Responding to the government's new RSHE guidance, Paul Whiteman, general secretary at school leaders' union NAHT, said:

"We are pleased to see that there are no age 'limits' included in this new guidance.

"Schools already work hard to ensure that teaching is age-appropriate and this approach gives them the vital flexibility to respond to their own community and the needs of pupils in their schools.

"We are broadly supportive of the need for additional topics in RSHE, and welcome the focus on increasing awareness of the malign influence of misogyny and deepfakes.

"These issues were raised by school leaders as concerns at our recent annual conference and they called for more guidance amid increasing instances of misogyny and violence against women and girls.

"However, the new guidance asks schools to teach more content with only the same amount of time available. Government cannot continue to impose additions to the curriculum without proposing how the additional teaching time needed is to be found. We will expect the Curriculum and Assessment Review to address this in time for the implementation of this new guidance in September 2026.

"NAHT has particular concerns that the inclusion of suicide prevention content has not been accompanied by a commitment from the government to provide funded training for all teachers to give them both the knowledge and the confidence they need to discuss suicide prevention and self-harm with young people.

"The provision of training is vital before this content becomes statutory and it is unacceptable that the guidance simply says that schools should work with mental health professionals to discuss how this sensitive content should be tackled in the classroom.

"NAHT will be looking at the guidance in detail over the coming days and speaking to our members to ensure any further concerns are raised with the Department for Education."