Increasing Teacher Confidence in Addressing Sensitive Topics
How creative, arts-based learning is helping teachers deliver PSHE and RSE confidently
For many teachers, the responsibility of delivering PSHE and RSE content can feel daunting. Subjects like consent, online safety, and sexual health education are vital, but they’re also complex, emotionally charged, and often outside a teacher’s training. The good news? It doesn’t have to be this way.
At Diverse Voices, we’ve seen first-hand how our creative, blended-learning programmes act as a powerful bridge – giving educators the tools, language and confidence to engage with even the most sensitive topics. Through our PSHE resources for teachers and RSE curriculum support, schools are not only meeting statutory requirements – they’re transforming classroom culture.
Why teachers feel uneasy
The challenges are well known:
A lack of formal training in PSHE and RSE delivery
Fear of “saying the wrong thing” or not being inclusive
Concerns about safeguarding or triggering disclosures
Managing mixed-ability, mixed-maturity groups sensitively
Personal discomfort around topics such as sexual health or gender identity
Many teachers report feeling underprepared, with PSHE being squeezed into crowded timetables and delivered without specialist input. As one teacher put it during our recent feedback session:
“Before working with Diverse Voices, I often felt like I was tiptoeing around the subject matter – I didn’t want to do more harm than good.”
This is where creative approaches to PSHE make a profound difference.
How our programmes build confidence
Our programmes use high-quality, drama-led content to deliver healthy relationships education in a way that feels real, relevant, and safe. Teachers are supported not only with engaging lesson plans and films, but also with facilitation strategies, discussion tools, and reflective frameworks they can use well beyond the initial sessions.
Key benefits for teachers include:
Role play as a safe learning tool
Our use of role play and third-person scenarios creates vital emotional distance for students – and for teachers. By analysing characters and situations from external perspectives, everyone in the room can explore difficult topics without needing to draw on personal experiences. This lowers the emotional stakes and increases openness.
As one PSHE lead told us:
“The characters helped unlock so much discussion. Because it wasn’t personal, it felt safe for everyone to speak. Even I felt more comfortable leading the conversation.”
Structured resources with built-in flexibility
Our PSHE resources for teachers include detailed lesson guides, reflection questions, and follow-up activities designed to support all levels of experience. Teachers don’t need to reinvent the wheel – they can follow a clear, sensitive, and inclusive structure that encourages open dialogue.
And once they've experienced our delivery model, teachers often continue using our strategies in their own lessons. Our evaluation surveys often include sentiments from teachers on this, including recently:
“I’ve started using your role play techniques in other parts of my PSHE teaching – they work so well!”
A long-term investment in teacher development
Confidence doesn’t come from one-off training. It builds over time through positive experiences, successful delivery, and ongoing support. That’s why our RSE curriculum support isn’t just a one-day thing – it’s a developmental journey.
Teachers who regularly engage with our programmes:
Report feeling significantly more confident in addressing sensitive topics
Say they are more likely to include complex discussions in their ongoing teaching
Have a clear model for how to manage group dynamics, safeguarding concerns and student disclosures safely
By working in partnership with schools, we ensure teachers feel supported, not scrutinised. And that’s what leads to long-term change.
The Impact: safer classrooms, stronger relationships
When teachers feel more confident, the ripple effects are powerful:
Students feel more respected and heard
Classrooms become safer, more open spaces for discussion
Relationships between staff and students are strengthened
Difficult conversations become opportunities for learning – not conflict
And crucially, the outcomes we care most about – respect, empathy, understanding, and safety – are embedded in the school community long after our team leaves the building, or after our online programmes are used by teachers in the classroom.
More than a programme – a partnership
We’re proud to provide schools with sexual health education resources, healthy relationships education, and ongoing RSE curriculum support that works – not just for students, but for staff. Our programmes come with lesson guides, and we provide teacher training sessions for teachers who want to deliver our programmes themselves. As one headteacher recently told us:
“It’s the first time I’ve seen the staff genuinely excited to deliver PSHE. They finally feel like they’re not doing it alone.”
Want to get involved?
If you’re a school looking to improve your PSHE provision, or a teacher who wants to feel more confident leading challenging conversations, we’re here to help.
➡️ Explore our programmes: https://www.diversevoices.co.uk/pshe-rse-resources
➡️ Get in touch with our team: https://www.diversevoices.co.uk/contact
Diverse Voices provides creative learning programmes for schools that empower teachers and students alike. Because every teacher deserves to feel confident – and every student deserves to be heard. Whether you're a teacher, head of organisation, a funder looking to support creative equity, or a parent interested in available programmes, we want to hear from you HERE.