Year 5/6 - URSTRONG

On Thursday, 14th August, we hosted a URSTRONG workshop for our Year 5 and 6 students. Tyson Greenwood, who visited us last year to do a workshop with the Year 3 and 4 students, returned to present practical strategies to the students about how to manage changing friendships and friendships that might have moved into the “unhealthy” zone.

At the beginning, he asked the students what sorts of challenges they experience in friendships in Year 5 and 6 and they said:

“When you are working in a group on something and it doesn’t go well.”

“When your friends don’t agree on something (like what to play).”

“When you feel stuck between two friends (which Tyson called “a friendship sandwich”).”

“When your friend isn’t taking you seriously (like you are being serious about something that’s bothering you and they think it’s a joke).”

“When your friend criticises you (and roasting).”

Tyson broke down different types of friendship issues, in the context of Friendship Fires and Mean on Purpose, as well as the grey area of 'Mean by Accident'. He talked about and gave examples of when a Friendship Fire starts out small and then gets bigger in part due to how we handle it. He modelled strategies that the students then practised. 

One of the big underlying messages was that addressing friendship fires can feel awkward and uncomfortable, but when you have an issue with a friend, you have three choices:

• Say nothing- avoid the awkward, but… the Friendship Fire gets bigger.
• Be mean back- the Fire definitely gets bigger and the Friendship is in real trouble AND you might get into trouble.
• Say something- it might feel awkward, but you might solve the issue and be able to move on.

The URSTRONG messages and strategies tie in perfectly with the Stand Up Project, not only due to the shared language across both but also in terms of giving students practical options and strategies of how to be an upstander in real situations.