Optional resources, with responsibility still resting with schools.
A parliamentary answer clarifies the status of whole-school misogyny, respect and belonging resources and their relationship to Ofsted.
Read what this means for schoolsSchool Connection × Life by Will / Ages 16 to 18
Personal development.
The next school decisions.
What current developments in belonging, relationships and student support mean for sixth forms, with practical insight from Will Phillips.
Explore the evidence, connect it with school life and prepare your next decision.
Foundation edition · Published 8 November 2026
Partner editorial programme. A commercial partnership with Life by Will. Reporting and analysis by School Connection, with contributions from Will Phillips.
Meet the founder / Programme contributor
Will Phillips
Life and relationship coach
Founder of Life by Will and The Reset Schools Programme
Will created The Reset to give students aged 16 to 18 structured time to develop self-awareness, confidence, respectful communication and considered decision-making. His own experience of growing up in Northern Ireland and learning to feel comfortable with himself informs the purpose behind his work.
Throughout this School Connection programme, he contributes his perspective on identity, relationships, peer pressure and the expectations adults place on young people. Our reporting connects that insight with current education developments, published school practice and practical guidance for leaders.
“We need to believe in our young people more.”Read Will’s full story and the thinking behind The Reset
Current education reporting / Reviewed 8 November
What schools need to understand now.
Recent policy clarifications, school research and published college practice connect the national discussion with the decisions facing sixth-form leaders.
What school leaders report about harassment.
DfE’s survey, published in October, records secondary leaders’ accounts of handling harassment. The feature explains the finding, its limits and the implications for staff responses.
Read the school evidenceBelonging grows through everyday school life.
DfE’s research across 16 schools examines recognition and relationships. We consider what its findings can contribute to post-16 personal development.
Explore the sixth-form implicationsHelp students recognise the people who can support them.
Solihull Sixth Form College describes a wellbeing fair and its support services. Its published account prompts a practical question about the first conversation with an adult.
Read the practice and support feature01 / The education conversation
Connect the national picture with your sixth form.
Academic choices sit alongside questions about identity, relationships and pressure. Schools need to understand where students can practise those skills, how teaching connects with pastoral support and what a useful personal development offer should achieve.
Our October coverage examined belonging across school culture. November’s parliamentary answer clarifies the status of new relationships resources. Together with current enrichment and inspection guidance, these developments give leaders useful questions about their own provision. Will’s perspective helps explain how young people may experience that provision.
Read the belonging and personal development feature02 / Six connected features
Follow the six connected features.
Begin with Will’s story or choose the question closest to your role. Each feature connects the fuller background with current insight and a practical next step.
015 minute read
Founder and purpose
The confidence Will Phillips wanted young people to find earlier
Will Phillips’s story, the learning The Reset offers young people aged 16 to 18 and the questions he wants sixth-form leaders to consider.
Your next questionWhat should students have the chance to practise earlier?
Read the feature024 minute read
Belonging and the post-16 offer
Belonging in the sixth form: what should personal development add?
October’s DfE belonging research raises a practical question for sixth forms: where can students build confidence, practise communication and exercise the judgement adult life will require?
Your next questionWhere can students practise the skills they need?
Read the feature035 minute read
Pressure and considered choices
Online pressure and the choices facing sixth-form students
Current RSHE implementation and evidence on online life raise a question beyond screen time. How can sixth forms help students recognise pressure, question assumptions and communicate a considered choice?
Your next questionHow can students examine pressure and make their own choices?
Read the feature044 minute read
The November policy clarification
Respectful relationships: what November’s clarification means for schools
A new parliamentary answer separates optional resources from inspection expectations. The harder leadership question remains how teaching, staff responses and everyday relationships reinforce one another.
Your next questionHow do we connect respectful language with everyday practice?
Read the feature054 minute read
Student support in practice
The first conversation: making sixth-form support reachable
An October account from Solihull Sixth Form College brings a familiar gap into view: knowing help exists and feeling able to approach it. How should schools support students during reflective personal development?
Your next questionWho supports students before, during and after reflection?
Read the feature064 minute read
Evidence and the next decision
Personal development: using evidence to make a better decision
Ofsted leaves schools discretion over enrichment design. Leaders need an honest account of learning, participation and student experience to use that discretion well.
Your next questionWhat can we learn beyond completion?
Read the feature03 / Understand the programme
Four sessions. Time to reflect between them.
The Reset combines videos, written reflection, knowledge checks and a personal action task in each session. Teachers introduce the learning and supervise students.
Self-awareness and emotional intelligence
Recognise emotional triggers and explore how thoughts, feelings and behaviour influence one another.
Confidence, identity and resilience
Identify strengths, distinguish confidence from self-worth and consider responses to setbacks.
Healthy relationships and communication
Recognise respectful behaviour, practise setting boundaries and communicate clearly.
Managing pressure and positive decisions
Recognise pressures, weigh options and use personal values to guide a practical next step.
How access works. Students are invited through their school email and create a LearnWorlds password. Modules one and two open first; modules three and four follow after time for reflection. Confirm the release arrangements and access needs with Will.
What completion shows. The platform tracks completion and issues certificates after all four sessions. These describe participation; they do not establish lasting changes in wellbeing or educational outcomes.
04 / Put the coverage to work
Bring six questions to your planning conversation.
Use these with the sixth-form lead, personal development or PSHE lead, supervising staff and pastoral colleagues.
Purpose
What should this cohort understand or practise, and where does that fit in our existing offer?
Materials
Have we previewed the actual sessions, reading demands, scenarios and learning tasks?
Access and pace
Can learners use the platform and materials, and have we planned adaptations and protected time?
Support
Who supervises, how can students pause or speak privately, and who follows up a concern?
Delivery and licence
What does our chosen licence include, what staff time is needed, and how will student data be handled?
Review
What will completion, student feedback and learning responses show us? What will remain uncertain?
A note on curriculum and support
The Reset is available for UK settings. This edition’s DfE and Ofsted context concerns England and distinguishes school sixth forms from colleges and 16 to 19 academies. Schools in other nations should review the materials against their own frameworks. Students keep private reflection private, while staff follow the setting’s procedures when a concern arises.
Continue the School Connection conversation
Read the fuller background.
Explore the earlier analysis. Each article links back to the relevant feature in this programme.
Ofsted changes: the test of experience
Our wider analysis asks how reported changes become an experience that pupils and staff can recognise. Carry that question into the learning review.
RSHE 2026: the implementation test
Connect content review, staff preparation and safe teaching with the resource decision. Check the scope for your setting.
Respect beyond the RSHE lesson
Relationships teaching needs a consistent adult response and school culture around it.
Severe absence and belonging
Understand the wider institutional picture. A personal development programme should not be presented as an attendance intervention.
The post-16 participation gap
Keep barriers to participation and transition in view when planning provision for students aged 16 to 18.
KCSIE: one safeguarding practice
Follow staff responsibilities, information handover and the response when a student raises a concern.
Independent schools: support after a referral
Distinguish educational provision, pastoral support and access to specialist help.
Independent schools: listening and belonging
Bring student experience into a proportionate review of provision and what changes afterwards.
Your next school conversation
Explore the fit for your sixth form.
Bring your cohort, learning priorities and timetable to a conversation with Will. Review the materials and support arrangements before deciding.
About this editorial programme
Published by School Connection, owned and operated by Frontier Insight Group Limited. The Reset is a Life by Will programme, founded by Will Phillips. School Connection leads the reporting and interpretation. Will’s founder insight is attributed to his supplied November 2026 briefing, while the school examples come from their own published accounts. Source records distinguish public evidence, provider statements and our suggested practical methods.
Our editorial standards