Welcome, built for the adolescent brain
The Secondary curriculum is 31 weekly bundles designed for Years 7–10 classrooms. Adolescent brains are wired for novelty, social belonging, agency and movement, and this program is built around all four. Same five-lesson shape as the primary curricula (Overview, Play, Written, Exercise, Gratitude) but with secondary-appropriate content, language and delivery models.
The Secondary program slots into HPE rotations, wellbeing tutor time, advisory blocks and homeroom in equal measure. Most schools use it in 25–40 minute slots, but every lesson is built to flex from 10 minutes to a full hour.
Standards, Vic Curriculum 7–10, HPE and RR
Every lesson is dual-mapped to the Victorian Curriculum F–10 (Levels 7–10) and the ACARA Australian Curriculum. Respectful Relationships Topics 1–8 are delivered with adolescent-appropriate language, including the Department’s mandated content on consent and protective behaviours.
- Victorian Curriculum, Personal & Social Capability (Levels 7–10), HPE, Ethical Capability, Civics & Citizenship.
- ACARA HPE 2.0, Movement & Physical Activity, Personal, Social & Community Health (adolescent strand).
- Respectful Relationships, Topics 1 to 8 delivered with adolescent language; Topic 7 (Positive Gender Relations) and Topic 8 (Help-Seeking) are explicit and unavoidable as per Department requirements.
- CASEL 5, every lesson maps to one or more of the five competencies, with explicit naming of which competency is the lesson’s primary outcome.
- AITSL Standards 1.1, 1.3, 3.5, 4.1, 6.4 supported for annual reflection portfolios.
Your first week, a real Year 7–10 timetable
Secondary students can hold the rhythm without scaffolding. The biggest first-week call is which slot to run it in:
- Mentor / tutor time, best fit if you have a daily 20-minute slot. Run one lesson per day.
- Wellbeing / HPE, best fit if you have one 60-minute slot per week. Run Overview + Play + Gratitude in a single block.
- Advisory or homeroom, best fit for the Written and Gratitude lessons, where you want a quieter register.
- Sub day or rainy day, every Play game can be run as a standalone "we have a surprise period to fill" lesson.
Hand the curriculum to the students
By Year 8 your students should be running the lessons themselves. The Secondary program includes "student leader notes" embedded in every lesson, small prompts that let a rotating student MC the session. Many schools pair Secondary with the Student Agency & Wellbeing curriculum (also available in The School of Play library) so that a leadership cohort delivers wellbeing lessons to younger year levels as part of their own program.
Respectful Relationships content delivery
The Secondary curriculum delivers the Department’s mandated Respectful Relationships content, including the consent, healthy-relationships and help-seeking topics, using vetted adolescent language. These specific lessons sit in weeks 12, 19, 23 and 28. We strongly recommend you send the Family Guide home before each of these weeks (the print button at the bottom of this page outputs a school-branded PDF for distribution). The lessons themselves are designed to fit cleanly into your existing scope and sequence; if a class conversation goes beyond curriculum delivery, your school’s wellbeing team is the right path.
When a game does not land
Three near-universal fixes for the adolescent room:
- Drop the words. Adolescents follow modelling far more than instruction. Watch the video, then run.
- Hand it to a student to lead. Peers carry more weight than teachers.
- Move the bodies. Most flat secondary sessions are flat because nobody has moved in two periods.
Questions about the curriculum
Email support@theschoolofplay.co or open the chat. We can help with anything to do with running the program, sequencing, integrating into your HPE scope and sequence, or scaling across year levels.
