Last week, we were delighted to bring together our Trailblazer community for our fourth meeting, held on Thursday 29 January 2026. As ever, the conversation was thoughtful, generous and grounded in practice. These meetings continue to play a vital role in shaping how the Safe Uncertainty framework develops in response to the realities of Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) today.
As it had been some time since we last met as a group, this session combined project updates with collective reflection and forward planning. Central to the discussion were Trailblazers’ experiences of using Safe Uncertainty resources across a range of educational settings, and what these experiences can teach us about supporting meaningful, developmentally attuned RSE in practice.
What trailblazers are seeing in practice
We began by reflecting on one Trailblazer’s experience of trialling the resources with three groups of adolescents across different contexts. Particular attention was given to the sex act card sort activity, which was described as especially effective in surfacing diverse and sometimes competing narratives around pleasure, gender and sexual norms.
Rather than pushing young people towards a pre-determined ‘right’ answer, the activity allowed multiple perspectives to be expressed and examined. Crucially, it positioned the adult not as an authority imposing meaning, but as a facilitator helping young people to think critically and relationally about the issues raised. For many in the group, this captured the Safe Uncertainty approach at its best: holding space for complexity, disagreement and ambivalence without retreating into either moralising certainty or disengaged neutrality.
Other Trailblazers shared their experiences of using the resources in more challenging conditions; for example, with large groups, limited time or where young people were less inclined to speak. This prompted wider discussion about delivery formats, including small-group work, whole-class teaching and assemblies. While we remain convinced that RSE is most effective in smaller, discussion-based settings, we also acknowledged the realities that schools and external providers face. Often, work has to be delivered to whole year groups or within tight timetables.
Rather than seeing this as a failure of practice, we agreed that there is real value in developing guidance on how Safe Uncertainty can be meaningfully embedded across different formats, including assemblies. If we are serious about supporting educators, we need to work with the conditions as they are, not only as we might wish them to be. Developing practical, adaptable solutions to these constraints was identified as a key area for future work.
Using, sharing and adapting the resources
A recurring question concerned whether Trailblazers could ethically use Safe Uncertainty resources in their own training, presentations or paid work. We were clear in our response: yes. Reimagining RSE is a community of practice, and we actively want the framework and resources to be used, adapted and shared. As long as appropriate credit is given, we are very happy for materials to be incorporated into others’ work, and we strongly believe that practitioners should be paid for their expertise and labour.
In many ways, Safe Uncertainty provides a language for articulating good practice that Trailblazers are already doing. If members would like access to slides or resources, we encourage them to get in touch and we will gladly share them.
This conversation also raised the possibility of developing a members-only space on the website to make sharing resources easier and safer. As many will recognise, freely available RSE materials can sometimes be taken out of context or deliberately misrepresented by groups opposed to comprehensive RSE. A protected space may offer a more supportive way of sustaining this community’s work.
Emerging issues shaping RSE and safeguarding
The meeting also explored several emerging and contested issues currently shaping RSE and safeguarding debates. These included proposals for under-16 social media bans and renewed attention to practices such as choking or strangulation. Rather than approaching these topics in a reactive or alarmist way, the group agreed on the importance of developing Safe Uncertainty–informed responses that acknowledge harm and risk while resisting simplification.
We invited Trailblazers to join small working groups to think through these issues in more depth, and several members expressed interest in contributing.
There was also discussion of the recently published government Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) strategy and how it is likely to be interpreted in school contexts. Early reflections suggested that a Safe Uncertainty lens could offer a valuable counterbalance to overly prescriptive or risk-dominated translations of policy into practice.
Safeguarding culture and gender dynamics were another focal point. Trailblazers shared insights into the stigma and reluctance sometimes experienced by men working in safeguarding and pastoral roles, particularly within risk-averse institutional cultures. This opened up a wider conversation about masculinity, care and authority. If schools are to challenge harmful gender norms, male educators need to feel supported to model relational, caring masculinities, and to be given the training and permission to do so.
We also discussed the application of Safe Uncertainty in early years contexts, including how it might support developmentally appropriate relational learning. This led to reflection on the contradictory messages children can receive around autonomy and consent at younger ages, and how these tensions might be navigated more thoughtfully.
Finally, we returned to ongoing questions about the role of ‘debate’ in RSE. Trailblazers shared experiences from training contexts where dialogic approaches – rather than adversarial debate – helped create calmer, more inclusive spaces for reflection. One member suggested deliberative practice as a more helpful framing, emphasising relational, reflective engagement over point-scoring or polarisation.
Looking ahead
We closed by identifying concrete next steps. We will be working with interested Trailblazers to develop Safe Uncertainty–informed responses to:
- Under-16 phone or social media bans
- Choking and strangulation
- Violence Against Women and Girls
We also welcome suggestions for other topics that members feel warrant collective attention.
Alongside this, we will continue exploring the creation of a members’ area on the website, and we reaffirmed our commitment to encouraging Trailblazers to use and adapt the resources – including for commercial purposes – with appropriate attribution.
We are deeply grateful to the Trailblazer community for their ongoing generosity, honesty and critical engagement. This collaborative work remains central to how Reimagining RSE grows, learns and responds to an evolving educational and safeguarding landscape.