Talk Relationships supports all secondary education settings in the UK to confidently deliver inclusive sex and relationships education.
We want all young people across the UK to understand healthy behaviours in relationships and recognise their right to be safe, heard and respected. And to know how to get help from a safe adult if they need it.
Talk Relationships is a comprehensive service to ensure secondary school-aged young people across all four nations of the UK can learn about sex and relationships in a safe education environment that recognises, responds to and prevents abuse.
We use the term sex and relationships education (SRE) to encompass the range of different terms used in guidance and the curriculums of each nation in the UK.
Talk Relationships includes:
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Illustration credits
Talk Relationships illustrations by Frieda Ruh.
A whole-school approach to healthy relationships education ensures that everyone in your school community works together to create a respectful, inclusive school environment as part of an effective sex and relationships (SRE) curriculum.
It involves promoting healthy relationships and creating a school culture where young people feel safe from abuse and empowered to speak out and seek help whenever they need it.
Find out more about the available resources in this section or download all the Talk Relationships whole-school approach resources for free by completing a short form.
Find out more about the whole-school approach and our Talk Relationships resources.
Access our free on-demand CPD-certified school leaders’ webinar.
We’ve created a suite of resources to help you implement a whole-school approach to healthy relationships in your education setting.
The whole-school framework consists of:
We have also provided eight case studies of schools who have implemented our whole-school approach in different ways. These best practice examples can help you to reflect on how to implement a whole-school approach to healthy relationships in your school.
Schools can download all the Talk Relationships whole-school approach resources for free by completing a short form.
Our research tells us that young people want to be involved in developing their sex and relationships education (SRE). By listening to the voices of young people when shaping SRE provision, schools can ensure learning is relevant, credible and interesting.
To support schools to implement youth voice, we have developed two toolkits that:
Watch our film on the importance of youth voice in SRE, featuring young people from across the UK and celebrity supporter Jordan Stephens. Part of this conversation was structured using our Youth Voice Matters toolkit.
The EMPOWER toolkit gives schools a structured way of supporting a dedicated group of young people to quality assure their school’s SRE resources. This group works with a dedicated facilitator over a series of sessions and co-create recommendations to shape SRE to the needs of the school and students. Through EMPOWER, schools can demonstrate how they listen to and value youth voice.
A pilot of EMPOWER 24 schools across the UK highlighted the strengths of the approach and made recommendations that have been incorporated into the toolkit.
> Read the evidence brief on the EMPOWER pilot
Schools can download all the Talk Relationships whole-school approach resources for free by completing a short form.
Renold, E. et al (2023) “We have to educate ourselves”: how young people are learning about relationships, sex and sexuality. London: NSPCC.
We have developed resources to help schools engage parents and carers with the sex and relationships education being taught in school and support them to talk to their children about healthy relationships.
The resources are:
The guide and factsheets were created in collaboration with young people from our NSPCC Participation channels. Thank you to the young people who shared their views with us.
Schools can download all the Talk Relationships whole-school approach resources for free by completing a short form.
Access our free on-demand CPD-certified school leaders’ webinar, supporting you to take a whole-school approach to healthy relationships.
In just one hour we’ll cover what a whole-school approach is and how you can create a culture of safety and respect in your school. Plus, we’ll guide you through what’s new in Talk Relationships – including refreshed elearning for teachers, resources and films for working with parents and carers and the EMPOWER toolkit to give a voice to young people on their sex and relationships education.
By completing this webinar you’ll gain practical leadership strategies to drive consistency across school culture, a place where building and modelling healthy relationships is woven into every aspect of school life.
This webinar is available in both English and Welsh.
In a brand-new format, this CPD-certified course covers everything you need to confidently prepare and deliver sex and relationships education. You'll learn from safeguarding experts, young people and teachers via teaching pages, films and reflective tasks.
Gain the confidence and skills you need to:
This elearning is available in both English and Welsh.
Our online courses and recorded webinars will work in most browsers, though we recommend that you use Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge or Safari (not Firefox). You will need to make sure your browser is up to date.
Courses and recordings can be accessed on PCs and Macs, as well as iPads or other tablet devices. Please note, we are unable to provide full technical support for tablet users. We do not support other mobile devices.
Having trouble?
Try:
Call us on 0116 234 7246 or email learning@nspcc.org.uk if you have any questions.
Call us on 0116 234 7246 or email learning@nspcc.org.uk if you have any questions.
At the NSPCC, we work to keep children and young people safe from abuse and neglect every day.
As experts in safeguarding and child protection, we understand the issues organisations and people working with children can face. That’s why professionals trust us to provide the support, training and resources they need to help protect the children and young people they work with.
Our highly-rated training courses are developed by experts. We work with a number of organisations, experienced consultants and subject matter experts in a range of sectors to develop courses that are clear, easy-to-use, up-to-date and in line with the latest statutory guidance, and tailored to your needs.
Guidance for teachers and group leaders on talking to children and young people about healthy relationships.
Evidence-informed resources to help you ensure children always feel listened to - watch the animation, follow the tips and display the poster.
Training to help you confidently recognise and manage incidents of HSB. Suitable for everyone working or volunteering with children and young people, including schools and education.
Working with the PSHE Association, we’ve developed a series of age- and stage-appropriate lesson plans and accompanying guidance for teaching young people aged 11 to 16 about sex and relationships.
There are 15 lessons available in English and Welsh language. We also have a series of six lesson plans for children with additional or special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
Each lesson builds knowledge, understanding and skills on how to negotiate relationships in healthy and safe ways.
There is one overarching teaching guidance document and individual lesson plans, each of which contains:
You can download all of the lesson plans for each age group, language or stage as one ZIP file, or download individual lessons.
We recommend taking the supporting Talk Relationships training before delivering the lessons.
There is an elearning course for teachers and one for school leaders.
This lesson is designed for the final year of primary school. It explores the conflicting feelings that young people may have about starting secondary school and teaches them ways to express these feelings and manage this transition positively.
It accompanies the three Talk Relationships lessons that are designed for ages 11 to 12.
This lesson is also available in Welsh.
We recommend taking the supporting Talk Relationships training before delivering the lessons.
There is an elearning course for teachers and one for school leaders.
Our accompanying teaching guidance will help you plan and deliver the full series of Talk Relationships lessons for different age groups.
The Talk Relationships lesson plan documents are the intellectual property of NSPCC Learning. They are designed for use in schools and are provided to you for downloading. The lesson plans cover topics including friendships, communicating online, personal space and consent.
Following feedback from teachers, the PowerPoints have been made editable, so as to reflect the needs of the school by name/logo additions and amendments to reflect the school locality and community. However, they may not be amended in any other way. The NSPCC and PSHE logos cannot be removed nor amended.
The documents must not be used for commercial purposes. We do not accept any responsibility for action taken as a result of information inputted into the PowerPoints relating to your school. You should take specific advice when dealing with specific situations.
The three Talk Relationships lessons for 11- and 12-year-olds cover how to deal with changes to friendships, what healthy relationships look like and how to respond to hurtful behaviour.
You can download all of the lesson plans together in one ZIP file or as individual lessons. They are also available in Welsh.
We recommend taking the supporting Talk Relationships training before delivering the lessons.
There is an elearning course for teachers and one for school leaders.
Our accompanying teaching guidance will help you plan and deliver the full series of Talk Relationships lessons for different age groups.
The Talk Relationships lesson plan documents are the intellectual property of NSPCC Learning. They are designed for use in schools and are provided to you for downloading. The lesson plans cover topics including friendships, communicating online, personal space and consent.
Following feedback from teachers, the PowerPoints have been made editable, so as to reflect the needs of the school by name/logo additions and amendments to reflect the school locality and community. However, they may not be amended in any other way. The NSPCC and PSHE logos cannot be removed nor amended.
The documents must not be used for commercial purposes. We do not accept any responsibility for action taken as a result of information inputted into the PowerPoints relating to your school. You should take specific advice when dealing with specific situations.
The seven Talk Relationships lessons for 12- to 14-year-olds cover topics including what healthy relationships look like, how to respond to sexualised media, sexual harassment and harmful sexual behaviour, and preventing gender-based violence.
You can download all of the lesson plans together in one ZIP file or as individual lessons. They are also available in Welsh.
We recommend taking the supporting Talk Relationships training before delivering the lessons.
There is an elearning course for teachers and one for school leaders.
Our accompanying teaching guidance will help you plan and deliver the full series of Talk Relationships lessons for different age groups.
The Talk Relationships lesson plan documents are the intellectual property of NSPCC Learning. They are designed for use in schools and are provided to you for downloading. The lesson plans cover topics including friendships, communicating online, personal space and consent.
Following feedback from teachers, the PowerPoints have been made editable, so as to reflect the needs of the school by name/logo additions and amendments to reflect the school locality and community. However, they may not be amended in any other way. The NSPCC and PSHE logos cannot be removed nor amended.
The documents must not be used for commercial purposes. We do not accept any responsibility for action taken as a result of information inputted into the PowerPoints relating to your school. You should take specific advice when dealing with specific situations.
The four Talk Relationships lessons for 14- to 16-year-olds cover topics including rights, trust and values, communication and readiness, and pornography.
You can download all of the lesson plans together in one ZIP file or as individual lessons. They are also available in Welsh.
We recommend taking the supporting Talk Relationships training before delivering the lessons.
There is an elearning course for teachers and one for school leaders.
Our accompanying teaching guidance will help you plan and deliver the full series of Talk Relationships lessons for different age groups.
The Talk Relationships lesson plan documents are the intellectual property of NSPCC Learning. They are designed for use in schools and are provided to you for downloading. The lesson plans cover topics including friendships, communicating online, personal space and consent.
Following feedback from teachers, the PowerPoints have been made editable, so as to reflect the needs of the school by name/logo additions and amendments to reflect the school locality and community. However, they may not be amended in any other way. The NSPCC and PSHE logos cannot be removed nor amended.
The documents must not be used for commercial purposes. We do not accept any responsibility for action taken as a result of information inputted into the PowerPoints relating to your school. You should take specific advice when dealing with specific situations.
This series of six Talk Relationships lesson plans is designed for children and young people who have special educational needs (SEN), additional support needs (ASN) or additional learning needs (ALN). The lesson plans cover topics including friendships, communicating online, personal space and consent.
The lessons are designed for use with young people aged 11 to 16 with Moderate Learning Disabilities, additional learning needs and may benefit some young people on the autistic spectrum.
We use the term special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) throughout the resources, but we appreciate that different terms are used across the four UK nations. The lesson plans are suitable for use in special education settings across the UK.
You can download all of the SEND lesson plans together in one ZIP file or as individual lessons. They are also available in Welsh.
We recommend taking the supporting Talk Relationships training before delivering the lessons.
There is an elearning course for teachers and one for school leaders.
Our accompanying teaching guidance will help you plan and deliver all the Talk Relationships SEND lessons.
The Talk Relationships lesson plan documents are the intellectual property of NSPCC Learning. They are designed for use in schools and are provided to you for downloading. The lesson plans cover topics including friendships, communicating online, personal space and consent.
Following feedback from teachers, the PowerPoints have been made editable, so as to reflect the needs of the school by name/logo additions and amendments to reflect the school locality and community. However, they may not be amended in any other way. The NSPCC and PSHE logos cannot be removed nor amended.
The documents must not be used for commercial purposes. We do not accept any responsibility for action taken as a result of information inputted into the PowerPoints relating to your school. You should take specific advice when dealing with specific situations.
We have created Welsh language versions of the Talk Relationships lesson plans for each age group which can be downloaded below.
You can also translate the text on this page into Welsh (or a different language) by clicking the Accessibility toolbar button below. This will open the toolbar at the top of the page. Click on the button showing 文A to change language. To turn the toolbar off, you can close it by clicking the ‘X’ top right.
We recommend taking the supporting Talk Relationships training before delivering the lessons.
There is an elearning course for teachers and one for school leaders.
These courses are only available in English.
The Talk Relationships lesson plan documents are the intellectual property of NSPCC Learning. They are designed for use in schools and are provided to you for downloading. The lesson plans cover topics including friendships, communicating online, personal space and consent.
Following feedback from teachers, the PowerPoints have been made editable, so as to reflect the needs of the school by name/logo additions and amendments to reflect the school locality and community. However, they may not be amended in any other way. The NSPCC and PSHE logos cannot be removed nor amended.
The documents must not be used for commercial purposes. We do not accept any responsibility for action taken as a result of information inputted into the PowerPoints relating to your school. You should take specific advice when dealing with specific situations.
Contact our dedicated Talk Relationships Helpline for advice on:
We are committed to supporting people working in secondary education to overcome any challenges they may face when delivering sex and relationships education. If there are any other related topics you want to discuss, please contact the Helpline and we will do our best to support you.
Call 0800 389 5347 or email help@nspcc.org.uk with "Talk Relationships" in the subject line.
We are available from 8am-8pm Monday to Friday and 9am-6pm on Saturday and Sunday.
If a child is in immediate danger, call the police on 999.
If you are in Northern Ireland and have a safeguarding query please contact the Education Authority Child Protection Support Service (CPSS) on 028 9598 5590.
If you are a professional and worried about how child protection issues are being handled within your own organisation contact our Whistleblowing Advice Line on 0800 028 0285 or email help@nspcc.org.uk. Find our more about the Whistleblowing Advice Line on the NSPCC website.
For any general questions about Talk Relationships or technical issues accessing the resources, please contact learning@nspcc.org.uk or call 0116 234 7246 Monday to Friday 9am-5pm.
What to do if you have concerns that a child you know through your work or volunteering has experienced abuse and neglect.
Evidence-informed resources to help you ensure children always feel listened to - watch the animation, follow the tips and display the poster.
Training to help you confidently recognise and manage incidents of HSB. Suitable for everyone working or volunteering with children and young people, including schools and education.
Talk Relationships supports the guidance and curriculum on:
The videos and resources below provide more information on how Talk Relationships lesson plans, whole-school approach resources and training supports your school’s delivery of the curriculum in your nation.
> Find out more about curriculum guidance across all four nations
Talk Relationships is available in both Welsh and English. We have produced Welsh language versions of the lesson plans, elearning for teachers and webinar for school leaders. Our whole-school approach resources are available in English and Welsh.
> Download Talk Relationships curriculum guidance in English for schools in Wales (PDF)
> Download lesson plan mapping guidance in English for schools in Wales (PDF)
> Download Talk Relationships curriculum guidance in Welsh for schools in Wales (PDF)
> Download lesson plan mapping guidance in Welsh for schools in Wales (PDF)
Find the answer to some of the most common questions about Talk Relationships.
Talk Relationships is a service from the NSPCC to ensure that secondary school-aged children and young people can learn about sex and relationships in a safe education environment that fosters healthy relationships and recognises, responds to, and prevents abuse.
Talk Relationships consists of:
Talk Relationships is free.
The Talk Relationships training is free to take after registering for a My Learning account.
The Talk Relationships lesson plans are free to download.
The Talk Relationships whole-school approach resources can be downloaded for free by completing a short form.
The Talk Relationships Helpline offers advice and guidance for free.
The Talk Relationships whole-school approach resources, elearning and lesson plans are appropriate for use across UK. Any differences in the law between the nations are addressed in the resources.
For schools in Wales, we have produced Welsh language versions of the lesson plans, our elearning for teachers and webinar for school leaders. Our whole-school approach resources are also available in English and Welsh.
To understand how Talk Relationships can support the delivery of your nation’s curriculum, visit our Curriculum information tab.
We’re using the term 'sex and relationships education' (SRE) to encompass the range of different terms used in guidance and the curriculums of each nation in the UK:
For more information on curriculum guidance across the four nations, visit our Promoting healthy relationships page.
We have developed six lesson plans to use with children with additional needs. The SEND lessons cover:
We are using the term special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) to refer to children who have disabilities or additional needs. Other terms may be used in your region, nation or organisation, including: additional needs, additional support for learning (ASL) or additional learning needs (ALN).
The resources are designed to teach young people about diverse relationships and identities, making sure all pupils feel accepted and included in sex and relationships lessons.
Call 0800 389 5347 or email help@nspcc.org.uk with "Talk Relationships" in the subject line.
We are available from 8am-10pm Monday to Friday and 9am-6pm on Saturday and Sunday.
The Talk Relationships elearning course for teachers and on-demand webinar for school leaders can be accessed through our online learning platform.
Anyone taking a course or watching a recording will need to register for an account.
If you're a new customer, a billing address will be required during registration, but you won't be charged.
The webinar and elearning are available in both English and Welsh.
The Talk Relationships lesson plans are for secondary school teachers to teach children and young people aged 11 to 16 years about sex and relationships. A series of 15 lesson plans are available in English and Welsh and there are 6 lesson plans for children with additional or special education needs and disabilities (SEND).
Written by subject specialists from the PSHE Association and the NSPCC, the age- and stage-appropriate lesson plans include teaching notes, slides and handouts.
To understand how lesson plans support the delivery of your national curriculum for sex and relationships education, visit our Curriculum information tab.
We encourage anyone wanting to use the lesson plans to first take the Talk Relationships elearning course for teachers to increase their knowledge and confidence in delivering sex and relationships education.
As a guide we have grouped the lesson plans into three age groups:
There is also a lesson plan designed for the final year of primary school and lesson plans for children with additional or special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
We recommend reviewing all the lesson plans to decide which topics are appropriate for the children and young people you are teaching.
The lesson plans were created by safeguarding and education experts at the PSHE Association and the NSPCC.
If you didn't find the answer that you’re looking for please email your question to learning@nspcc.org.uk.