Relationships, sex and health education (RSHE): requirements
Get a summary of the requirements to teach relationships and sex education (RSE) and health education, which differ for primary and secondary schools. Find out what you’re expected to cover, and details on parents' right to withdraw their children from sex education.
Contents
Your school's requirements
All schools with a primary phase (including all-through and middle schools) need to provide:
- Relationships education
- Health education
Your school may have previously covered parts of these topics if it taught sex and relationships education (SRE) or personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) education.
This is set out in the Department for Education's (DfE) statutory guidance on relationships and sex education (RSE) and health education.
Sex education is not a requirement
Primary schools do not need to teach sex education beyond the requirements of the National Curriculum for science.
It is down to your school to decide whether to teach additional sex education content to meet the needs of its pupils.
This is set out in the 'Primary sex education (where taught)' section of the DfE's planning your
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