classes are taking aim at the ‘manosphere’ 💻
- The Department for Education has released new guidance for RSE and RSHE classes
- It will see some big changes to the curriculum, to make sure it addresses the pressing issues young people face today
- Schools can start teaching it right away - but they have to follow it by next September at the latest
- There will also be more transparency for parents about what children are learning
School sex ed classes will soon have a few new areas of focus, including fighting back against the ‘scourge’ of online misogyny.
Last week, the Government published the final version of its updated statutory guidance on relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) for schools. It introduces a whole range of new topics pupils will learn about throughout their primary and secondary education, from managing their mental health to keeping safe in an ever-changing digital world.
It has also made changes to parts of the guidance originally mooted under the previous, Conservative-led Government, including dropping set age limits to start teaching children about topics like puberty or harmful sexual behaviour, as well as a controversial ban on teaching about gender identity.
Pupils may start learning these new additions from as early as September, when the new school year begins. But to give schools and teachers time to adapt, the new curriculum changes won’t be mandatory until the start of the following, 2026/27 school year.
Here are some of the key changes to what schoolchildren may learn in their RSE and RSHE classes going forwards:
1. Helping boys identify positive role models - and learning about ‘incel culture’
Once the statutory guidance comes into force in 2026, secondary schools will teach lessons on so-called incel culture, including how a piece of content online can impact a person’s understanding of sexual ethics and behaviour, the Department for Education said.
The statutory guidance encourages schools to focus on helping boys identify positive role models, and challenge myths about women and relationships that are spread online in the “manosphere” - without stigmatising boys for being boys.
New data released at the same time as the updated guidance found that in just a single week, over a third (37%) of pupils aged 11-19 had heard comments that made them concerned about girls’ safety, while more than half (54%) said they’d witnessed comments they would describe as misogynistic.
In a press release announcing the new guidance, Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson, said that before she was elected to Parliament, she managed a refuge for women and children fleeing domestic violence. “I have seen first-hand the devastating impact when we don’t foster healthy attitudes from the youngest age.
“I want our children to be equipped to defy the malign forces that exist online,” she continued. “Schools and parents alike have a vital role to play, helping children identify positive role models and resist the manipulation too often used online to groom impressionable young minds.”
2. AI, ‘deepfakes’, and the dangers of social media
In a similar vein, what children are to be taught about online safety has been expanded to reflect the rapidly-changing landscape. It will now include topics like AI, and the potential harms of ‘deepfake’ pornography.
As well as covering basics like being cautious about sharing personal information online, the updated guidance includes learning about the characteristics of social media – including that some accounts may be fake or ‘bot’ accounts, and may post things that are untrue. They’ll also be taught that people may say things in more extreme ways than they would in face-to-face, that social media can escalate conflicts, and that some users present highly exaggerated or idealised profiles of themselves.
Harmful and even illegal online sexual behaviour will be covered, including teaching pupils that keeping or forwarding indecent images of someone under 18 is a crime – even if the photo is of themselves or was created using AI. They’ll also learn about the prevalence of these ‘deepfake’ videos and photos, the guidance says, including how they can be used maliciously, the harm they can cause, and how to identify them.
Ultimately, children should learn “that the internet contains inappropriate and upsetting content, some of which is illegal, including unacceptable content that encourages misogyny, violence or use of weapons”, it adds, or may “present a distorted picture of the world and normalise or glamorise behaviours which are unhealthy and wrong”.
Finally, they’ll be taught what to do and where to go for help if something serious does happen, or if they have any concerns. “Pupils should be taught where to go for advice and support about something they have seen online”. It continues: “Pupils should know how to seek support and should understand that they will not be in trouble for asking for help, either at school or with the police, if an image of themselves has been shared.”
3. Self-harm and suicide prevention
Managing mental health will also play a more prominent role in the curriculum, with a particular focus on building children’s mental resilience and coping skills for anxiety and low moods. The Government says that suicide is the biggest killer of under 35s in the UK, and the guidance says secondary schools should work closely with mental health professionals on how to discuss it – and prevention – in an age-appropriate way.
Andy, Mike and Tim of suicide awareness group 3 Dads Walking said they welcomed this “vital step forward”.
“Giving schools permission to talk about suicide prevention means more young people can be supported to open up about difficult feelings and know where to find help,” they wrote in a statement. “We know, from painful personal experience, how much this matters. This change will save lives. We’re grateful to have played a part in helping bring it about.”
What else is new?
The new guidance also improves transparency for parents, making it clear that they should be able to view all curriculum materials on request. Parentkind chief executive Jason Elsom said this was particularly important to families. “Where parents have been able to view RSHE materials, they are four times as likely to say they are happy with the content of RSHE lessons... Parents rightly have high expectations of schools around the teaching of sensitive subjects and doing this in a way that works with parents rather than keeping parents in the dark.”
The dropping of proposed age limits will likely mean no subject will be explicitly off the table based solely on pupils’ ages. But the new guidance says lessons will still be split by age and stage, and any early conversations about sensitive topics will still need to be age-appropriate. This will allow teachers to “sensitively respond to topics that children might have seen online or heard from their friends – making sure children are kept safe and parents are informed”, it said.
There are also a range of other additions to the curriculum itself, spanning physical, mental and sexual health, and beyond. Here are a few of these, most of which children will be taught about once they reach secondary school:
- Drink spiking and methanol poisoning
- Staying safe in public spaces
- Financial exploitation
- Positive conceptions of femininity and masculinity
- Sexual ethics ‘beyond consent’ – including factors like peer pressure
- More in-depth women’s health information, including fertility and conditions like endometriosis
The Department for Education has published a handy blog for parents explaining what they need to know about the new guidance, which you can read online here. Or you can find the new RSHE guidance in full here.