Harmful sexual behaviour in schools training

Online courses to help manage harmful sexual behaviour in primary or secondary schools in the UK

Gain the knowledge you need to confidently identify and manage incidences of harmful or problematic sexualised behaviour.

Take our courses for primary or secondary schools and learn to:

recognise which sexual behaviours are developmentally typical, which are of concern, and what the possible contributing factors are
respond to incidents of sexualised behaviour and deal with the personal impact of witnessing this behaviour
record, with accuracy and detail, any incidents of sexualised behaviour in your school
report concerns internally and to external agencies, including children’s services
manage the risks of sexualised behaviour within your school by implementing safety plans.

The courses contain teaching pages, videos, reflective opportunities and learning activities so you can apply what you learn to your school environment.

Primary schools

Learning about sex and sexual behaviour begins at a young age. It’s often a healthy and normal part of a child’s development, but concerning behaviour can also start to emerge. An early response can help prevent children from harming themselves and others.

Secondary schools

Children at secondary school often spend more time unsupervised, can be greatly influenced by their peer group and have more exposure to social media, the internet and technology. These factors can influence their understanding of what healthy sexual behaviour looks like.

Primary and secondary schools training packages

Buy this course as a package of four courses covering the key areas you need to know about safeguarding and child protection: safeguarding training for schools, academies and colleges, safeguarding children with SEND, online safety and harmful sexual behaviour (HSB). Cost: £95

See schools training packages

Guidance in all four UK nations stresses the importance of providing an effective response to harmful sexual behaviour.

> Read about legislation and guidance relating to peer-on-peer sexual abuse

Benefits of the course

CPD certified.
Reflects guidance in all four UK nations.
Developed by subject matter experts specialising in preventing harmful sexual behaviour.
Complete at your own pace and in your own time.
Train anytime, anywhere and take the courses as many times as you like within one year.
Personalised downloadable certificate of achievement.
Purchasing licences on behalf of your team? Easily download reports to show who has completed the course.
Includes film interviews with experts and practitioners in the field, interactive quizzes, film scenarios and reflective tasks to help you develop your understanding and confidence.
Once you’ve taken the courses, it doesn’t stop there. We have a range of further information, training and downloadable resources to help you protect the children you work with.
Income generated from the sale of our training courses is reinvested back into the NSPCC to help protect children.

98%

of our customers would recommend NSPCC training

* We received 35,644 evaluation forms from people who had taken our elearning courses between 1st April 2023 - 31st March 2024. 35,074 (98.4%) said they would recommend the course they had taken.

What will I learn?

The courses contain five sections followed by an assessment to help you develop your understanding and confidence.

After completing either course, you will:

have a better understanding of which behaviours are healthy and which are of concern
feel confident in responding immediately to incidents of sexualised behaviour
be able to accurately record and detail any incidents
better manage the risks of sexualised behaviour by implementing safety plans.

Who is this course for?

Everyone who comes into contact with children and young people has a responsibility to keep them safe.

So whether you’re a teacher, teaching assistant, volunteer or supporting member of staff, our elearning courses will help you to identify and effectively respond to problematic or harmful sexual behaviour in your primary or secondary school.

This course is also available as part of our elearning packages for primary and secondary schools.

Why take your training with the NSPCC?

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.

And as a charity, income generated from the sale of our training courses is reinvested back into the NSPCC to help protect children.

CPD-certified online course

This elearning course is CPD certified by the CPD Certification Service. This means you can be confident that the training meets the highest standards.

Continuing professional development, or CPD for short, helps professionals keep their skills and knowledge up to date. It demonstrates your commitment to safeguarding children and upholding the standards of your profession.

Some professional associations have mandatory CPD or safeguarding training requirements for their members, but all professionals will benefit from investing time in their CPD. And taking an online CPD course means you can train at your own pace, wherever suits you.

Technical requirements

Our online courses 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 for the course to run.

This course can be taken 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 with the course?

Try:

clearing your cache
accepting our cookies (essential cookies are required for the purposes of undertaking our elearning)
turning off private browsing
permitting access to videos on Vimeo
setting the following web domain to ‘trusted’: https://mylearning.nspcc.org.uk

Call us on 0116 234 7246 or email learning@nspcc.org.uk if you have any questions.

Quantity	Price per person
1-9	£35.00
10-49	£31.50
50-99	£29.75
100-999	£28.00

Online courses to help manage harmful sexual behaviour in primary or secondary schools in the UK

Primary schools

Secondary schools

Primary and secondary schools training packages

Benefits of the course

What will I learn?

Who is this course for?

Why take your training with the NSPCC?

CPD-certified online course

Technical requirements

Buy our online course

“It has given clear guidelines on how to approach these situations and manage them efficiently and effectively for the young person and staff in school.”

Pastoral Team Leader, Primary schools course

"Reaffirmed my understanding of how to manage such incidents and has therefore enabled me to advise and support both a member of staff, two pupils and parents.”

Deputy Headteacher, Secondary schools course

Related courses

Related resources