Safety & Safeguarding

Personal safety

Overview

Our teaching on personal safety gives young people the awareness and skills to keep themselves safe — at home, in their communities, and online.

This topic covers the fundamentals: recognising unsafe situations, understanding , and knowing who to turn to when something feels wrong. For younger children, that might mean learning about trusted adults, understanding the difference between safe and unsafe secrets, and practising what to do when they feel scared. For older students, it might extend to public safety, risk awareness, and the confidence to act when they or someone else is in danger.

This isn't about creating anxiety. It's about building competence. A young person who knows how to assess risk, set boundaries, and ask for help is safer than one who's been told the world is dangerous without being given any tools to navigate it.

Key learning outcomes

By the end of lessons on this topic, students will:

  • Identify trusted adults in their lives and know how to ask for help
  • Recognise the difference between safe and unsafe situations, including online
  • Understand personal boundaries and how to assert them
  • Develop practical strategies for managing risk in different environments
  • Learn how to respond when they feel unsafe, including contacting emergency services
  • Know how to support a friend or peer who is in a risky or unsafe situation
  • Understand reporting processes and feel confident using them

Why teaching about personal safety matters

Personal safety is the foundation that everything else rests on. A child who doesn't know how to recognise danger, or who doesn't have the words to ask for help, is vulnerable in every context — at home, at school, online, in public.

This isn't about wrapping young people in cotton wool. It's about giving them the awareness to recognise when something isn't right and the confidence to do something about it. These are life skills in the most literal sense.

Curriculum alignment

This topic addresses 23 requirements from the DfE statutory RSE guidance and 5 learning outcomes from the PSHE Association Programme of Study , across KS1, KS2, KS3, KS4, KS5.

View all curriculum references

DfE RSE Statutory Guidance 2026

  • "How to ask for advice or help for themselves or others, and to keep trying until they are heard. Where to get advice e.g. family, school and/or other sources" Relationships Education: Being Safe, 7 · KS1, KS2
  • "How to determine whether other children, adults or sources of information are trustworthy, how to judge when a relationship is unsafe, and how to seek help or advice including reporting concerns about others" Secondary RSE: Being Safe, 3 · KS3, KS4
  • "How to develop key social and emotional skills that will increase pupils' safety from involvement in conflict and violence, including skills to recognise and manage peer pressure" Secondary Health: Personal safety, 3 · KS3, KS4
  • "How to identify harmful behaviours online (including bullying, abuse or harassment) and how to report, or find support, if they have been affected by those behaviours" Secondary Health: Wellbeing online, 3 · KS3, KS4
  • "How to identify risk and manage personal safety in increasingly independent situations, including around roads, railways and water, and in unfamiliar social or work settings" Secondary Health: Personal safety, 1 · KS3, KS4
  • "How to increase their personal safety in public spaces, including when socialising with friends, family, the wider community or strangers" Secondary RSE: Being Safe, 4 · KS3, KS4
  • "How to judge when a relationship is unsafe and where to seek help when needed, including when pupils are concerned about violence, harm, or when they are unsure who to trust" Secondary RSE: Families, 8 · KS3, KS4
  • "How to recognise and manage peer influence in relation to risk-taking behaviour and personal safety, including peer influence online and on social media" Secondary Health: Personal safety, 2 · KS3, KS4
  • "How to recognise if family relationships are making them feel unhappy or unsafe, and how to seek help or advice from others if needed" Relationships Education: Families and people who care for me, 6 · KS1, KS2
  • "How to recognise when a relationship is harmful or dangerous, including skills for recognising who to trust and who not to trust" Relationships Education: Being Safe, 5 · KS1, KS2
  • "How to report abuse, concerns about something seen online or experienced in real life, or feelings of being unsafe or feeling bad about any adult and the vocabulary and confidence needed to do so" Relationships Education: Being Safe, 6 · KS1, KS2
  • "How to respond safely and appropriately to adults they may encounter (in all contexts, including online), including those they do and do not know" Relationships Education: Being Safe, 4 · KS1, KS2
  • "How to seek help when needed, including when they are concerned about violence, harm, or when they are unsure who to trust" Relationships Education: Respectful kind relationships, 11 · KS1, KS2
  • "That each person's body belongs to them, and the differences between appropriate and inappropriate or unsafe contact, including physical contact" Relationships Education: Being Safe, 3 · KS1, KS2
  • "That strangulation and suffocation are criminal offences, and that any activity that involves applying force or pressure to someone's neck or covering someone's mouth and nose is dangerous and can lead to serious injury or death" Secondary RSE: Being Safe, 14 · KS3, KS4
  • "The concept of privacy and its implications for both children and adults; including that it is not always right to keep secrets if they relate to being safe" Relationships Education: Being Safe, 2 · KS1, KS2
  • "The different types of bullying (including online bullying), the impact of bullying, responsibilities of bystanders (primarily reporting bullying to an adult), and how to get help" Relationships Education: Respectful kind relationships, 9 · KS1, KS2
  • "The different types of bullying (including online bullying), the impact of bullying, the responsibilities of bystanders to report bullying and how and where to get help" Secondary RSE: Respectful relationships, 6 · KS3, KS4
  • "The law as it relates to knives and violence, including that carrying weapons is uncommon" Secondary Health: Personal safety, 5 · KS3, KS4
  • "Understanding which trusted adults they can talk to if pupils are worried about violence and/or knife crime" Secondary Health: Personal safety, 4 · KS3, KS4
  • "What to do and how to report when they are concerned about material that has been circulated, including personal information, images or videos" Secondary RSE: Online safety and awareness, 6 · KS3, KS4
  • "Where and how to report concerns and get support with issues online" Health Education: Wellbeing online, 11 · KS1, KS2
  • "Where and how to seek support (including recognising the triggers for seeking support), including who in school they should speak to if they are worried about their own or someone else's mental wellbeing or ability to control their emotions" Health Education: General wellbeing, 9 · KS1, KS2

PSHE Association Programme of Study 2020

  • "About the factors that contribute to young people joining gangs; the social, legal and physical consequences of gang behaviours" KS3 Core Theme 2: Relationships, R45 · KS3
  • "Motivations, misconceptions and consequences of carrying weapons and strategies for managing pressure to carry a weapon" KS3 Core Theme 2: Relationships, R47 · KS3
  • "Strategies to recognise, de-escalate and exit aggressive social situations" KS5 Core Theme 2: Relationships, R23 · KS5
  • "The role peers can play in supporting one another to resist pressure and influence, challenge harmful social norms and access appropriate support" KS3 Core Theme 2: Relationships, R43 · KS3
  • "To assess and manage risk and personal safety in a wide range of contexts, including online; about support in place to safeguard them" KS5 Core Theme 1: Health and Wellbeing, H14 · KS5

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