Anti-misogyny lessons to be taught in school in a bid to tackle sexism ‘epidemic'
The relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) framework specifically aims to help boys find positive role models, countering the increasing spread of sexist online content from 'manosphere' influencers like Andrew Tate.
It also stresses the need to avoid 'stigmatising boys for being boys'.
Beyond lessons on 'incel' (involuntary celibate) culture, secondary schools will be required to provide young people with greater awareness of AI, deepfakes, and the links between pornography and misogyny.
The guidance comes as the Department for Education (DfE) warned that misogynistic attitudes had reached 'epidemic scale' among young people, with 54 per cent of those aged 11-19 saying they had witnessed misogynist comments.
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said: 'Before I was elected to Parliament, I managed a refuge for women and children fleeing domestic violence, so I have seen first-hand the devastating impact when we don't foster healthy attitudes from the youngest age.
'I want our children to be equipped to defy the malign forces that exist online. Schools and parents alike have a vital role to play, helping children identify positive role models and resist the manipulation too often used online to groom impressionable young minds.'
In its manifesto last year, Labour pledged to halve the rate of violence against women and girls in 10 years.
And earlier in 2025, Sir Keir Starmer praised the Netflix drama Adolescence for highlighting how misogyny had 'taken on a different form' and said he wanted a discussion on what could be done to stop young boys 'being dragged into this whirlpool of hatred and misogyny'.
Margaret Mulholland, of the Association of School and College Leaders, welcomed the new guidance and its focus on finding positive male role models for boys, saying it was 'important that we don't simply tell boys what is wrong'.
The previous Conservative government proposed changing the guidance on RSHE in May last year, with then-prime minister Rishi Sunak expressing concern children were being exposed to 'inappropriate' content.
The draft guidance, which was open to a nine-week consultation, proposed clear age limits on the teaching of certain topics to ensure children were not 'exposed to too much too soon'.
It said sex education should be taught no earlier than Year 5, when pupils are aged nine to 10, and that what is described as the 'contested topic of gender identity' should not be taught at all.
The proposed guidance said schools should 'at minimum' show parents a representative sample of teaching resources they plan to use and that schools 'should respond positively to requests from parents to see material that has not already been shared'.
While Tuesday's revised guidance includes the requirement to provide parents with teaching materials, the new Government has scrapped the proposal to prescribe specific ages at which individual topics are taught.
The DfE said there would be a 'strong new emphasis on age-appropriate' teaching, and a 'clear dividing line' between primary and secondary school.
But the guidance would allow teachers to 'sensitively respond to topics that children might have seen online or heard from their friends', with research suggesting 22% of primary school-aged girls had seen 'rude images online'.
Tuesday's guidance also includes requirements on helping children with their mental health, including working with mental health professionals to discuss suicide prevention 'in an age-appropriate way'.
Children will be taught the importance of 'grit and resilience' in order to help them 'feel able to take on challenges and risks'.
Andy Airey, Mike Palmer and Tim Owen – who founded suicide prevention charity 3 Dads Walking in memory of their daughters – said: 'Giving schools permission to talk about suicide prevention means more young people can be supported to open up about difficult feelings and know where to find help.
'We know, from painful personal experience, how much this matters. This change will save lives.'
Schools will be able to implement the guidance from September this year, and must follow it from September 2026.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
28 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Cenotaph wreath rules were changed to placate unionists, Blair-era files show
Tony Blair's government altered the rules on party leaders laying wreaths at the Cenotaph to keep unionists onboard with Northern Ireland's peace process, newly released files show. The decision was taken in the run-up to the Remembrance Sunday ceremony in 2004 to change rules drawn up in 1984 that meant leaders of parties who won at least six seats at the previous general election could lay a wreath. The old rules meant that David Trimble, whose Ulster Unionist party (UUP) had won six seats in 2001, could take part, while his rival Ian Paisley could not, after his Democratic Unionist party (DUP) won five seats. However, when Jeffrey Donaldson defected from the UUP to the DUP in 2003, the balance was reversed, and the Democratic Unionists complained they were being treated unfairly. Papers released by the National Archives show that the then Northern Ireland secretary, Paul Murphy, wrote to colleagues in government: 'We will undoubtedly face renewed pressure from the the DUP this year given that they are now not only the largest NI party but also have six Westminster MPs (and had done resoundingly well in the assembly and Euro elections).' 'But we are now involved in intensive dialogue over the political future in Northern Ireland in which the DUP, and the UUP, are the key players,' he added in a memo to which Blair was copied in. 'I fear, therefore, there are now pressing political reasons for amending the 1984 formulation.' Charlie Falconer, then the constitutional affairs secretary, expressed concern, saying there could be an 'adverse reaction' from Scottish and Welsh nationalist parties to the prospect of two wreaths being laid by Northern Irish parties while they were limited to laying a joint wreath. Paisley went on to lay a wreath at the Cenotaph for the first time, a reflection of the DUP's status as the largest party in Northern Ireland at that point, with Trimble also taking part. Other files reveal how Blair's chief of staff had urged him privately to convince 'securocrats' in the British state of the need to be brave and swiftly tear down watchtowers and armoured bases as part of a move to get the IRA onboard as the peace process hung in the balance. 'As always we have no plan B,' Jonathan Powell wrote to Blair in December 2002 at a time when he judged the situation to be 'pretty grim' after the first collapse of Northern Ireland's power-sharing executive, loyalist paramilitary violence and attempts to get the IRA to demobilise. Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion But the files also illustrate the high-stakes balancing act the Blair administration was engaged in amid negotiations with Irish republicans and handling pushback from Britain's security services. 'The only way to get the IRA onboard is to go for full normalisation in one go. It is probably also the safest way to do it – we need to make republicans responsible for the safety of police in places like south Armagh with a warning we will reverse the steps if they are harmed. And that can only be done if we go the whole way,' wrote Powell. 'The securocrats will tell you that all we can do is take a few minor steps, that the threat from dissidents remains etc. You will need to convince them when you see them in the first week back that they have to draw up a plan to go straight to pulling down all towers, pulling down armoured police stations etc. This will require real bravery on their part.'
BBC News
28 minutes ago
- BBC News
Targets of new people smuggling sanctions to be announced
Gang leaders, corrupt officials and companies selling small boat equipment will be named this week as the first targets of new government sanctions against financial action - which the government says is a world-first - is aimed at tackling illegal immigration to the UK and is central to Sir Keir Starmer's plan to disrupt the English Channel crossings by "smashing the gangs" that are organising sanctions strategy was first unveiled in January but the government has now indicated that it is ready to announce on Wednesday the dozens of people who will have their assets frozen, and will be banned from entering the UK and engaging with its financial Secretary David Lammy said: "For too long, criminal gangs have been lining their corrupt pockets and preying on the hopes of vulnerable people with impunity as they drive irregular migration to the UK." People targeted by the sanctions include those who supply fake documents and finance small boats, as well as "middlemen" who push money through Hawala networks, an informal system for organising money transfers often used by Minister Sir Keir Starmer is under growing pressure to stem the flow of migrants reaching the UK, after pledging to "smash" people-smuggling gangs ever since the general election campaign a year this month, he signed a "one in, one out" deal with France to return migrants to France for the equivalent number of legal asylum seekers, subject to security checks. In the first six months of this year, more than 20,000 people crossed in small boats, an increase of nearly 50% on the previous year, according to Home Office Monday, shadow home secretary Chris Philp said the number of people entering the UK illegally was causing a "public safety crisis" for women and girls."The truth is you don't stop the Channel crossings by freezing a few bank accounts in Baghdad or slapping a travel ban on a dinghy dealer in Damascus," Philp said in a on Monday, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said that people protesting outside a hotel used to house asylum seekers in Essex were "genuinely concerned families". Bottles and flares were thrown towards police during the demonstration, which Downing Street condemned."I don't think anybody in London even understands just how close we are to civil disobedience on a vast scale in this country," Farage said in a speech on Monday. The government says that the new sanctions will target immigration crime gangs "where traditional law enforcement and criminal justice approaches cannot reach". Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, said the new sanctions regime is a "decisive step in our fight against the criminal gangs who profit from human misery"."It will allow us to target the assets and operations of people-smugglers wherever they operate, cutting off their funding and dismantling their networks piece by piece," she said.
Scotsman
an hour ago
- Scotsman
Voting at 16 can make elections a habit
Sixteen and 17 year olds in Scotland have been able to vote in Holyrood and council elections for more than a decade. And thanks to last week's announcement by the UK Government, that will now be extended to Westminster elections too. Sign up to our daily newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to Edinburgh News, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... It's a logical move and fulfils a Labour election pledge, but UK-wide polls suggest nearly half voters oppose it, so the case will have to be made again. Scotland introduced votes at 16 for the 2014 independence referendum and then extended it to Scottish Parliament and council elections. Those who first got the vote at 16 were more likely to vote in subsequent elections, researchers found Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The year after the referendum, a study found 16 and 17 year-olds in Scotland were more engaged with politics - researching issues, taking part in demonstrations, signing petitions and engaging with elected representatives - than people of the same age elsewhere in the UK. Sadly, the effect did not seem to last. Research by Edinburgh University academics in the context of the last Scottish Parliament elections in 2021 concluded that the lowering of the voting age had not led to any long-term increase in political engagement among young people. But what did last was an increased likelihood of turning out to vote. The research by Jan Eichhorn and Christine Hübner found those who first became entitled to vote at 16 were more likely to turn out at the 2021 election than those who were first able to vote at 18 or older. And this applied not only to those who first got the vote at the referendum, but also those who became eligible at subsequent elections. The researchers say: "This suggests a lasting positive effect of being allowed to vote from 16 on young people's voter turnout as they grow up." Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Opponents will claim that at 16 people are not mature enough to vote. The same argument was made when the voting age was reduced from 21 to 18 in 1969. Indeed, the Speaker's Conference, a cross-party body looking at election rules, recommended only reducing it to 20. But the Labour government had already accepted another committee's recommendations to lower the age of majority to 18, so decided the voting age should follow suit. The latest change will bring England into line with Scotland and Wales, which also has votes at 16 for Senedd and council elections. The next challenge is to increase citizenship education, give young people more opportunities for genuine engagement and show them it can make a difference.
