One coherent wellbeing programme, held steady through unsteady policy. In three years Poland has abolished wychowanie do życia w rodzinie, introduced edukacja zdrowotna as optional, then made it compulsory and graded, while England rewrote its statutory guidance and moved the goalposts on what schools must teach. This portal reconciles both frameworks into a single scheme with one set of units, so the curriculum survives the next change rather than being rebuilt after it.
Two systems side by side
Both frameworks change on 1 September 2026. England begins teaching the revised DfE statutory guidance of July 2025. Poland makes edukacja zdrowotna a compulsory, graded subject and splits sexuality content out into a separate optional subject. Neither change is likely to be the last, which is why the units are built on what the two frameworks agree about rather than on the wording of either: when a subject is renamed, made optional or challenged in court, the teaching stays and only the mapping underneath it moves.
England
Three statutory subjects: relationships education (primary), relationships and sex education (secondary) and health education, usually delivered through PSHE.
Basis: the 2019 Regulations under the Children and Social Work Act 2017.
Time: content is prescribed, hours are not.
Assessment: not graded or examined, but in scope for Ofsted through personal development.
Withdrawal: from sex education only; pupils may opt back in three terms before turning 16.
Poland
Edukacja zdrowotna: compulsory and graded from 1 September 2026, 1 h a week in kl. IV–VIII and 2 weekly hours across the upper secondary cycle. No opt-out.
Edukacja zdrowotna – zdrowie seksualne: a separate, optional, ungraded subject of 1 to 3 hours a year, with a written opt-out to the dyrektor.
Basis: rozporządzenia ME of July 2026, Dz.U. 2026 poz. 947, 958, 966 and 1028.
Also carried by: biologia, przyroda, wychowanie fizyczne, edukacja dla bezpieczeństwa, informatyka, edukacja obywatelska and godzina z wychowawcą.
Predecessor: wychowanie do życia w rodzinie, abolished on 1 September 2025.
How the phases line up
England
Age
Poland
What this means for the comparison
Reception to Year 6 (primary)
4–11
Przedszkole and szkoła podstawowa kl. I–IV
Polish compulsory schooling starts at 7, so the first years do not align.
Years 7 to 11 (secondary)
11–16
Szkoła podstawowa kl. V–VIII, then liceum kl. I
Most English secondary RSE content sits inside Polish primary school.
Years 12 and 13 (sixth form)
16–19
Liceum ogólnokształcące kl. II–IV
Statutory RSHE does not apply to English sixth form colleges; Polish provision continues.
The headline numbers
15
curriculum areas in the English framework, six in RSE and nine in health and wellbeing
14 → 1–3
hours a year of sexuality education in Poland, as wychowanie do życia w rodzinie gives way to the optional zdrowie seksualne
8
Polish subjects carry content that England delivers through one framework
Position as at 4 August 2026. The compulsory status of edukacja zdrowotna was challenged at the Trybunał Konstytucyjny in early August 2026, and the wider Polish reform phases in by year group from klasy I and IV, so different cohorts follow different programmes for several years.
Wellbeing units: one plan, both curricula
Twenty-eight named units across four bands. Each one delivers English RSHE content and Polish podstawa programowawymagania together, so a single scheme of work evidences both. Open a unit to see its outcomes, its lesson-by-lesson sequence, the English content it covers, the Polish requirements it satisfies and the Jigsaw pieces and files that teach it. 264 lessons in total.
How these units were built
Coverage across the school
Every unit placed against every year group, from klasa I to the end of liceum, with the English year alongside. Colour shows the strand, so the spiral is visible down each column: each strand returns almost every year at a higher level. Hatched blocks are zdrowie seksualne content, the only provision parents can withdraw from.
Reading the map
The English curriculum, area by area
What must be covered by the end of primary and what secondary adds. Open an area to read its content, or search for a topic such as consent, vaping or deepfakes.
Poland & England, area by area
Each English area, with the Polish subject and content that carries it in szkoła podstawowa and in liceum. Filter by how well the two line up, or search for a Polish subject or topic.
Which Polish subject carries what
Polish subject names, their English equivalents and where they sit in each phase.
Polish subject
English equivalent
Szkoła podstawowa
Liceum ogólnokształcące
Status and notes
Two statutory duties sit outside the subject curriculum and carry much of what England teaches under respectful relationships and being safe: the program wychowawczo-profilaktyczny (art. 26 Prawo oświatowe), adopted by the parents' council in agreement with the teaching staff, and the standardy ochrony małoletnich required of every school since February 2024 under the so-called ustawa Kamilka, which must be published in a version written for children.
Where the weight falls
Bar length shows the number of statutory content points the English guidance sets out for each area in each phase. It is a rough guide to curriculum weight, not to teaching time.
By the end of primaryAdded by the end of secondary
Area
By the end of primary
No.
Added by the end of secondary
No.
Eight structural differences
Beyond the content itself, the two systems differ in how the content is organised, timetabled, assessed and opted out of.
Sources
England: Relationships Education, Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) and Health Education, Department for Education statutory guidance, July 2025, for introduction from 1 September 2026. Poland:podstawa programowa for edukacja zdrowotna and edukacja zdrowotna – zdrowie seksualne as amended by the rozporządzenia of 8 July 2026 (Dz.U. 2026 poz. 947, poz. 958), the rozporządzenie of 17 July 2026 on teaching zdrowie seksualne (poz. 966) and the ramowe plany nauczania of 22 July 2026 (poz. 1028), together with the podstawa programowa for biologia, przyroda, wychowanie fizyczne, edukacja dla bezpieczeństwa, informatyka and edukacja obywatelska.
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