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
Red Flag, Green Flag
Red Flag, Green Flag is an interactive movement game that helps students recognise the difference between respectful and disrespectful behaviours in relationships. By listening to behaviour statements and choosing whether to cross the room or stay still, students develop a clear understanding of what healthy interactions look and feel like. This simple physical choice encourages thoughtful reflection on boundaries, safety, and the impact of behaviours on themselves and others. Through short discussions after each round, students learn to explain their reasoning, identify early warning signs, and think critically about how people show care, fairness, or control in relationships.
As students share perspectives, they build empathy and awareness while discovering that respectful relationships are grounded in safety, honesty, and kindness. The activity gently introduces help-seeking by encouraging students to recognise when a behaviour may require support from a trusted adult. Red Flag, Green Flag empowers students to trust their instincts, value their wellbeing, and look out for their peers, creating a classroom culture where everyone feels informed, confident, and supported.
Respectful Relationships
Active Listening & Communication
- Students practise listening carefully to behaviour statements and responding through thoughtful movement and discussion.
- Students build skills in explaining their reasoning clearly, respectfully, and confidently during mini-discussions.
- Students learn how to communicate feelings of discomfort or safety, strengthening their ability to express concerns in real relationships.
Understanding Diverse Perspectives
- Students recognise that peers may interpret behaviours differently based on cultural, personal, or family experiences.
- Students explore how relationship expectations vary and learn to appreciate diverse viewpoints without judgment.
- Students develop openness to understanding why others identified a behaviour as a red or green flag, even when they disagree.
Emotional Management & Self-Regulation
- Students reflect on emotional responses to different behaviours and identify early signs of discomfort or safety.
- Students practise staying calm and reflective when discussing sensitive or potentially triggering topics.
- Students learn how their own thoughts and emotions help them identify when a situation may become unsafe or disrespectful.
Empathy, Cooperation & Being an Ally
- Students consider how behaviours impact others, developing empathy for peers who may feel unsafe or pressured.
- Students explore how to support a friend showing signs of being in an unhealthy or disrespectful situation.
- Students practise cooperative discussions about sensitive topics, building a culture of care and allyship.
Boundaries, Privacy & Personal Space
- Students learn to identify behaviours that cross physical, emotional, or digital boundaries.
- Students reflect on their own comfort levels and what respectful behaviour looks like in relationships and friendships.
- Students strengthen their ability to recognise when boundaries are ignored or violated and how to respond safely.
Building Healthy Relationships
- Students identify behaviours that contribute to trust, respect, honesty, and emotional safety.
- Students analyse early warning signs of unhealthy dynamics such as control, pressure, secrecy, or dismissal of feelings.
- Students develop confidence in choosing respectful behaviours and expecting them from others.
Help-Seeking & Knowing Their Rights
- Students recognise when red flag behaviours signal a need for support from a trusted adult or service.
- Students build confidence in knowing how and where to seek help for themselves or a friend.
- Students understand their right to feel safe, respected, and free from pressure, manipulation, or control in all relationships.
Identity Banners
Identity Banners is a creative and reflective activity that invites students to explore who they are and express the unique elements that make up their identity. By drawing, writing, and symbolising aspects such as values, culture, interests, strengths, and family, students build deeper self-awareness and pride in what makes them individually special. As they share their completed banners in small groups, students practise respectful listening, ask thoughtful questions, and recognise both similarities and differences among their peers. This process helps them understand that identity is shaped by many experiences and that every person’s story deserves to be seen and valued.
Through quiet gallery walks and class discussions, students learn how identity connects to belonging and inclusion. They begin to appreciate how understanding each other's backgrounds and perspectives strengthens relationships and contributes to a kinder, safer classroom community. Identity Banners lays the foundation for respectful relationships by fostering empathy, celebration of diversity, and a shared commitment to treating others with care and respect.
Respectful Relationships
Active Listening & Communication
- Students practise sharing personal information in thoughtful ways and communicating what aspects of their identity matter to them.
- Students actively listen during the gallery walk, asking respectful questions and acknowledging others’ stories.
- Students develop confidence in expressing identity-related ideas using both verbal and non-verbal communication (symbols, drawings, words).
Understanding Diverse Perspectives
- Students explore how identity is shaped by culture, gender, family, ability, personality, and lived experiences.
- Students learn to appreciate differences and challenge stereotypes or assumptions about peers.
- Students recognise that diverse identities strengthen communities and influence how people see and experience the world.
Emotional Management & Self-Regulation
- Students practise reflecting on aspects of their identity that may feel personal or vulnerable, supporting emotional awareness.
- Students learn strategies to stay grounded when sharing or hearing identity-related content that may evoke strong feelings.
- Students recognise how understanding their own emotions contributes to respectful and confident self-expression.
Empathy, Cooperation & Being an Ally
- Students develop empathy by learning about peers’ identities, experiences, and perspectives through their banners.
- Students practise allyship by validating others’ identities through positive comments, curiosity, and inclusive behaviours.
- Students explore how understanding identity helps them cooperate more effectively and support classmates who may feel unseen or misunderstood.
Boundaries, Privacy & Personal Space
- Students reflect on what parts of their identity they feel comfortable sharing, helping them practise setting personal boundaries.
- Students learn to respect others’ boundaries by responding sensitively to what peers choose to reveal or keep private.
- Students explore how identity intersects with comfort levels, personal space, and emotional safety in relationships.
Building Healthy Relationships
- Students discover commonalities and differences that help build stronger, more respectful classroom relationships.
- Students gain insight into how identity influences communication, behaviours, and relationship expectations.
- Students practise creating a community where everyone feels seen, valued, and included.
Help-Seeking & Knowing Their Rights
- Students recognise that identity plays a role in who they trust and who they might approach when needing help or support.
- Students learn they have the right to be respected for who they are, including their culture, strengths, pronouns, and personal story.
- Students build awareness of how to seek support if aspects of their identity are disrespected, misunderstood, or targeted.
Build Your Own Board Game: Relationships Edition
Build Your Own Board Game: Relationships Edition invites students to turn their learning about respectful relationships into a creative, hands-on project. By designing a game that explores themes such as consent, communication, emotional safety, power dynamics, empathy, and help-seeking, students deepen their understanding of these concepts in a playful and imaginative way. Working in teams, they reflect on real-life scenarios, think critically about social dilemmas, and transform these into game mechanics, rules, challenges, and storylines. This process helps students connect their classroom learning to meaningful, relatable situations while fostering problem-solving, creativity, and social awareness.
As students build, test, and play each other’s games, they practise collaboration, active listening, and respectful decision-making. Peer feedback encourages reflection on what messages the games teach and how design choices influence understanding of healthy relationships. The activity strengthens empathy, communication skills, and teamwork, while showing students that learning about respect and boundaries can be both fun and impactful. Build Your Own Board Game supports a safe, inclusive classroom culture where students learn to navigate relationships through creativity, conversation, and shared play.
Respectful Relationships
Active Listening & Communication
- Students practise sharing ideas, negotiating rules, and communicating clearly within their design teams.
- Students strengthen their ability to articulate relationship concepts, such as consent, boundaries, and emotional safety, within gameplay.
- Students engage in constructive dialogue while giving and receiving feedback during peer game testing.
Understanding Diverse Perspectives
- Students explore how different players may interpret scenarios or relationship dilemmas differently based on their background or experiences.
- Students learn to design games that reflect diverse identities and avoid stereotypes, promoting inclusive representation.
- Students consider multiple viewpoints while testing other groups' games, deepening understanding of varied relationship experiences.
Emotional Management & Self-Regulation
- Students practise managing frustration, compromise, and decision-making during the collaborative design process.
- Students reflect on how emotions influence relationships by embedding emotional scenarios into their gameplay.
- Students develop strategies for staying calm and respectful when disagreements arise within their teams.
Empathy, Cooperation & Being an Ally
- Students cooperate to co-create a meaningful game, practising teamwork, empathy, and shared problem-solving.
- Students explore allyship by designing scenarios where players support others, challenge unfair behaviour, or make respectful choices.
- Students learn how cooperative environments help build stronger, more supportive peer relationships.
Boundaries, Privacy & Personal Space
- Students incorporate gameplay scenarios that explore consent, boundaries, privacy, and emotional safety.
- Students identify how to model boundary-respecting behaviours through choices and consequences in their game mechanics.
- Students deepen their understanding of personal space and digital/real-life boundaries by designing related dilemmas.
Building Healthy Relationships
- Students design gameplay centred around trust, fairness, communication, and empathy, core elements of healthy relationships.
- Students analyse how power dynamics, stereotypes, and peer pressure influence relationships by turning them into teachable game moments.
- Students reinforce their understanding of respectful behaviour by participating in and reflecting on multiple games.
Help-Seeking & Knowing Their Rights
- Students include scenarios that model when and how to seek support in difficult or unsafe situations.
- Students practise identifying trustworthy people or services through game pathways and decision-making prompts.
- Students gain clarity on their rights to safety, respect, and consent by embedding these themes into their games.
Word Find Builders
Word Find Builders invites students to explore the language of respectful relationships through creativity and teamwork. By selecting key terms related to concepts such as respect, consent, empathy, gender, boundaries, and communication, students deepen their understanding of the vocabulary that shapes healthy interactions. Designing their own word find or crossword encourages them to think critically about why these words matter, how they influence behaviour, and how language plays a powerful role in shaping respectful relationships. This hands-on activity transforms complex ideas into something meaningful and accessible, helping students build clarity and confidence in using inclusive, respectful language.
As students collaborate to construct, swap, and solve each other’s puzzles, they practise communication, problem-solving, and group decision-making. The shared experience encourages thoughtful discussion about the words chosen, the messages they convey, and how each term connects to real-life relationship scenarios. Word Find Builders strengthens vocabulary, reflection, and empathy while promoting a supportive classroom environment where students learn from one another. It’s an engaging and creative way to reinforce respectful relationship concepts and empowers students to recognise the importance of language in shaping safe, fair, and inclusive communities.
Respectful Relationships
Active Listening & Communication
- Students practise discussing vocabulary choices and explaining why certain words are important for understanding respectful relationships.
- Students communicate clearly within their group when designing clues, definitions, or selecting terms that represent key concepts.
- Students develop confidence articulating how language shapes interactions and influences relationship dynamics.
Understanding Diverse Perspectives
- Students explore how terms like gender, identity, empathy, and stereotypes can mean different things to different people.
- Students learn to include vocabulary that reflects diverse experiences and promotes inclusive thinking.
- Students recognise the importance of respectful, affirming language when discussing relationships across different cultures and identities.
Emotional Management & Self-Regulation
- Students reflect on emotionally charged terms (e.g., boundary, consent, pressure) and how these concepts relate to their own experiences.
- Students practise staying thoughtful and considerate when discussing sensitive topics during group decision-making.
- Students learn to regulate frustration and collaborate respectfully when challenges arise while designing puzzles.
Empathy, Cooperation & Being an Ally
- Students work collaboratively to build a puzzle that uses language promoting kindness, safety, and equality.
- Students practise empathy when selecting words that represent values and behaviours supporting respectful relationships.
- Students learn how inclusive vocabulary can communicate allyship and support for others.
Boundaries, Privacy & Personal Space
- Students examine vocabulary related to personal boundaries, privacy, consent, and safe communication.
- Students learn how the words they use can either uphold or ignore the boundaries of others.
- Students reflect on how respectful language promotes comfort, safety, and emotional well-being.
Building Healthy Relationships
- Students identify and use key terms that describe respectful behaviour, equality, trust, and positive relationship habits.
- Students deepen their understanding of healthy vs. unhealthy interactions by defining or incorporating relationship-themed vocabulary.
- Students explore how everyday language choices influence the well-being and dynamics of friendships and peer groups.
Help-Seeking & Knowing Their Rights
- Students include language that reflects support networks, help-seeking behaviours, and rights to safety and respect.
- Students learn vocabulary that empowers them to articulate when they need help and who they might turn to.
- Students practise using terminology that reinforces their right to feel safe, respected, and heard.
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