The School of Play Curriculum
Secondary School
Week Fifteen brings together high-energy movement, teamwork, creative expression, and personal reflection to help students grow physically, socially, and emotionally. Through fast-paced games like Left Right Up Down, students sharpen quick decision-making, agility, and coordination while practising encouragement and good sportsmanship. The physical challenges energise the group and set a fun, connected tone for the session. Students then shift into deeper self-reflection with My Superpowers, identifying the strengths, values, and qualities that make them unique. By designing a superhero character based on these traits, students learn to celebrate who they are and recognise the power of their individual gifts, while also appreciating the strengths of those around them.
The week continues with activities that blend teamwork, creativity, and meaningful dialogue. Four Corners Dice pushes students to work collaboratively, combining fitness challenges with problem-solving as they move around the room completing tasks and supporting their teammates. To conclude, Dice Connection Starter provides a creative space for students to express themselves through drawing, storytelling, or poetry, building deeper connections as they share personal experiences. Together, these activities nurture confidence, communication, self-awareness, and cooperation, helping students grow stronger as individuals and as a community.
Weekly Lessons
Left Right Up Down
Left Right Up Down is a fast-paced, high-energy partner game that blends quick thinking with physical movement. Players face off in a fun directional challenge where one person points left, right, up, or down while the other moves their head in a chosen direction, creating a split-second moment of suspense. Whether the directions match or not, the result leads to immediate physical activity, keeping the game lively and engaging. This simple structure creates a playful mix of anticipation, reaction, and laughter.
With options that include stationary play or a running variation, the game can easily shift from a warm-up to a full-body fitness challenge. It encourages friendly competition, teamwork, and social interaction, as partners cheer each other on through squats, push-ups, or other chosen exercises. Left Right Up Down is an energetic and adaptable activity perfect for boosting movement, sharpening decision-making, and building connection in any group setting.
Respectful Relationships
Understanding & Promoting Equality
- All students participate in the same directional challenges and exercises, ensuring equal opportunity regardless of ability.
- Success is based on reaction and teamwork, not popularity, strength, or social status.
- Everyone takes turns in both roles, ensuring fair participation and shared responsibility.
Building Healthy Relationships
- Partners support and encourage each other throughout the fast-paced movements and exercise challenges.
- Students practise managing emotions such as excitement, frustration, and competitiveness respectfully.
- Shared play strengthens connection and trust through positive, fun interaction.
Developing Communication Skills
- Students use clear verbal communication during countdowns and game transitions.
- Players practise nonverbal communication by reading and responding to directional cues.
- Active listening is essential for success, strengthening attention and respectful interaction.
Enhancing Social & Emotional Intelligence
- Students build resilience as they continue playing enthusiastically despite wins or losses.
- Empathy grows as they recognise and respond to their partner’s efforts and emotions.
- Self-awareness develops as students notice how they respond under pressure and adjust their reactions.
Challenging Stereotypes
- Shows that leadership, quick thinking, and coordination can come from any student, not tied to gender or athletic ability.
- Encourages all students to participate confidently in physical play without judgment.
- Highlights that success comes from communication and strategy, not physical dominance.
Recognising Rights
- Reinforces the right for all students to feel safe, included, and respected in physical activities.
- Encourages responsibility for personal well-being by pacing appropriately and expressing discomfort.
- Promotes respectful behaviour by ensuring students honour each other’s space and physical limits.
My Superpowers
My Superpowers is a reflective and creative activity designed to help students recognise and celebrate their unique strengths. Through guided prompts, students identify their skills, values, talents, and character traits, their personal “superpowers”, and reflect on how these qualities support them in everyday life. This process builds self-awareness and encourages students to take pride in who they are, fostering confidence and a strong, positive sense of identity.
Students then bring their superpowers to life by creating a superhero character that represents their unique abilities. Using drawings, symbols, and creative design elements, they transform their strengths into superhuman features, empowering them to visualise the best version of themselves. My Superpowers is a joyful and uplifting activity that promotes confidence, creativity, and meaningful self-reflection, while also providing opportunities to share, celebrate, and appreciate the strengths of others in the group.
Respectful Relationships
Understanding & Promoting Equality
- Ensures every student identifies and celebrates strengths unique to them, reinforcing that everyone contributes value regardless of background, ability, or personality.
- Normalises diversity in strengths by showing that superpowers come in many forms, emotional, social, creative, and physical, promoting an equal appreciation of all types.
- Encourages inclusive thinking by highlighting that no one’s strengths are “better,” just different, helping students recognise fairness and value in individuality.
Building Healthy Relationships
- Strengthens self-confidence, which supports healthier, more respectful interactions with peers.
- Promotes mutual appreciation as students share their superheroes and learn to value one another’s strengths.
- Encourages empathy by helping students understand that everyone has qualities worth celebrating and that recognising them builds stronger, kinder relationships.
Developing Communication Skills
- Provides structured opportunities for students to confidently communicate their strengths and the meaning behind their superhero design.
- Encourages active listening as students hear classmates explain their character strengths and symbolic choices.
- Supports positive language development, helping students communicate respectfully and affirmatively about themselves and others.
Enhancing Social & Emotional Intelligence
- Builds self-awareness by guiding students to identify their personal skills, values, and character traits.
- Encourages emotional expression and recognition of internal strengths, contributing to stronger emotional resilience.
- Strengthens social awareness by helping students notice strengths in their classmates and appreciate diverse qualities.
Challenging Stereotypes
- Highlights that strengths are not limited by gender, cultural expectations, or preconceived ideas about what a “superpower” should look like.
- Encourages all students to see leadership, kindness, creativity, and empathy as powerful traits, not just physical or traditionally “heroic” skills.
- Promotes the idea that anyone can be a hero in their own way, countering narrow stereotypes of what being strong or capable looks like.
Recognising Rights
- Reinforces each student’s right to feel valued, confident, and seen for who they are.
- Encourages respectful treatment of peers as students recognise and affirm others’ strengths and contributions.
- Highlights the responsibility to use one's strengths in positive ways that contribute to a safe, supportive environment for all.
Four Corners Dice
Four Corners Dice is a fast-paced team game that blends physical activity with quick thinking and collaboration. As teams rotate through the four corners of the room, they roll a dice at each station to reveal a movement challenge and a question they must answer together. This combination of physical effort and mental engagement creates an energetic atmosphere where teamwork, communication, and focus are essential.
The aim is to complete as many full laps of the four corners as possible within the set time, with each lap earning a point. Whether teams are running, hopping, skipping, or crawling between corners, the game keeps everyone moving, thinking, and working together. Four Corners Dice is a highly adaptable activity perfect for fitness sessions, classrooms, staff workshops, or team-building environments, offering a fun and dynamic way to build coordination, connection, and problem-solving skills.
Respectful Relationships
Understanding & Promoting Equality
- Ensures every student participates in the same physical, cognitive, and collaborative challenges, regardless of athletic ability or confidence level.
- Provides equal opportunities for all team members to contribute answers and complete movements, promoting fairness and shared responsibility.
- Breaks down social barriers by mixing students in pairs or small groups, ensuring that all voices and abilities are valued equally.
Building Healthy Relationships
- Strengthens connections as team members encourage each other through physical movements and shared question responses.
- Builds trust through cooperative problem-solving, ensuring all students rely on one another’s input to progress through the corners.
- Creates positive shared experiences that deepen group bonds as teams work together to complete laps.
Developing Communication Skills
- Encourages clear, respectful verbal communication as teams discuss answers and coordinate movement tasks.
- Develops active listening skills as students respond to each other's ideas in fast-paced moments.
- Promotes constructive decision-making as groups negotiate how to approach questions and move efficiently as a team.
Enhancing Social & Emotional Intelligence
- Builds self-awareness as students navigate both physical and cognitive challenges while noticing their emotional responses to teamwork under time pressure.
- Strengthens empathy as students support teammates who may find certain movements or questions more challenging.
- Fosters resilience as students stay engaged and positive while completing multiple laps and working through mistakes or slower corners.
Challenging Stereotypes
- Demonstrates that teamwork, intelligence, and leadership are not tied to physical ability, gender, or social status, everyone contributes in different ways.
- Challenges assumptions about who is “good” at fitness or thinking quickly, showcasing diverse strengths across the group.
- Encourages all students to take on leadership roles regardless of typical classroom hierarchies or stereotypes.
Recognising Rights
- Reinforces every student's right to feel included, supported, and safe while participating in group physical activities.
- Promotes respectful treatment by ensuring students encourage one another and honour different paces, comfort levels, and abilities.
- Emphasises students’ responsibility to contribute positively to their team and respect shared space during movement activities.
Dice Connection Starter
Dice Connection Starter is a reflective, creative, and connection-building activity designed to help participants learn more about themselves and one another. By rolling a dice to select questions from four different categories, players explore personal experiences, values, memories, and aspirations. They then express their answers creatively, through drawing, storytelling, poetry, or another artistic medium, encouraging deeper self-awareness and imaginative self-expression.
Once participants have created their chosen piece, they share it within a small group, transforming the game into a powerful tool for connection, communication, and vulnerability. Dice Connection Starter promotes a supportive and inclusive environment where group members gain meaningful insights into each other’s lives. It’s a versatile activity ideal for classrooms, workshops, team-building, or youth programs, fostering empathy, creativity, and stronger social bonds.
Respectful Relationships
Understanding & Promoting Equality
- Ensures every participant answers the same number of questions and engages in the same creative tasks, creating an equal platform for sharing and self-expression.
- Values all forms of communication, drawing, storytelling, poetry, showing that everyone’s voice and creativity matter equally.
- Provides each student an equal opportunity to be heard and understood, regardless of confidence level, academic ability, or social group.
Building Healthy Relationships
- Strengthens relationships by encouraging students to openly share personal reflections in a supportive and structured format.
- Promotes trust and connection as participants learn meaningful details about each other’s lives, experiences, and personal values.
- Creates shared moments of vulnerability and appreciation, helping students form more authentic and positive relationships.
Developing Communication Skills
- Encourages clear and expressive communication as students present their reflections through creative mediums.
- Enhances listening skills as peers respectfully engage with each other’s stories, drawings, or poems.
- Promotes inclusive discussion habits where students respond with curiosity, kindness, and thoughtful feedback.
Enhancing Social & Emotional Intelligence
- Builds self-awareness as students reflect on personal experiences, emotions, and identity through the question prompts.
- Develops empathy as students hear the stories and creative expressions of others, deepening understanding and compassion.
- Encourages emotional expression in safe ways, helping students practise vulnerability and recognise shared human experiences.
Challenging Stereotypes
- Demonstrates that creativity and reflection are not limited by gender, cultural background, or academic ability, everyone contributes uniquely.
- Breaks down assumptions about peers by revealing deeper personal stories and talents often unnoticed in everyday school life.
- Promotes diverse perspectives and creative styles, showing that there is no “right way” to express oneself.
Recognising Rights
- Reinforces every student’s right to express themselves safely, creatively, and without judgment.
- Encourages respectful interactions that protect each participant’s emotional safety, especially during personal sharing.
- Highlights shared responsibility in maintaining a supportive environment where everyone feels heard, valued, and included.
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