Delivering RSHE in Schools Digital Conference

EJ Renold is Professor of Childhood Studies in the School of Social Sciences at Cardiff University, Wales. Their research and practice takes a rights-based approach to understanding how sexuality and gender shape children’s and young people’s lives, in school, online, and in their communities. Specialising in creative and participatory methods, they work alongside children and young people to conduct and communicate research in the field of relationships and sexuality education (RSE) – see https://learning.nspcc.org.uk/research-resources/2023/how-young-people-are-learning-about-relationships-sex-sexuality They also co-produce a wide range of RSE resources and professional learning materials for practitioners, including the AGENDA: Making positive relationships matter resource hub (agendaonline.co.uk/crush) and most recently, a new RSE Youth Voice toolkit with the NSPCC (Talk Relationships).

Sadaf has extensive experience working with leading services supporting autistic young people. She previously led a specialist college, providing education for autistic learners aged 18–25, alongside overseeing a day provision for adults aged 25 and above. She later held to a senior role within a large further education college, where she led specialist SEN provision.

Sadaf is a qualified executive coach and holds a Master’s degree in Educational Leadership. She currently works in a special school as part of the Senior Leadership team. Her role includes ensuring the delivery of a high-quality, fit-for-purpose curriculum, aligned with the Preparing for Adulthood pathways, with a strong focus on effective transition from school into adulthood.

Jade is Head of Citizenship and PSHE at Ravens Wood School and Curriculum Strategy Lead for PSHE across the Impact Trust. She holds a Master’s degree in Education, with research focused on the role of PSHE in tackling misogyny in schools. Jade specialises in curriculum design, teacher development, and using PSHE to promote equality, respect, and positive social change.

Katy joined Thames Valley Police in 2000 having studied Sociology at the London School of Economics. She worked in a variety of role and ranks including uniform patrol, CID, neighbourhood policing, child abuse investigation, surveillance and strategic development. In April 2023 Katy was promoted to Assistant Chief Constable for Crime and Criminal Justice, with force wide responsibility for Crime, Intelligence, Public Protection, Criminal Justice and Forensics. She also led Thames Valley Police’s response to Violence Against Women and Girls. In November 2024 Katy took up the position of Deputy Chief Constable at Gloucestershire Constabulary. Katy is also the NPCC lead for Investigations.

Katy completed her Masters in Police Leadership and Management at Warwick Business School in 2015. She has a keen academic interest in domestic abuse, and published an academic journal article on domestic abuse attrition rates following her Masters research, and a book chapter on domestic abuse in ‘An Introduction to Professional Policing’. She has also written a book with colleagues titled Policing Domestic Abuse – Risk, Policy & Practice published by Routledge in November 2022. Katy continues to work academically in this field, now focussing on adolescent domestic abuse in a research partnership with the VISION consortium at City University, London where she is an Honorary Research Fellow and Practitioner in Residence. More on her work in this field can be found in this policy brief: Addressing abuse in teenage relationships – City Vision and this journal article: Adolescent Domestic Abuse and Its Consequences: A Rapid Systematic Review | Journal of Family Violence

Katy instigated the ‘TVP Journal’ which is a fantastic gateway to recognise the academic work of officers and staff. Following the success of the TVP Journal Katy was asked to be the Editor in Chief of the College of Policing Publication ‘Going Equipped’. Katy also leads on @WeCops a twitter debate forum on current police issues in the UK. In 2024 Katy was the runner up in the World Policing Summit awards in Dubai in the category of Inspirational Female Police Officer.

Amy Forbes-Robertson (BA MPhil PGCE QTS) is a qualified teacher (KS3 & KS4), a published author and Founding Director of It Happens Education. Amy is out & about delivering an array of our work in schools to student, parents & teachers.

Amy leads on our consultancy work for programmes, resources and projects with organisations such as Channel 4, BBC Teach, BBC Bitesize, Operation Ouch, The University of Westminster & The University of Surrey.

Amy is delighted to have been asked to contribute to Home Office conversations about reducing Violence Against Women & Girls (VAWG). She has also attended Parliamentary events focusing on the role RSHE education plays in preventing harms.

Amy has presented at conferences and events for the likes of HMC, Society of Heads, IAPS, GSA & Westminster Insights. Amy was also a project leader for the Beacons educational project at The Hay Literature Festival. Which is ideal…because she really loves good books.

For over 20 years, Amy has worked in and around education. During this time, Amy has interacted with young people and their parents, carers and teachers; as a volunteer, a community outreach worker, in youth work, as a school governor and also as an accredited trainer for Cambridge Assessment International where she has delivered teacher training both online and in international educational establishments.

In 2015, Amy stepped out of the classroom and joined Alexandra Fryer, delivering RSHE in schools. Since then she has devoted her full-time working career to the subject. Initially as a self-employed independent, then an LLP partner and now as Director of It Happens Education Limited.

Amy is consistently amazed by brilliant young people and their worlds. She is empathic and intrinsically understands the complexity of lives lived between family, friends, home & school-settings. Amy has been closely involved in pastoral care and safeguarding issues. She is familiar with the research & evidence regarding the challenges that young people face as they experiment with their own friendships, relationships and identities in our complex culture. Amy believes that everyone deserves a safe & judgement free space to untangle some of the trickier RSHE topics history has handed us.

Most importantly Amy has a wonderful ability to communicate and connect with young people; she is very hopeful about the next generation, and this is resoundingly clear in all of her work…

She is also a mother of two amazing young people who are currently navigating secondary school.

Erica has 20 years’ experience in safeguarding and community services. She began her career in 2006 as a Police Officer with Sussex Police before moving into the Probation and Youth Justice Service, working with both adult and youth offenders. Erica then transitioned to the charity sector, managing missing children’s services at Catch22 and later leading the national “missing from home” services at Missing People Charity, including the first Pan-Sussex service commissioned by local authorities and Sussex Police.

She went on to take strategic leadership roles, including Head of Delivery & Development at Sported, a UK-wide sport for development charity. Erica later joined MindOut, the LGBTQ+ mental health service, as Chief Operating Officer and subsequently Interim CEO.

In 2024, Erica became CEO of the Breck Foundation, where she leads the charity’s mission to educate young people, families and professionals about online safety, preventing grooming and exploitation through engaging, youth-led programmes and partnerships.

Katy has worked for Islington Council since 1999, developing digital education services to schools and families. Before this she was a primary school teacher for 7 years. Katy specialises in Online Safety and sits on the LGFL Safeguarding and Editorial Board, has been an ICT Mark assessor and facilitated the NCSL Strategic Leadership ICT courses. Katy partners with national organisations championing the rights of children online inc. Beeban Kidron’s 5Rights Charity, Childnet, and Common Sense Media. Katy spearheaded the introduction of Kids Judge Bett nine years ago. She has supported educational projects in Romania, Nigeria, China, Portugal and Japan.

James Roach is CEO of the Inclusive Multi Academy Trust, a four school primary trust in Watford serving over 1,400 pupils who speak 60+ languages and dialects across their communities. With 25+ years in education, James has worked as a classroom teacher, progressed through two headships and now leads a trust built on the principle that ‘happy children and young people learn, happy staff thrive, and happy people build communities’. Under his leadership, the trust became the first MAT nationally to receive Nurture UK’s National Nurturing Schools accreditation and won the 2025 Optimus MAT Excellence, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Award.

James has developed practical approaches to delivering RSHE in highly diverse, multicultural settings where families bring different cultural perspectives and sensitivities. His work focuses on building genuine trust with communities through transparent communication, engagement and creating space for different voices whilst maintaining the trust’s commitment to inclusion and dignity for all children. He speaks regularly on inclusive educational leadership, navigating sensitive conversations with families, and what he calls “digital dignity” – using technology to remove barriers to belonging rather than create new ones.

Natasha Devon is a writer, broadcaster and campaigner.  Since 2008, Natasha has visited schools and events throughout the world delivering talks and conducting research on mental health and related issues such as body image and gender equality. She is co-founder of Where’s Your Head At, a campaign to improve workplace mental health outcomes and founder of the Mental Health Media Charter, which scrutinises the way mental health is discussed and portrayed in the news. Natasha has a weekly show on LBC (one of Britain’s most popular speech radio stations) on Saturday 6-9pm. She has been awarded an MBE for her services to young people and is a Fellow of the University of Wales: Aberystwyth. She has also been named one of the UK’s most influential queer women in both the DIVA and Pride power lists.

Zoe Shuttleworth is a Director of It Happens Education and leads and delivers the Substance strand of our work, talking about a range of different topics, from medicines and the law through to illegal drugs and harm reduction. Zoe also works directly with many of the leading UK festival organisers, sharing information about how to be safe at festivals with students, parents and teachers.

Zoe joined It Happens Education in 2019 as a freelance speaker and in September 2021, Zoe became the second Director of It Happens Education. Zoe is passionate about sharing evidence based, non-judgemental information with young people so they can make well informed and, hopefully, safer choices. Zoe’s message is predominantly one of assessing risk, thinking through the consequences and encouraging young people to ask for help as soon as it’s needed.

Prior to It Happens Education, Zoe spent 15 years working directly with people experiencing addiction issues, supporting them to address their substance use and helping them to rebuild their lives. She started working in homelessness in 2004, supporting people with drug, alcohol and mental health issues and then specialised in criminal justice drug and alcohol treatment, working in police stations, prisons, courts and the community. In 2013, Zoe was appointed manager of the community drug and alcohol service in Hackney and had responsibility for 600 service users and a team of 20 staff.

Zoe is a skillful communicator and is able to build rapport quickly with children and adults alike, no matter their immediate circumstances or walk of life. Zoe is a trustee of Flip’s Fund, a charity supporting children in India to access education. She is a Crossfit fan and has two wonderful children.

Elanie is Programmes Director of Jigsaw Education Group overseeing the development and design of whole-school approaches to PSHE (3-16) and RE (3-12) including comprehensive training and support for schools. Prior to Jigsaw, Elanie taught and held leadership roles for 11 years in secondary schools before 7 years in the charity sector leading national teacher education and social work leadership development programmes. At Jigsaw, Elanie combines her drive for high-quality curricula that meet statutory requirements and enable the development of key life skills, with supporting teachers and leaders to create the cultures for children to thrive.

James Roach is CEO of the Inclusive Multi Academy Trust, a four school primary trust in Watford serving over 1,400 pupils who speak 60+ languages and dialects across their communities. With 25+ years in education, James has worked as a classroom teacher, progressed through two headships and now leads a trust built on the principle that ‘happy children and young people learn, happy staff thrive, and happy people build communities’. Under his leadership, the trust became the first MAT nationally to receive Nurture UK’s National Nurturing Schools accreditation and won the 2025 Optimus MAT Excellence, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Award.

James has developed practical approaches to delivering RSHE in highly diverse, multicultural settings where families bring different cultural perspectives and sensitivities. His work focuses on building genuine trust with communities through transparent communication, engagement and creating space for different voices whilst maintaining the trust’s commitment to inclusion and dignity for all children. He speaks regularly on inclusive educational leadership, navigating sensitive conversations with families, and what he calls “digital dignity” – using technology to remove barriers to belonging rather than create new ones.

EJ Renold is Professor of Childhood Studies in the School of Social Sciences at Cardiff University, Wales. Their research and practice takes a rights-based approach to understanding how sexuality and gender shape children’s and young people’s lives, in school, online, and in their communities. Specialising in creative and participatory methods, they work alongside children and young people to conduct and communicate research in the field of relationships and sexuality education (RSE) – see https://learning.nspcc.org.uk/research-resources/2023/how-young-people-are-learning-about-relationships-sex-sexuality They also co-produce a wide range of RSE resources and professional learning materials for practitioners, including the AGENDA: Making positive relationships matter resource hub (agendaonline.co.uk/crush) and most recently, a new RSE Youth Voice toolkit with the NSPCC (Talk Relationships).