We can’t teach healthy relationships if we aren’t practicing them - and many of us were never taught how.

Young people are learning about relationships everywhere — online, in peer groups, through culture and media.

Research tells us many adolescents are struggling with:

• understanding and respecting boundaries

• responding to rejection without shame, entitlement, or retaliation

• navigating gendered expectations and power

Research also tells us that:

• Young people reported feeling that RSE lessons lack nuance and focus too heavily on legal definitions and risk avoidance rather than equipping them with real-life skills for communication, empathy, and emotional connection. (Woodley, 2024)

• Many young people first encounter online pornography around ages 12–14, often before they receive formal sex and relationship education. Exposure is frequently unintentional and can shape their understanding of consent, power and intimacy long before they are developmentally ready. (eSafety Commissioner, 2025)

• Nearly two-thirds (63%) of adolescent boys who have seen pornography said they had viewed non-consensual acts. These acts as harmful because of the risks associated with normalising aggression. (The Adolescent Man Box, 2025)

• The Sexual Harrassment of Teachers Report (SHoT) 2024 identified that 79.9% of teachers have observed an increase in sexualised behaviour. Some of this sexual behaviour is developmentally normal and age appropriate; however, there has been an increase in peer-to-peer sexual harassment, child sexual abuse by adolescents (Mathews et al., 2024) and harmful sexual behaviour in school settings.

• The SHoT Report also identified that 46.9% of teachers have reported sexual harassment at school - with 80.6% of those teachers being sexually harassed by a student. The survey goes on to highlight how the repercussions of sexual harassment of teachers extend far beyond discomfort. It erodes confidence in both professional and personal capacities and can lead to burnout and low job satisfaction.

Teachers are increasingly on the front line of this learning — often without the training, language or support they need. We know this impacts student wellbeing, staff safety and confidence, classroom culture, and trust between schools and communities.

This work matters — and how it is taught matters just as much as what is taught.

We don’t believe in scripts, scare campaigns or one-off lessons.

We believe in learning that respects the complexity of schools and the humanity of the people in them.

We believe that teachers need space to reflect, not just deliver.

We believe that consent education is cultural, not just informational.

We believe that boundaries protect everyone — students and staff.

We believe that warmth and clarity can exist together.

Our professional learning creates space for educators to:

• slow down

• ask hard questions

• build shared language

• practise how to respond — not just what to say

We do this by building our tolerance for discomfort and learning how to regulate through it so that we can be responsive, not reactive.

We do this in a timeframe that is contextualised to the priorities of the school - from one hour conversations, over half or full staff training days, or weekly term-length sessions.

Through our Connected Collective program, educators and support staff build confidence and capacity to:

• teach consent and boundaries in age-appropriate ways

• respond to rejection, resistance or discomfort without escalation

• understand how gender norms and power show up in classrooms

• stay relational without overstepping professional boundaries

• hold difficult conversations without shutting them down — or oversharing

The foundations of this program are built upon pedagogies of discomfort, ethics of care, emergent teaching practices, and reflective practice, and are necessary for the work that needs to be done.