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:
- Healthy Relationships
- Risk
- Contraception
- STIs
- 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.

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

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.
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.

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

Explore the rest of our website!
- Information on STIs and what the symptoms are
- Where to find your nearest clinic to see walk-in opening hours, or contact details to make an appointment
- What method of contraception is right for me? and where can I get it?
- I’m concerned about the sexual exploitation of myself/or a friend
- What is consent and what do I need to know?