Young people

Why is RSE important?

Our RSE lessons will equip you with knowledge, skills and resilience you will need to make safer choices as you grow to adulthood – including learning how to recognise and manage risk, how to spot signs of healthy and unhealthy behaviours in relationships and how to find support services which can help them protect their sexual health. RSE supports you to prepare for the challenges you may face in the future, and covers age-appropriate topics as you progress through school.

Whether you’ve had your RSE lesson and would like further information or you have some lessons coming up and want to feel more prepared – this page contains what you need to know about our lessons on:

  1. Healthy Relationships
  2. Risk
  3. Contraception
  4. STIs
  5. Substance Misuse

What we’ll teach you

These lessons do not assume that people are sexually active, we ask you to take part, learn as much as you can and store it all in your mind for a time in life when it will be useful.

Watch the Intro video.

Lesson 1: :Healthy relationships

An introductory session on how to recognise the characteristics of healthy and unhealthy relationships – which which involves a group task. Watch the video.

Lesson 2: Risk

This lesson is broken into two sections;

  1. Relationship myths and dispelling some commonly held myths in both sex and relationships
  2. Understanding risk and knowing how to keep safe in different situations

Watch the video.

Lesson 3: Contraception

We start by looking at a range of contraception options available and discuss where to get them from – including how same sex relationships benefit from them. This lesson also covered confidentiality in the sexual health clinics, consensual relationships and developing skills to talk about sex and relationships with other people – including partners, parents and health professionals.

Watch the video.

Lesson 4: STIs

This lesson is about knowing what it mean to be sexually healthy. We explain what STIs are and how the are transmitted – which can feel medical and detailed but it depends on the questions asked in class. The Spectrum RSE team do their best to communicate this lesson in a factual and easy to understand way so you feel confident and equipped to prevent STIs and know how to look after your sexual health.

Watch the video.

Lesson 5: Substance misuse

In our final lesson we think about what being resilient means and how you always have a range of options to draw on when in tough or tricky situations. Alcohol and other substances can alter your perception of risk and we will do a task that helps you reflect on this. This is followed by a condom demonstration – which fits well with our prevention messages and equips you with the skills to use condoms safely.

We also reflect back on everything learnt over the programme, with time to ask any further questions.

Watch the video

Puberty

What is puberty? Watch this video for a 2 minute explanation.

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“After one of these lessons taught at my school in Wakefield, I went up to the teacher from the RSE team and told her I’d had unprotected sex only 3 days ago.

I’d been off school for ages and only attended the lesson after my other teachers said how interesting and fun the RSE classes are. I didn’t realise the risks of unprotected sex and hadn’t even thought about pregnancy until it all talked about that day.

The RSE team explained how we (young people) can get free condoms on their C-card scheme and told us that our local Spectrum Sexual Health clinic offers advice and support with all things related to sexual health. I learnt that if i want to look into methods of contraception or be tested for STIs there are walk-in appointments that don’t require calling the clinic first, or youth drop-in sessions that are only for young people. The best thing was hearing about EHC (Emergency Hormonal Contraceptive) or the ‘morning after pill’ which I didn’t really know much about before – especially that in can be taken 3-5 days after sex!

It’s then I realised that I put myself at risk of not only STIs but pregnancy too. I talked with the RSE teacher after class and she helped me book in for an appointment at my local Spectrum sexual health clinic for emergency contraception and an STI test.”