Relationships and Sexuality Education (RSE) draft framework released

Updated: 16 April 2025

The Ministry of Education has released their draft framework for relationships and sexuality education from years 1-13. The draft framework is open for public consultation and feedback from 11 April until 9 May.

The Ministry notes that the updated RSE content will then be included in the refreshed health and physical education (HPE) learning area, due to be released for feedback in Term 4, 2025. The final HPE learning area is planned to be gazetted and available for use in 2026, and required for use from 2027.

The draft framework is less comprehensive than the previous Relationships and Sexuality Education Guidelines.

The draft framework offers a lot of room for interpretation. We do not believe this will give schools the certainty the Ministry had indicated would be provided in the new framework.

It is positive to see the inclusion of learning areas for years 12-13, even though this isn’t included in the curriculum. This is the first time, that we are aware that MOE has issued guidance for these year levels. The guidance for these year levels is brief, but its inclusion shows a step in the right direction and reflects what young people have been asking for from their RSE.

It is also positive to see teaching consent and online safety from years zero to one (five to six years old). 

It is disappointing to see that references to gender diversity and the difference between biological sex and gender, which were embedded throughout the Ministry of Education’s 2020 Relationships and Sexuality Education Guidelines have been removed. 

In this new framework, all references to gender refer only to “man” and “woman” and do not recognise identities that fall outside of these, such as transgender and non-binary identities. Similarly, while some diversity of sexuality identities are acknowledged, they are defined in relation to there being only two genders. Understanding gender diversity is an essential part of relationships and sexuality education, which is supported by international best practice guides. 

The draft framework does not mention menstruation until year 6 while puberty is mentioned at year 5 (ages 9-10). In our view this is late to introduce puberty. Structured in this way could mean some students are menstruating before they have learned about the menstrual cycle.

These are our initial thoughts on the draft framework. We will continue to review the information supplied by the Ministry as we develop our submission. We will be sharing our submission through our website.  

Read our position statement on RSE in New Zealand.

September 2025 update: the draft RSE framework has now been removed from the MoE website, and our survey to collect feedback on the framework has also closed.