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Age focus: 11–18 Most schools say Relationships and Sex Education matters. But how they choose to deliver it often tells a different story. Tick-box sessions. Generic slides. A reluctant staff member handed the topic because “someone has to do it.” Fear of parental complaints shaping what can and cannot be said. Programmes chosen because they are well-known rather than because they are effective. Teenagers notice all of it. If a school genuinely wants RSE to land, bringing in

Age focus: 11–18 Relationships and Sex Education is one of the few subjects where disengagement is often blamed on the students. “They just giggle.” “They’re immature.” “They won’t take it seriously.” In reality, teenagers are highly attuned to quality. When RSE is done well, they lean in. When it isn’t, they switch off quickly. Great RSE teaching is not about charisma or shock value. It is about credibility, timing, and method. And the gap between compliance-based delivery a

Age focus: 12–18 There is a persistent and deeply damaging myth in schools and care systems that disabled and neurodivergent young people are hypersexual. It often isn’t said bluntly. It shows up in comments like: “They’re obsessed with sex.” “They can’t stop talking about it.” “They don’t understand boundaries.” Underneath those statements sits an assumption that something about disability or neurodivergence creates excessive sexual drive. That assumption is wrong. And it ca

Age focus: 13–18 Ghosting has become so common that adults often minimise it. “It’s just how people communicate now.” “They’ll get over it.” “It wasn’t that serious anyway.” For teenagers, it often was  serious. And even when it wasn’t, ghosting can still hit hard. What makes ghosting so painful is not just the loss of the relationship. It’s the silence. The unanswered questions. The sudden feeling that something meaningful disappeared without explanation. For many young peop

Age focus:  10–18 Social media rarely talks directly about desire. It doesn’t need to. Desire is taught through repetition. Through patterns. Through what is rewarded with attention and what quietly disappears. Long before young people have the language to talk about attraction or worth, they are absorbing lessons about who matters and why. These lessons feel neutral. They aren’t. Desire is shaped by what is visible Social media platforms are built to show young people what k

Age focus:  12–18 Many parents tell me the same thing, often with genuine confusion. “My teen wants friends, but they don’t seem to know how to keep them.”“They spend hours talking online, but barely say anything in person.”“They care deeply about connection, yet avoid social situations altogether.” What’s important to say early is this. Your teen is probably not antisocial, broken, or uninterested in relationships. In most cases, they are dealing with a skills gap and a conf

Age focus:  10–18 Long before adults sit a child down for a lesson about sex or relationships, learning has already started. It does not start in a classroom. It does not start with parents. It starts quietly, accidentally, and often without supervision. By the time many schools feel ready to introduce formal relationships and sex education, young people already have ideas about what sex is, what relationships should look like, who has power, and what is expected of them. The

Age focus:  11–18 Consent is often taught as a single question with a single answer. Did you ask? Did they say yes? End of story... That version is neat, clear, and easy to put on a poster. It is also completely disconnected from how real relationships work, especially for young people. In real life, consent is rarely a calm, confident exchange between two equally assured people. It happens in moments shaped by nerves, excitement, fear of rejection, social pressure, and a str

Age focus:  5 - 18 In schools, we are meticulous about preparation. We scaffold learning, map outcomes, assess progress, and intervene early when a child is falling behind. We do this for literacy, numeracy, exams, and careers. But when it comes to relationships, arguably the area of life most likely to affect a young person’s mental health, safety, and long-term wellbeing, we largely rely on hope... Hope that they’ll “pick it up naturally.”Hope that families will handle it.