This course is preventative and protective in focus, building pupils' understanding of healthy relationships and resistance to manipulation, rather than a response to a disclosed incident, which should always follow your school's safeguarding procedures immediately and separately from this course. It is grounded in Keeping Children Safe in Education 2025, which is statutory for all school staff, and draws on practice principles from the DfE-commissioned Tackling Child Exploitation Support Programme. If anything raised during a session gives cause for concern about a specific pupil's safety, pause the course content and follow your designated safeguarding lead's procedures without delay.
Objective: Pupil can describe at least two features of a healthy relationship and at least two warning signs of an unhealthy one.
Check-in: Warm, general opening: 'Let's talk today about friendships and relationships in general, nothing specific needed.'
Input: Introduce the difference between healthy relationships (mutual respect, equal say, no pressure) and unhealthy ones (control, secrecy, one-sided favours or pressure) using everyday, relatable examples rather than frightening scenarios.
Activity: Pupil sorts a set of relationship scenario cards into 'healthy', 'unhealthy', or 'not sure', discussing the reasoning behind each one together.
Reflect: What's one thing that makes a relationship feel safe to you? Agree there's no need to share anything personal today.
Watch for: Keep language general and non-alarming in this first session, the aim is building a framework for recognising warning signs, not extracting a disclosure.
Parent/carer take-home: No specific task this week, this session is designed to build general understanding, not to prompt disclosure at home.
Objective: Pupil can name at least two common tactics used in grooming or exploitation, in the pupil's own words.
Check-in: Review the healthy relationship discussion from last week in general terms.
Input: Explain, in plain and non-frightening language, common tactics: being singled out for special attention, being given gifts or money that create a sense of obligation, being isolated from friends or family, and being told to keep secrets from people who care about them.
Activity: Pupil reviews a set of tactic example cards and discusses, in general terms, why each one can make it hard to recognise something is wrong at the time.
Reflect: Why do you think these tactics can be hard to spot? Agree there's no pressure to relate this to anyone specific.
Watch for: If the pupil discloses anything during this session that raises concern, stop the planned content, reassure the pupil calmly, and follow your school's safeguarding procedure immediately.
Parent/carer take-home: No specific task this week, avoid direct questioning about this topic at home, which can feel like an interrogation; general availability and warmth matter more.
Objective: Pupil can name at least two personal strengths and describe why the pupil's worth isn't tied to what others offer.
Check-in: Check in generally on how the week has been.
Input: Introduce the idea that exploitation often targets a need for belonging, attention, or status, and that building a strong, independent sense of self-worth is one of the best protections against manipulation.
Activity: Pupil completes a strengths and values activity, identifying what matters to the pupil and what the pupil is proud of, separate from any relationship or group's approval.
Reflect: What's one strength you have that no one can take away from you? Agree to notice this strength once this week.
Watch for: This session works best framed around building the pupil up, not warning the pupil about danger, a strengths-based approach is both more protective and less frightening.
Parent/carer take-home: Genuinely reinforce a strength or quality you admire in the pupil this week, this kind of affirmation is a real protective factor.
Objective: Pupil can rehearse at least one assertive refusal response and describe one safe decision-making step.
Check-in: Review the strength noticed last week.
Input: Introduce simple, assertive refusal language ('no, I'm not doing that' with no explanation needed) and the idea that a genuinely caring relationship will respect a 'no' without pressure or punishment.
Activity: Role-play a pressured scenario (in general terms, not tied to a real situation) and practise using an assertive refusal response.
Reflect: How did it feel to say no clearly? Agree to trust that instinct if something ever feels wrong.
Watch for: Focus on building confidence in the skill itself, in a low-stakes rehearsal format, avoid asking the pupil to apply this to a real, current situation unless the pupil raises one.
Parent/carer take-home: No specific task, simply continue to be a calm, non-judgemental presence the pupil could come to if something ever felt wrong.
Objective: Pupil knows at least two trusted adults and one reporting route, at school and beyond, if the pupil ever needs help.
Check-in: Review the five weeks together in general terms, what's felt most useful?
Input: Summarise what's been covered: healthy relationships, recognising tactics, self-worth, and assertive refusal. Introduce reporting routes clearly: the designated safeguarding lead at school, Childline, and the police in an emergency.
Activity: Co-create a simple safety card: two trusted adults, the school's safeguarding contact, and Childline's number, kept somewhere private and accessible.
Reflect: Who's one adult you'd feel comfortable going to if something didn't feel right? Agree this card is just for the pupil's own reference, no pressure to use it.
Watch for: This session should end on a note of empowerment and clear, practical routes to help, not fear. If any concerns have emerged across the five weeks, ensure your school's safeguarding lead has been informed through the proper channel, separately from this course record.
Parent/carer take-home: Keep the safety card somewhere the pupil can access privately, and reinforce that coming to you, or any trusted adult, with a concern is always the right choice, however small it seems.