Relationship and Sex Education (RSE) day takes place every year in June to celebrate education around healthy relationships and positive sexual health for children and young people. In a 2019 survey of 1000 young people aged between 16 and 17, Sex Education Forum found that 41% rated the quality of their school RSE as ‘good’ or ‘very good’  with 17% rating the quality as ‘bad’ or ‘very bad’.

Since 2021, RSE has been compulsory in all schools teaching young people about a number of health and wellbeing topics and our partnership with Sex Education Forum has meant that more students can benefit from high-quality RSE training and resources, including sex and reproductive health, healthy relationships, consent, signs of abusive or coercive behaviour, managing feelings, hormonal and body changes while being LGBTQ+ inclusive to promote positive attitudes, behaviour and health and wellbeing.

With this in mind, let’s learn about the importance of educating young people in RSE, how to be more inclusive in lessons and five ways to celebrate RSE day in your school as well as our high-quality RSE toolkit and free handouts you can print out for RSE lessons.  

Why it’s important to educate young people in sex and relationship education 

Relationship and sex education is vital for ensuring that children and young people grow up with the skills and tools that are needed to thrive into adulthood. Not only does RSE teach young people about the value of positive social relationships and wellbeing, it also teaches young people about making healthy choices, understanding control and the importance of consent. While sexual health education provides the tools necessary to ensure a healthy sex life, learning what contraception is available, the consequences of not using protection and the risk of catching sexually transmitted infections. All these are vital skills that are needed for a positive sexual relationship.

How to be more inclusive in your RSE lessons?

The Department of England has stated that relationship and sex education must be accessible for all pupils, including those from LGBTQ+ and special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). Inclusivity in schools is rarely a one size fits all approach and tailor-made content and an appropriate RSE toolkit needs to be available to meet the specific needs of pupils at different development stages. Practical considerations to make RSE lessons more inclusive could include large enough print, visual aids, clear uncomplicated diagrams, long enough lessons with transition time before and end of the session and tactile resources that children with sensory needs can engage with.

5 Ways to celebrate RSE Day in schools

• Get Creative. Produce a poster or photo collage of all the ‘diverse’ faces that make up your community and explore with students how everyone contributes to make it a great place to be. 
• Hold a non-uniform day. Raise money for a local charity, for example; survivors of domestic abuse.
• Use literacy. Ask students to write a letter to their older self about the type of relationships they would like and how they would be as a partner, relative, friend, or colleague.  
• The Great RSE Bake Off. Hold a cake competition at school with students bringing in heart-shaped or relationship themed cakes or biscuits to discuss healthy relationships and why they are important. 
• Be Kind. Encourage students to carry out random acts of friendship in the month of June, for instance giving compliments; helping someone out; gifting and use the task as a stimulus to discuss positive friendships.

For more information on RSE day or for more ways to celebrate, please visit www.rseday.com

RSE Toolkit: 

Having a good relationship and education toolkit is essential for delivering an excellent RSE lesson. Our RSE toolkit provides everything you need to ensure you run a successful RSE programme. The RSE toolkit includes;

84 Latex male condoms 

6 Condom Demonstrators

24 Lubricant sachets

4 Shape and Size Tools.

20 Sexual health booklets

6 Sexual health posters

To order your RSE Toolkit, you can purchase one here or email our friendly sales team at sales@pasantehealthcare.com if you’re looking to buy in bulk!

Free resources:

We’ve also developed free sexual health information print-outs that you can easily use in your relationship and sex lessons. Click on each lesson to print out.

What are Sexually Transmitted Infections?
What is Chlamydia?

Our partner:

We are proud to be working alongside Sex Education Forum to help share high-quality and accessible relationship and sex education for all young people, while providing access to sexual health education resources and products. We provide and promote resources, events, publications, research and other initiatives to young people, teachers and educators.

Get involved:

On 24th June, we would love to see your work and ideas for an inclusive RSE lesson via social media. Use the hashtag #RSEdaywithpasante and we’ll share your content!