That's the view of Edmund Rice College principal Stephen Gough.

As such Mr Gough welcomed news all of the state's government, Catholic and Independent schools had signed a Statement of Intent to strengthen the understanding of consent and harm prevention in the school community.

On Friday Minister for Education and Early Childhood Learning Sarah Mitchell welcomed the cross-sector agreement, saying it was an important first step by the education sector in leading meaningful change to address this community-wide challenge.

Mr Gough was also "pleased" all schools had agreed to help drive community and cultural change around sexual assault and violence.

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He said the West Wollongong-based boys' independent high school had an essential responsibility to provide age-appropriate guidance, education and support about respectful relationships and appropriate behaviours. .

"I think this is one of those watershed moments and we want to be part of the conversation," Mr Gough said.

"We really feel and the staff feel strongly that our boys can certainly make a positive difference."

During a recent whole-school assembly to celebrate International Women's Day, Mr Gough spoke with students about the ongoing public and national conversation concerning respectful relationships between men and women.

"While our curriculum programs in PDHPE include age-progressive units on topics, which explicitly include respectful and consensual sexual relationships, our religious education and pastoral care programs also focus on each person's human dignity," he said.

"But while our College plays a vital role in fostering inclusion and equality through each of our Touchstones, topics such as these cannot be compartmentalised into faculties or left to individual teachers - we all have an obligation in this regard.

"That is why a united partnership with parents and carers is an effective way to support our young people in understanding how to foster respectful relationships.

"In this way, conversations between young people about appropriate healthy relationships can become more normalised."

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Mr Gough said having these conversations could be confronting but was necessary. He added it was also important student leaders were leading the conversation.

"That is when you now things are working and gaining traction with the boys," he said.

"My school captain Ben Johnston spoke very passionately about this as well as the 'When Will She Be Right? campaign from the UN Women Australia, which focuses on gender inequality in Australia and the UN's goal of achieving equality for women globally by 2030.

"We are also supporting parents and our school community have these what can seem confronting conversations about sexual relationships and consent.

"Ours is an holistic approach to what is a very serious and important issue."

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While pleased with the College's response, Mr Gough backed Minister for Education Sarah Mitchell's call for a national conversation about teaching consent in schools.

"I fully support the statement by Education Minister Sarah Mitchell on having a national standard.

"I think having that national standard will give hopefully parents and the community in general even more confidence that this is being truly addressed at a consistent approach across our state," he said.

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