New 2025 RSHE Guidance – Changes to the Primary Curriculum
Relationships Education (Primary): The core content of primary relationships education remains focused on friendships, families, respect, and safety, but the final guidance has changed
At Cre8tive Resources have gone through and compared the Draft RSHE Review with the Final Guidance and here isa summary of all the changes below:
Relationships Education (Primary): The core content of primary relationships education remains focused on friendships, families, respect, and safety, but the final guidance introduces some nuances. Both draft and final cover the importance of teaching about different family structures (including single-parent and same-sex parent families) and friendships. The final guidance places a fresh emphasis on cultivating respect and kindness early on, as well as recognising and reporting abuse. For example, it “strongly encourages primary schools to… include same-sex parents along with other family structures” when teaching about healthy families reaffirming inclusivity (the draft had similar content, noting primary teaching should ensure children with same-sex parents see their families reflected).
The final also explicitly mentions equipping younger pupils to understand boundaries and identify abusive behaviour so they can seek help, reflecting a greater stress on safeguarding even at primary level. There is an increased clarity that correct anatomical terms for body parts should be taught in primary (as part of health education) to support safeguarding – “good safeguarding practice requires [children] to understand the correct terms for different parts of the body”. This point is made more explicit in the final guidance, whereas the draft touched on personal safety in general terms.
Sex Education (Primary): In England, sex education at primary level is not compulsory (beyond the science curriculum), but many schools choose to teach some aspects with parental permission. The draft guidance acknowledged this by advising any primary sex education should focus on the basics (such as how babies are conceived and born, in an age-appropriate way) and not be about promoting sexual activity. The final guidance maintains this careful approach: it states that the aim of primary sex education is “not to prepare pupils for sexual activity”, but to answer children’s questions factually and give them a basic understanding of reproduction and their bodies.
The right of parents to withdraw from any dedicated sex-ed lessons in primary is unchanged and reiterated (see Parental Rights section). One subtle update is that the final guidance encourages integrating any such content into the health curriculum where possible – for example, teaching about puberty and human reproduction as part of science/health, which can ensure all pupils get the knowledge they need before secondary school.
Overall, the content topics for primary did not radically change between draft and final, but the framing in the final is slightly more proactive about ensuring pupils know how to stay safe (offline and online) and feel confident to speak up. The structure of the final guidance also situates primary content in a continuum leading into secondary, rather than treating it in isolation.
Health Education (Primary): Primary health and wellbeing education in the final guidance continues to cover physical health (e.g. exercise, nutrition, basic first aid), mental wellbeing (emotions, self-care), and puberty. New content in 2025 guidance (both draft and final) includes greater detail on menstrual health (teaching about menstruation and also conditions like heavy menstrual bleeding) and basic fertility knowledge appropriate to older primary pupils. The final guidance retains the draft’s additions on teaching about the changes approaching adolescence, including emotional changes and the concept that some anxiety or mood fluctuation is normal.
There is also an increased mention of online safety even at primary level – for instance, teaching younger children rules for staying safe online and what to do if they encounter something upsetting. While online behavior was in the original curriculum, the updated guidance is more explicit due to growing concerns (e.g. it notes many children are exposed to inappropriate content even in pre-teen years). In sum, the primary curriculum content in the final guidance builds upon the draft’s proposals by reinforcing safety (both in relationships and online) and laying early foundations for respect, resilience, and health.