About the Respectful Relationships Education program
An overview of the program and the tools and resources available to support schools delivering it.
The Respectful Relationships Education (RRE) program supports schools to deliver age-appropriate, evidence-based learning. It is available to all NSW government schools.
It is funded through the:
- Commonwealth Consent and Respectful Relationships Education (CRRE) Measure
- NSW Pathways to Prevention: NSW Strategy for the Prevention of Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence 2024–2028.
The program provides school staff with professional learning, expert support and teaching resources. The resources reflect the principles of RRE practice and cover:
- respectful relationships
- coercive control
- consent
- pornography.
The department has employed and trained specialised staff to work with schools. This allows the department to support the implementation of RRE.
School participation
In Term 3 each year, schools can express interest to join the RRE program.
Those selected to take part in 2026, 2027 and 2028 will receive funding to access:
- professional learning for all staff and leaders
- tools and resources for self assessment, whole-school RRE implementation and curriculum delivery
- evaluation at the school and system level
- cluster-based support from RRE specialised staff and mentoring by other schools.
The professional learning will help embed evidence-informed, whole-school approaches. These approaches aim to promote gender equality and address the drivers of gender-based violence.
Department collaboration
The department is working with key experts in areas such as:
- consent
- coercive control
- healthy masculinity
- gender-based violence
- pornography.
These experts are helping develop new age-appropriate, evidence-based teaching materials and professional learning.
The department is also a member of the National Respectful Relationships Education Working Group. This group brings together:
- academics
- experts in the field
- research
- agencies such as OurWatch who deliver evidence-based RRE in schools.
This collaboration allows states and territories to share their learnings, resources and approaches to delivery of RRE. This includes approaches to addressing pornography in the school setting.