Student Wellbeing

Respectful Relationships

At Park Orchards Primary School we are committed to implementing Respectful Relationships to further improve the wellbeing of our students. 

Respectful Relationships is a government initiative that supports schools and early childhood settings to promote and model respect, positive attitudes and behaviours. It teaches students how to build healthy relationships, resilience and confidence. 

It has a variety of learning resources that are taught to students from Foundation through to Year 6. The learning resources are age-appropriate and adapted to suit the needs of our students. Each lesson is mapped against the Victorian Curriculum.

Respectful Relationships is about embedding a culture of respect and equality across our entire community, from our classrooms to staff rooms, sporting fields, fetes and social events. This approach leads to positive impacts on student’s academic outcomes, their mental health, classroom behaviour, and relationships between teachers and students.

In the classroom, children will learn problem-solving skills, to develop empathy, support their own wellbeing and build healthy relationships with others. When children build positive relationships with their teachers and peers they feel safer and happier at school, are more resilient and have positive social attitudes. Positive relationships also increase a child’s sense of social connectedness and belonging which can result in better health and academic outcomes.

Within a Respectful Relationships lesson there will be opportunities for:

• whole class and small group discussions
• stories to support learning
• photos to prompt discussion
• drama- role plays and freeze frames
• big questions
• Games

Here are some activities that you can do as a family to learn the meaning and value of respect. There’s one for each day of the week.

1. Every day this week give a sincere compliment to someone. Each day write down who you gave the compliment to and describe their reaction.
2. Think of someone who is respectful and talk about why they would be a good friend.
3. What are three ways you can show your teacher respect? Circle the one you will do today.
4. Name three ways you can show your parents respect? Which is the one you do most often? Which one do you need to boost?
5. List five ways we could show greater respect for our environment.
6. Use glue to write on bright-colored paper a few statements that respectful people would say to put a smile on someone else’s face. Now carefully sprinkle the letters with glitter. You’ve made Sparkle Statements!
7. Make a list of things people say who are respectful. Here are a few: “please.” “Thank you.” “I appreciate that.” “May I hold the door?” “Pardon me.” “I’m sorry I offended you.”