The new statutory RSHE guidance: what’s changed and what does this mean for primary schools?

Towards the end of the summer term (2025), the Department for Education (DfE) published the updated statutory guidance for Relationships, Sex and Health Education (RSHE). This guidance will replace the current 2019 guidance, but schools will have until September 2026 to adapt their curriculum and policies to reflect these updated requirements.

Our team of Subject Specialists have been getting to grips with the new guidance and what it means for your school. So, what are some of the key changes to be aware of if you are responsible for PSHE at key stages 1 and 2?

What new teaching content will your curriculum need to cover?

RSHE is about children’s everyday lives, and needs to reflect new and emerging issues that children are exposed to. So, there is new content to teach at key stages 1 and 2 in addition to slight amendments to some existing content, while other aspects remain the same.

What new content will you need to be aware of? Here are five important examples.

5. There’s a greater focus on online safety and wellbeing. For example, pupils will learn about online financial harms such as gaming, video game monetisation, scams and fraud – as well as the reasons for age restrictions on online content such as gambling websites and social media. The new guidance also includes content on helping pupils to critically engage with what they see online and recognise their rights – for example in relation to privacy, consent and personal data (with new learning around the importance of location settings for instance).
6. Within health education, there’s still an emphasis on helping pupils understand their bodies and the changes they might experience — and now, this includes learning the correct names for body parts (including genitalia). This reflects established best practice when it comes to giving children the knowledge and understanding they need to stay safe, including the ability to identify and report signs of abuse, while reducing stigma. Many schools have been teaching this effectively for years as part of their approach to safeguarding, but this addition to the statutory guidance brings welcome clarification and reassurance.
7. We’re really pleased to see the addition of ‘personal safety’ to the statutory content, with an emphasis on recognising and reducing risk, in the context of fire and travel safety — for example around water, roads and railways.
8. There’s new learning around change and loss, including bereavement; recognising that this can cause a range of feelings, and that everyone grieves differently. Again, this is something many schools are already teaching — but if you’ll need to incorporate this into your curriculum from September 2026, take a look at our Change, loss and grief lessons for key stages 1-2, which come with comprehensive teacher guidance to support you to handle this sensitive topic with confidence.
9. The guidance also includes an increased emphasis on skills as well as knowledge. For example, within relationships education there’s new learning around communicating effectively, and developing the ability to be assertive and to express needs and boundaries. There’s also an emphasis on skills for managing difficult feelings in the context of relationships, such as disappointment, frustration and loneliness — and these skills are highlighted in online contexts too. For example, pupils will now learn strategies for resisting pressure to share information or images online. And the guidance states that some schools may decide to cover image sharing or online sexual content in late primary, if this is something they know is affecting their pupils. The DfE emphasises that if schools choose to cover these topics, teaching should be “age appropriate and respectful of all children, including those who may have no familiarity with the topics under discussion”. This is a really important point. And you can see how we’ve approached this in an age-appropriate way through our ‘Pick your pics’ lesson pack for years 5-6 which explores the topic of image sharing.

How extensive are the changes?

While there are a number of changes for primary schools to implement, rest assured that a lot of the content remains the same or similar.

For example:

• In relationships education, much of the content around families, caring friendships and being safe remains similar.
• Many aspects of health education also remain, including first aid, healthy eating and physical health and fitness. Some areas of health education have small additions — for example, vaping and nicotine addiction are now included within teaching on drugs and alcohol.
• Sex education is still not compulsory in primary schools though the DfE still recommends that it is taught and now specifies that the recommendation is for this teaching to take place in year 5 and/or year 6. The parental right to withdraw from sex education remains.

A focus on safe, positive practice

On balance, the tone of the guidance for the primary phase feels safe and positive.

It opens with a set of guiding principles which include the importance of engagement with pupils and parents, positivity, careful sequencing and skilled delivery of participative education. And throughout, there are frequent references to safe and effective practice — from establishing a safe learning environment to answering tricky questions; and from avoiding fear-based approaches to recognising PSHE’s vital role in safeguarding children. It is also clear that relationships education should support children “to grow into kind, caring adults who have respect for others and know how to keep themselves and others safe”.

From an inclusivity standpoint, the guidance reminds schools to work with their pupils and be aware of their needs, including references to teaching about different types of families and making adjustments for pupils with Special Educational Needs.

References to pupils with SEND are now woven through various sections of the guidance, though it is a shame that the specific section on pupils with SEND is less detailed than in the 2019 guidance. This doesn’t mean schools are expected to place any less emphasis on getting RSHE right for pupils of course, and we are continuing to build upon our support for teaching pupils with SEND.

Finally, we’re really pleased to see that throughout the guidance there is an emphasis on teacher agency and the importance of teachers being equipped to make decisions about the curriculum. Trusting primary teachers to choose when and how they teach some content — including how to sequence the curriculum and ensure ‘participative and interactive’ lessons based on the needs of their school community — is really important for ensuring that PSHE education meets the needs of all pupils across the country.

So, what do primary schools need to do now?

In terms of what this means practically for the academic year ahead, remember that there is no rush.

Schools have a year before they need to implement the changes, so it’s important to take your time to get this right, and consider your next steps.

Over the 2025-2026 academic year, we recommend:

1. Review your existing PSHE curriculum
   Compare your curriculum to the updated guidance to identify any gaps or areas for development. You can use our curriculum audit tools to help you with this. This is also a great opportunity to gather pupil voice on your current PSHE provision so you can identify what is working well, and what you might want to develop further. You could do this through our lesson or questionnaire.

2. Revise your schemes of work
   Once you have identified gaps and areas for development, map out what you could cover with each year group across the academic year. We will soon be updating the Programme of Study and Programme Builders to support your planning. And quality assured lesson plans and resources that cover the primary PSHE curriculum are ready for you to download here!

3. Update your policies
   In the next year, use our policy writing guides to ensure your PSHE and R(S)E / R(S)HE policies reflect the statutory guidance. Think about how you will engage with parents and carers as part of this process, considering what information needs to be shared and how you will respond to questions or concerns.

4. Plan CPD and staff training
   Identify areas where staff may need additional support. For example, do they need to develop their understanding of safe and effective practice in PSHE? Or would they benefit from consolidating their subject knowledge when it comes to new content, such as child financial harms? We’re offering a range of face to face and online training in the coming months, as well as school staff training. This includes our new course on successfully implementing the updated statutory requirements. Our new membership offer, School Plus, also includes a library of on demand training, for you and all your school staff, and allows you to assign courses to colleagues and track their progress.

And remember…

We’re here to ensure that PSHE education, including statutory RSHE, continues to be taught safely, effectively and confidently in every primary school. Over the next academic year, we will be supporting our members to get ready for September 2026 — with new guidance, planning tools, and research-led lesson plans that ensure your curriculum is covered.

Watch this space!