Relationships and Sexuality Education (RSE)

There is a mandatory RSE Code that supports schools to design their RSE curriculum. The content is set within the context of broad and interlinked learning strands, namely:  

​

●    relationships and identity  
●    sexual health and well-being  
●    empowerment, safety and respect. 

​

These strands allow teachers to design and develop a curriculum tailored to pupils' needs, making connections and developing authentic contexts for learning across the curriculum. The Welsh Government committed to covering the following themes in RSE: relationships; rights and equity; sex, gender and sexuality; bodies and body image; sexual health and well-being; and violence, safety and support. To assist schools and settings in their planning of RSE, these themes are interwoven into the learning strands. Across the learning strands, curriculum content in RSE must be inclusive and reflect diversity.

It must include learning that develops pupils’ awareness and understanding of different identities, views and values and a diversity of relationships, gender and sexuality, including LGBTQ+ lives. Learning about rights and equity runs through all the strands, as well as embedding learning and experience through a rights-based approach to the learning.