The School of Play Curriculum
Secondary School
Respectful Relationships
Year 7–8 Introduction
Building skills for thriving, safe, and respectful connections
Students in Years 7 and 8 are growing rapidly in independence, identity, and social awareness. These are the years when friendships shift, emotions deepen, and young people begin to navigate more complex social worlds, both in person and online. This curriculum supports them in developing the essential relationship skills they need to feel safe, valued, and confident in a wide range of settings.
Core Learning Objectives
Active Listening & Communication
- Practise listening with focus, respect, and curiosity.
- Learn to express needs, boundaries, and concerns calmly and clearly.
- Build confidence in having difficult conversations in safe, supportive ways.
Understanding Diverse Perspectives
- Explore how gender, sexuality, culture, and disability shape people's experiences.
- Learn to respect identities different from their own and challenge discrimination.
- Strengthen the ability to consider multiple viewpoints with openness and empathy.
Emotional Management & Self-Regulation
- Recognise and manage strong feelings such as frustration, embarrassment, jealousy, or disappointment.
- Understand how thoughts, emotions, and behaviours influence relationships.
- Build strategies for staying calm, grounded, and respectful under pressure.
Empathy, Cooperation & Being an Ally
- Develop skills to notice how others might feel and respond with kindness.
- Practise cooperation, teamwork, and shared problem-solving.
- Learn what it means to be a good ally, supporting peers who feel excluded, unsafe, or unheard.
Boundaries, Privacy & Personal Space
- Understand why boundaries matter in friendships, classrooms, online spaces, and early dating.
- Practise setting boundaries respectfully and recognising the boundaries of others.
- Learn how privacy, consent, and comfort levels help relationships stay healthy.
Building Healthy Relationships
- Explore what respectful friendships look, sound, and feel like.
- Identify early signs of unhealthy dynamics such as exclusion, pressure, or imbalance.
- Develop confidence in seeking help when situations feel unsafe or uncomfortable.
Help-Seeking & Knowing Their Rights
- Recognise their right to feel safe, respected, and included at all times.
- Identify trusted adults, peers, and support networks.
- Practise asking for help for themselves or supporting a friend safely and appropriately.
Years 7–8 is all about:
- Strengthening emotional intelligence and communication
- Understanding diversity and challenging stereotypes
- Developing empathy, cooperation, and allyship
- Setting and respecting boundaries
- Building healthy, safe peer and family relationships
- Knowing their right to be valued, protected, and respected
Weekly Lessons
Values Showdown
Values Showdown gives students the chance to explore what matters most to them and how their personal values guide the way they act in friendships and relationships. By moving around the room to choose a value in response to different social dilemmas, students reflect on how beliefs like honesty, kindness, respect, fairness, or loyalty influence their decisions. This active, discussion-based activity helps students recognise that values shape how they respond to conflict, pressure, or misunderstandings, and that knowing their own values strengthens their ability to make respectful, thoughtful choices.
As students share their reasoning and listen to the perspectives of others, they build empathy, communication skills, and a deeper understanding of the diverse values within their classroom. The conversations that unfold help students appreciate that people may respond differently to the same situation based on what they believe is most important, and that this difference can lead to richer, more respectful interactions. Values Showdown supports a classroom culture of openness, reflection, and healthy decision-making, encouraging students to act with integrity in their everyday relationships.
Respectful Relationships
Active Listening & Communication
- Students practise explaining their reasoning clearly when discussing which value guided their decision.
- Students listen respectfully to peers who chose different value zones, strengthening turn-taking and communication skills.
- Students gain confidence having constructive conversations about challenging social dilemmas in a safe, structured format.
Understanding Diverse Perspectives
- Students explore how personal values differ across gender, culture, family background, and lived experience.
- Students practise considering multiple viewpoints by hearing diverse reasoning behind each value choice.
- Students learn to challenge assumptions and develop respectful curiosity about why peers respond differently to the same dilemma.
Emotional Management & Self-Regulation
- Students learn to pause, reflect, and make calm, values-guided choices rather than reacting emotionally to dilemmas.
- Students recognise how emotions influence decision-making during conflicts, jealousy, pressure, or misunderstandings.
- Students build strategies for responding thoughtfully to emotionally charged situations by grounding their response in values.
Empathy, Cooperation & Being an Ally
- Students practise empathy by listening to others explain how they would respond to situations and why.
- Students recognise when a peer’s perspective reveals feelings of exclusion, pressure, or discomfort, and discuss how to support them.
- Students learn how acting according to values like fairness, kindness, and loyalty strengthens peer relationships and allyship.
Boundaries, Privacy & Personal Space
- Students explore how values like respect, trust, and honesty guide decisions about privacy and relational boundaries.
- Students identify when social dilemmas involve crossed boundaries and practise choosing values that protect their wellbeing.
- Students gain confidence in articulating their own boundaries and understanding how others’ boundaries may differ.
Building Healthy Relationships
- Students reflect on how shared values help create respectful friendships built on trust and mutual understanding.
- Students identify early signs of unhealthy dynamics (e.g., pressure, secrecy, disrespect) when analysing dilemmas.
- Students practise using values to guide positive behaviour and decision-making in real-life relationship situations.
Help-Seeking & Knowing Their Rights
- Students recognise that their values can alert them when a situation feels unsafe, disrespectful, or unfair.
- Students learn to identify when a dilemma requires help from a trusted adult or support network.
- Students understand their right to be treated with respect and to make decisions that align with their values and comfort levels.
Chain Reaction
Chain Reaction is a dynamic role-play activity that helps students understand how influence and power show up in everyday peer interactions. By acting out evolving scenarios, students see how one small choice can spark a ripple effect, either building kindness and inclusion or creating tension and harm. This activity encourages students to reflect on how their words, tone, and actions impact others, helping them recognise that they are never neutral in a social space. Every move influences the group, and understanding this empowers students to make thoughtful, respectful decisions.
As students join scenes and shift the story through their reactions, they practise leadership, empathy, and positive peer influence. The group debrief allows students to explore what went well, what could have gone differently, and how just one courageous or respectful choice can change the entire direction of a social situation. Chain Reaction supports deeper awareness of peer dynamics while strengthening students' confidence to be a positive force in their relationships and classroom culture.
Respectful Relationships
Active Listening & Communication
- Students practise responding to peers’ actions in real time, building their ability to communicate clearly through words, tone, and body language.
- Students listen actively to unfolding scenarios so they can step in with a meaningful, context-aware contribution.
- Students build confidence explaining their choices and reflecting verbally during the debrief, strengthening communication in emotionally charged situations.
Understanding Diverse Perspectives
- Students see how different people may interpret the same scenario differently based on their values, experiences, and social roles.
- Students explore how cultural norms, gender expectations, and personal backgrounds influence reactions within peer dynamics.
- Students learn to appreciate multiple viewpoints during debrief discussions, building empathy and inclusive thinking.
Emotional Management & Self-Regulation
- Students practise regulating impulses when entering a scene, choosing thoughtful actions rather than reacting emotionally.
- Students recognise moments in scenarios where emotions escalate and learn strategies to pause, reset, or shift the tone.
- Students develop awareness of how their emotions influence group reactions and how staying calm can positively redirect a situation.
Empathy, Cooperation & Being an Ally
- Students identify how individual actions can support or harm others, discussing ways to step in as a respectful upstander.
- Students experience how positive behaviours (kindness, inclusion, encouragement) can create ripple effects that improve group culture.
- Students learn how to collaboratively shift a scene toward empathy, cooperation, and support through intentional choices.
Boundaries, Privacy & Personal Space
- Students explore scenarios where boundaries are crossed through gossip, peer pressure, exclusion, or disrespectful behaviour.
- Students practise recognising when someone’s comfort, privacy, or personal space is being compromised.
- Students build capacity to intervene respectfully or offer support when boundaries need to be reinforced.
Building Healthy Relationships
- Students see firsthand how respectful actions strengthen group culture and how unkind behaviours create negative chain reactions.
- Students analyse signs of healthy and unhealthy dynamics as they emerge in real-time role play.
- Students practise choosing actions that foster trust, inclusion, fairness, and mutual respect within friendships and peer groups.
Help-Seeking & Knowing Their Rights
- Students learn to identify moments in scenarios where help from a trusted adult may be needed.
- Students recognise their right to feel safe, respected, and supported, even when group dynamics become challenging.
- Students explore strategies for seeking help or offering support when influence, pressure, or peer conflict becomes overwhelming.
Pressure Points
Pressure Points is an active, movement-based learning experience that helps students recognise situations where they may feel pressured by peers and equips them with practical, assertive responses. By rotating through real-life scenarios, students explore what pressure can look like, from dares and exclusion to secrecy and unsafe choices, and practise setting boundaries in ways that are clear, calm, and respectful. This encourages students to tune into their personal values, notice red flags early, and respond in ways that keep themselves and others safe.
As students brainstorm, share ideas, and role-play solutions, they build confidence in speaking up and supporting classmates who may feel unsure or uncomfortable. The activity reinforces that assertiveness is not about being forceful; it’s about being clear, kind, and courageous. Through teamwork, discussion, and reflection, students learn that resisting pressure is easier when they have strategies, language, and a supportive peer community around them. “Pressure Points” empowers students to stand strong in challenging moments and helps shape a classroom culture where respect and safety come first.
Respectful Relationships
Active Listening & Communication
- Students practise assertive communication strategies, learning to express boundaries clearly, calmly, and respectfully.
- Students actively listen to peers’ suggested responses during brainstorms and debriefs, strengthening communication and confidence.
- Students learn how tone, wording, and body language contribute to effective assertive communication when under pressure.
Understanding Diverse Perspectives
- Students recognise that peer pressure looks and feels different for everyone depending on culture, identity, friendships, and experiences.
- Students explore how different people respond to pressure differently, building empathy and reducing judgment.
- Students learn that respecting others' boundaries and choices is essential, even when those choices differ from their own.
Emotional Management & Self-Regulation
- Students identify emotional triggers, such as embarrassment, fear of exclusion, or wanting approval, that make peer pressure harder to resist.
- Students practise strategies for staying calm and grounded when feeling pushed or uncomfortable.
- Students learn how emotional awareness supports clearer thinking and more respectful responses in challenging social moments.
Empathy, Cooperation & Being an Ally
- Students explore how to support peers who feel pressured, strengthening allyship and social responsibility.
- Students practise responding in ways that protect others from unsafe or disrespectful pressure.
- Students learn how small acts of support, speaking up, checking in, offering alternatives, can shift peer culture towards kindness.
Boundaries, Privacy & Personal Space
- Students develop clarity about their own boundaries and practise communicating them assertively.
- Students learn to recognise when someone is pressuring them to cross a personal, relational, or ethical boundary.
- Students explore respectful ways to reinforce boundaries when social influence becomes uncomfortable or unsafe.
Building Healthy Relationships
- Students identify how assertive communication contributes to trust, respect, and fairness within peer relationships.
- Students analyse scenarios to recognise dynamics such as exclusion, secrecy, and coercion that undermine healthy friendships.
- Students practise behaviour choices that protect their wellbeing and strengthen respectful, balanced relationships.
Help-Seeking & Knowing Their Rights
- Students learn to recognise when peer pressure becomes unsafe and when adult support is needed.
- Students build confidence in seeking help for themselves or for a friend when boundaries are crossed.
- Students understand their right to say “no,” feel safe, and be free from pressure, manipulation, or coercion in any relationship.
Who’s In Your Circle?
Who’s In Your Circle? is a reflective activity that helps students map out the trusted people in their lives and understand who they can turn to when they need support. By visualising their inner, middle, and outer circles of care, students build awareness of the adults and peers they feel safest with, as well as community supports they can access in more serious situations. This process encourages students to think about when help is needed, who is best suited to give it, and why reaching out early can make challenges easier to handle.
As students explore real-life scenarios and identify who they would approach in each situation, they develop confidence in seeking help and learn how to recognise trustworthy, reliable support. Optional pair-sharing and class discussion help normalise conversations about asking for help while reinforcing empathy. Students learn not only how to reach out themselves, but also how to encourage a friend who may be struggling. “Who’s In Your Circle?” strengthens emotional safety and belonging, empowering students to understand that they are never alone and that a strong support network is one of the most important tools for well-being.
Respectful Relationships
Active Listening & Communication
- Students practise clearly expressing why certain people are trustworthy and how they might ask them for help.
- Students listen respectfully to peers during optional pair-sharing, strengthening communication around sensitive topics.
- Students learn the language of help-seeking, building confidence in communicating needs, worries, and boundaries.
Understanding Diverse Perspectives
- Students explore how support networks vary across families, cultures, identities, and lived experiences.
- Students recognise that others may seek help differently or feel comfortable with different types of support people.
- Students develop respect for the diverse ways peers build trust, feel safe, and reach out for support.
Emotional Management & Self-Regulation
- Students reflect on their own emotional signals, stress, overwhelm, worry, that indicate they may need support.
- Students practise identifying scenarios where seeking help can prevent emotions from escalating.
- Students learn how self-awareness and early help-seeking contribute to staying grounded and emotionally safe.
Empathy, Cooperation & Being an Ally
- Students explore how they can encourage peers to seek help when needed, promoting a culture of care and allyship.
- Students practise responding with empathy when discussing others’ support needs or struggles.
- Students learn how being a trusted peer, kind, respectful, confidential, helps others feel safe reaching out.
Boundaries, Privacy & Personal Space
- Students consider the importance of confidentiality and respecting others’ privacy when sharing sensitive issues.
- Students learn how trust is built through respecting emotional boundaries and knowing when a problem requires adult support.
- Students explore how different layers of support offer different levels of privacy, comfort, and safety.
Building Healthy Relationships
- Students identify qualities that make a relationship trustworthy, safe, and supportive.
- Students reflect on how their own behaviour can strengthen trust and connection with peers.
- Students build an understanding of how strong support networks contribute to healthier friendships and well-being.
Help-Seeking & Knowing Their Rights
- Students learn to map out who they can turn to in different situations, strengthening confidence in asking for help.
- Students understand their right to feel safe, supported, and listened to by adults and peers.
- Students build the skills needed to recognise when help is required and how to access formal and informal supports.
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