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:
Video – Building respectful school communities (1:08)
Male voiceover
Respectful Relationships Education begins with safe and supportive environments where every person feels valued and protected.
[Screen shows a house. The focus shifts to a person inside, suggesting an environment where the individual is safe.]
Female voiceover
It's about listening to one another and creating space for conversations.
[Screen shows an actively listening ear morphing into 2 speech bubbles.]
Male voiceover
It's about recognising boundaries, seeking consent and ensuring fairness and equality in all relationships.
[Screen shows 2 droplets hanging from a balancing scale, one contains a tick symbol and the other a raised hand.]
Female voiceover
It also means challenging harmful influences and learning to question attitudes and behaviours that can cause harm.
[Screen shows 3 cross symbols morphing into the shape of a mouth with a question mark appearing as the mouth opens to speak.]
Male voiceover
Respectful Relationships Education helps us focus on equality and wellbeing.
[Screen shows an equal sign morphing into an arrow and a plus sign, suggesting the symbols for female and male.]
Female voiceover
It empowers us to take action to protect and support ourselves and others.
[Screen shows an eye looking around before morphing into the shape of a protective umbrella.]
Male voiceover
By building skills and understanding, we strengthen connections piece by piece.
[Screen shows puzzle-piece shapes moving together and connecting.]
Female voiceover
Together we create communities built on respect, safety and equality for everyone.
[Screen shows a full illustration of all icons from the video assembled as a unified network.]
[Text on screen reads, ‘Respectful Relationships Education’]
[End of transcript]
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.