Being Safe (Secondary)

Curriculum content:

1. How to recognise, respect and communicate consent and boundaries in relationships,
including in early romantic relationships (in all contexts, including online) and early
sexual relationships that might involve kissing or touching. That kindness and care for
others requires more than just consent.
2. That there are a range of strategies for identifying, resisting and understanding pressure
in relationships from peers or others, including sexual pressure, and how to avoid
putting pressure on others.
3. How to determine whether other children, adults or sources of information are
trustworthy, how to judge when a relationship is unsafe (and recognise this in the
relationships of others); how to seek help or advice, including reporting concerns about
others, if needed.
4. How to increase their personal safety in public spaces, including when socialising with
friends, family, the wider community or strangers. Pupils should learn ways of seeking
help when needed and how to report harmful behaviour. Pupils should understand that
there are strategies they can use to increase their safety, and that this does not mean
they will be blamed if they are victims of harmful behaviour. Pupils might reflect on the
importance of trusting their instincts when something doesn’t feel right, and should
understand that in some situations a person might appear trustworthy but have harmful
intentions.
5. What constitutes sexual harassment or sexual violence, and that such behaviour is
unacceptable, emphasising that it is never the fault of the person experiencing it.
6. That sexual harassment includes unsolicited sexual language / attention / touching,
taking and/or sharing intimate or sexual images without consent, public sexual
harassment, pressuring other people to do sexual things, and upskirting.
7. The concepts and laws relating to sexual violence, including rape and sexual assault.
8. The concepts and laws relating to harmful sexual behaviour, which includes all types of
sexual harassment and sexual violence among young people but also includes other
forms of concerning behaviour like using age-inappropriate sexual language.
9. The concepts and laws relating to domestic abuse, including controlling or coercive
behaviour, emotional, sexual, economic or physical abuse, and violent or threatening
behaviour. (The Domestic Abuse Act 2021 recognised children who see, hear, or experience the effects of abuse,
and are related to either the victim of the abusive behaviour, or the perpetrator, as victims of domestic
abuse in their own right (part 1 section 3). The Domestic Abuse Act 2021 statutory guidance is designed to
support statutory and non-statutory bodies working with victims of domestic abuse, including children.)

10. That fixated, obsessive, unwanted and repeated behaviours can be criminal, and where
to get help if needed.
11. The concepts and laws relating to harms which are exploitative, including sexual
exploitation, criminal exploitation and abuse, grooming, and financial exploitation.
12. The concepts and laws relating to forced marriage.
13. The physical and emotional damage which can be caused by female genital mutilation
(FGM), virginity testing and hymenoplasty, where to find support, and the law around
these areas. This should include that it is a criminal offence for anyone to perform or assist in the performance of FGM, virginity testing or hymenoplasty, in the UK or
abroad, or to fail to protect a person under 16 for whom they are responsible.
14. That strangulation and suffocation are criminal offences, and that strangulation
(applying pressure to the neck) is an offence, regardless of whether it causes injury.
That any activity that involves applying force or pressure to someone’s neck or covering
someone’s mouth and nose is dangerous and can lead to serious injury or death.
15. That pornography presents some activities as normal which many people do not and
will never engage in, some of which can be emotionally and/or physically harmful.
16. How to seek support for their own worrying or abusive behaviour or for worrying or
abusive behaviour they have experienced from others, including information on where
to report abuse, and where to seek medical attention when required, for example after
an assault.