NWG Programme of Learning and Development - growing understanding and responses

Barnardo’s knows that more needs to be done to protect children from Child Sexual Abuse, Exploitation and Online Harms, so is excited to be launching the second edition of its educational programme, Real Love Rocks. 

The second edition of Real Love Rocks Healthy Relationships and Exploitation Resources have been produced with the new statutory relationships and sex education guidance in mind, designed in collaboration with young people bravely sharing their stories.

The resources have been designed to help teachers and other professionals educate and talk to children and young people about difficult issues such as consent, grooming, technology, bullying, pornography, sexual harassment and appropriate and inappropriate relationships.

Barnardo’s originally launched Real Love Rocks in 2014 and has updated and refreshed the resources to reflect and raise awareness of different types of abuse and exploitation that children and young people may experience today such as child sexual abuse, child sexual exploitation, criminal exploitation, radicalisation and extremism.

As a trauma informed programme there is a new emphasis on all children and young people learning about emotional regulation, creating a support network of safe and trusted people and developing kindness, understanding and empathy for both themselves and others.

Primary and Secondary Real Love Rocks Healthy Relationships and Exploitation Educational Resources, available now, with a Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) edition available later in 2022. Our Secondary resources are also being adapted to include sign language and subtitles to improve accessibility.

We thank the National Working Group for their ongoing support from the creation of the original resources and their expertise and input into our ongoing new developments.