The SHARE Programme

The SHARE programme provides a core sex and relationships education curriculum for pupils aged 13 to 15 in secondary schools. It has clear aims and explicit values.

The broad aims of the SHARE programme are to:
	improve the quality of young people’s romantic and sexual relationships, particularly in terms of reducing anxiety and regretted sexual behaviours
	reduce the incidence of unsafe sex
	reduce the rate of unwanted pregnancies
The values of the SHARE programme are:
	Our sexuality is a natural and healthy part of who we are.
	Each of us feels differently about our sexuality, and we may express it in different ways.
	We should treat each other as we should like to be treated.
	We should never have to do anything sexual we don’t want to do.
	If we do choose to have sex, we should protect ourselves and sexual partners from unwanted pregnancy and from sexually transmitted infections.

There are 22 sessions in total, and suggestions are provided about how these might be spread across three years of the school curriculum and how they might be combined in settings where there are not the restrictions of 35- or 40-minute lessons. The programme is sufficiently flexible to be added to, but is not appropriate to use as a resource to dip into. Most sessions are considered essential to the programme, with just a few being optional. The session themes are: