How we work

Our approach

Tailor Education publishes RSE content for UK schools. This page sets out the thinking, the evidence, and the discipline behind it — how we write, what we align to, how we safeguard, and how we keep the work current.

Every lesson and answer we publish is written, reviewed, and defended by name.

Pedagogy

How we teach RSE

Four threads run through everything we publish: evidence, age, inclusion, honesty. They are not separate values to be traded off against each other. They weave together into a single way of thinking about what belongs in an RSE classroom.

Evidence-based

Our content is grounded in pedagogical research and UK-specific practice. We draw on peer-reviewed work on adolescent development, disclosure behaviour, and effective pedagogy — and on direct classroom experience of what lands and what doesn't.

We refuse ideology-led content in either direction. What we teach is what the evidence supports; what it doesn't support, we don't teach.

Age-appropriate

Every page is calibrated to developmental stage. Lesson activities map to year groups; Okay to Ask content carries a three-tier sensitivity flag that signals when material is aimed at older readers.

Age-appropriateness and honesty are not in tension. A seven-year-old needs different words from a fifteen-year-old; both deserve accurate ones.

Age-appropriateness and honesty are not in tension. We calibrate the language, not the truth.

Inclusive

Equality Act 2010 protected characteristics inform every activity we publish. We don't write from a heteronormative or cisnormative default. We use correct terminology by discipline, not as decoration, and we assume the full range of identities and family shapes in every classroom we write for. Inclusion is how the content is built, not a section added at the end.

Honest

Young people ask direct questions and deserve direct answers. We use clear language where clarity is needed, and avoid euphemism that would leave a reader more confused than before. We respect young people's intelligence and safeguard their innocence without talking down to them.

Framework alignment

The frameworks we align to

Our content is mapped, in detail, to four reference frameworks. Each of them shapes what we teach and how we sequence it — and none is treated as a checklist to be ticked and filed.

DfE statutory guidance

Department for Education statutory guidance for Relationships Education, RSE and Health Education (2020, revised 2026) (opens in new tab)

The Department for Education's statutory guidance sets out what schools in England must teach as part of Relationships Education at primary, RSE at secondary, and Health Education across both phases. It defines both the required learning and the boundaries on what should be covered at each age.

How Tailor maps. Every Tailor lesson plan is cross-referenced to the relevant sections of the statutory guidance. Where the guidance specifies a learning outcome, one of our pages addresses it — with the mapping shown in the plan's metadata. Where the guidance draws a line on what is covered at primary versus secondary, we hold that line.

  • Each lesson plan lists the DfE guidance sections it addresses.
  • Primary content never covers topics the guidance reserves for secondary.
  • The 2026 revisions are tracked against each affected page during our annual review.

PSHE Association Programme of Study

PSHE Association Programme of Study for PSHE Education (KS1–KS5) (opens in new tab)

The PSHE Association's Programme of Study is the sector-standard curriculum framework for PSHE Education in England, covering Key Stages 1 through 5. It maps learning outcomes across Relationships, Living in the Wider World, and Health & Wellbeing, with clear progression between key stages.

How Tailor maps. Our lesson plans are mapped to Programme of Study learning outcomes by key stage. When we build a new unit, we start from the Programme of Study objectives and work back to activities and resources — not the other way round.

  • Every lesson is tagged with the Programme of Study outcomes it covers.
  • Progression across key stages follows the Programme of Study sequencing.
  • Teachers completing our training can locate any lesson within the Programme of Study at a glance.

UNESCO International Technical Guidance

UNESCO International Technical Guidance on Sexuality Education (revised edition, 2018) (opens in new tab)

UNESCO's International Technical Guidance on Sexuality Education is the international evidence-based standard for comprehensive sexuality education. It synthesises decades of research into age-banded learning objectives, informed by the WHO, UNAIDS, UNFPA, and UN Women.

How Tailor maps. We use the Technical Guidance as an evidence reference for decisions beyond what UK guidance specifies — particularly around rights-based framings, consent, and the developmental appropriateness of specific concepts at specific ages. Where UK guidance is silent, the Technical Guidance informs what we do.

WHO European Standards

WHO Regional Office for Europe — Standards for Sexuality Education in Europe (opens in new tab)

The WHO Regional Office for Europe's Standards for Sexuality Education in Europe, developed with the German Federal Centre for Health Education (BZgA), set out a framework for holistic sexuality education aligned with children's developmental stages from early years onwards.

How Tailor maps. We cross-reference our age-banding decisions against the WHO standards, particularly for topics that go beyond biology into emotional development, relationships, and gender. Where UK guidance and the WHO standards diverge, we follow UK guidance and note the difference.

Safeguarding

Safeguarding is built in, not bolted on

Every activity we publish is designed in the knowledge that, somewhere in the room, a young person may be living through the topic on the page. Safeguarding is not a paragraph at the back of a lesson plan — it shapes how we choose what to teach, how we structure activities, and how we train teachers to respond.

Disclosure-aware activity design

Activities are designed so that a disclosure mid-lesson is safe for the young person disclosing. Group formats allow private follow-up. Questions never force personal disclosure. Every teacher-facing activity includes a trained-adult loop: what to say, what to do next, and where to refer.

FGM mandatory reporting duties

Where FGM is in scope, our content acknowledges the statutory duty under section 74 of the Serious Crime Act 2015 and prepares teachers to act on it. Teachers leaving one of our training sessions know what the duty requires, when it applies, and how to meet it.

KCSIE awareness

Keeping Children Safe in Education informs activity design, content guardrails, and the content sensitivity flagging system. Our content is written by people working inside the KCSIE framework, not people bolting onto it afterwards.

Content sensitivity system

Okay to Ask uses a three-tier age flag on every published question. The flag tells a reader at a glance whether the material is aimed at younger, older, or general audiences. The tiers are decided by the editorial team against explicit criteria, not by an algorithm. You can see the system in action on the questions index.

Editorial process

How content is written, reviewed and kept current

Our content is authored, reviewed, and maintained on a transparent schedule. Nothing we publish is static. Every page carries the date it was last reviewed, and substantive updates are logged openly.

Who writes

Every page is written by Gareth Esson, an RSE specialist who delivers training and classroom sessions across the UK. Content is not crowdsourced, not AI-generated, and not bought from template libraries. See Gareth's full background on our About page.

How it is reviewed

Every live page is reviewed on an annual schedule. We trigger an out-of-cycle review on any substantive change to DfE statutory guidance, the PSHE Association Programme of Study, or Keeping Children Safe in Education.

How it stays current

Every page carries a visible Last reviewed date. Substantive updates are logged. Corrections are versioned and dated inline on the affected page — we don't silently edit history.

If you spot something out of date, misleading, or just plain wrong, please tell us — there's a feedback link on every page.

Want to talk to us?

If you have questions about how we work, what we teach, or how we might help your school, we're happy to hear from you.

Get in touch