Relationships and Sex Education

A great step forward 

In 2017, the Government pledged to make Relationships Education compulsory in all of England’s primary schools, and Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) compulsory in all of England’s secondary schools.  

This will be a crucial step towards ensuring every young person has the information and support they need to have happy and healthy relationships.  

Following two rounds of public consultation, the Government have now published their final draft guidance for teaching these subjects – and it’s a big step forwards for LGBT inclusion in our schools. 

From September 2020 onwards, all primary schools in England will be required to teach about different families, including LGBT families, and all secondary schools in England will be required to teach about sexual orientation and gender identity. 

More than thirty years on from the introduction of Section 28, this guidance will make teaching about LGBT people the norm in England’s schools.  

You can read more about why this is such an important step from our Director of Campaigns, Policy and Research, Paul Twocock, here.  

Our priorities now  

To ensure that every school in England is equipped to deliver high-quality, LGBT-inclusive teaching, it’s now vital that the Government sufficiently invests in training and resources for teachers to accompany this guidance. 

What schools can do next

We deliver training, produce resources and develop membership programmes to empower teachers and education professionals to tackle homophobia, biphobia and transphobia in schools and colleges. You can find out more and sign up here. 

Thank you 

Thank you to all the young people, parents, teachers, schools and local authorities who came out in support of LGBT young people and called for the final guidance to be fully LGBT-inclusive in the recent consultation process.   

In the coming months this guidance will be debated in Parliament, and schools in England will be required to begin teaching the subjects in September 2020.