Mental Health & Wellbeing
ABOUT RESPECTFUL RELATIONSHIPS
We all want our children to have an education that gives them the best start to a happy, healthy and prosperous life. Respectful Relationships supports students to develop the knowledge, understanding and skills to strengthen their sense of self, and build and manage safe and respectful relationships.
Respectful Relationships takes a whole-school approach, recognising that schools are a place of learning, a workplace and a key part of local communities. It embeds a culture of respect and equality across our entire school community, from our classrooms to staffrooms, sporting fields, fetes and social events. This approach leads to positive change in students’ academic outcomes, their wellbeing, classroom behaviour, and relationships between teachers and students. We know that changes in attitudes and behaviours can be achieved when positive attitudes, behaviours and gender equality are lived across the school community.
Together, we can lead the way in creating genuine and lasting change, so every child has the opportunity to achieve their full potential.
IN THE CLASSROOM
Respectful Relationships acknowledges that children of any age have challenges to overcome, teaching social and emotional skills appropriate to their age and level of maturity. It is being taught in all government and Catholic schools and many independent schools from Prep to Year 12, as a core component of the Victorian Curriculum.
In the primary years, Respectful Relationships focuses on treating everyone with respect and dignity. It is taught as part of the Health and Physical Education and Personal and Social Capability areas of the Victorian Curriculum.
The supporting Resilience, Rights & Respectful Relationships teaching and learning materials have been developed by world-leading experts from the University of Melbourne. These age-appropriate resources align to the Victorian Curriculum and include lesson plans and activities that help students learn and practise social skills and apply them in a positive way to learning, life and relationships.
The Resilience, Rights & Respectful Relationships resources cover eight topics for each year level.
| Topic 1: Emotional Literacy | Topic 2: Personal Strengths |
| Topic 3: Positive Coping | Topic 4: Problem Solving |
| Topic 5: Stress Management | Topic 6: Help-Seeking |
| Topic 7: Gender and Identity | Topic 8: Positive Gender Relations |
This term we are focussing on Topics 7 and 8, our learning intentions for each year level are:
| Preps - Gender and Identity |
• Students think about their likes and dislikes • Students recognise that sometimes they will like the same things as their friends and that sometimes they will like different things (and that is OK) • Students recognise that what they like does not have to depend on whether they are a boy or a girl. • Students identify that some of their likes and dislikes may change as they grow older • Students identify that they can have different preferences in different situations • Students think about how girls can be similar to and different from each other • Students think about how boys can be the similar to and different from each other • Students recognise that the games, clothes and colours that people prefer to do not have to match with whether they are a boy or a girl • Students demonstrate types of self-expression and social and relational activities that boys and girls can do at home and at school regardless of gender • Students talk about what boys and girls can do if someone tells them that they can’t do something just because they are a boy or a girl • Students practice being both strong and gentle in the way they move, handle objects and work with others • Students talk about when it is important to be able to be both strong and gentle at the same time • Students talk about the importance of being able to be strong and gentle when they feel angry, so they do not hurt themselves or others |
| Preps - Positive Gender Relations |
• Students review the rules of fair play that are used in popular games • Students talk about how boys and girls can play in a fair and friendly way when playing together • Students talk about how boys and girls can play in a fair and friendly way and share space when playing near each other but in different games • Students talk about how boys and girls can play in a fair and friendly way when playing in boys only or girls only groups • Students identify that some types of mean talk are about what kind of boy or girl someone else is, and that this kind of mean talk is not fair or friendly • Students identify the feelings people can have when they are around violence or are the target of violence • Students identify what bodily sensations people can feel when they are around violence or are the target of violence • Students match the actions or words that fit with the word violent • Students demonstrate the actions or words that fit with the words friendly and fair • Students identify how people feel when their friends play with them in a way that is friendly and fair • Students identify how people feel when their friends play with them in a way that is violent, mean or too rough • Students identify and practice ways to organise sharing of play space or equipment • Students identify what effects it can have on others when others won’t let them join in the play space or equipment • Students reflect on what happens when some groups take more than their share of the play space or equipment • Students propose actions to ensure boys and girls can share and play together as well as alongside each other in a fair and friendly way • Students can recognise types of gender-based violence • Students practice responding assertively to gender-based violence • Students list the different uses that clothes have for providing protection for the body • Students will identify that clothes are also used to cover parts of the body in order to meet the standards of modesty and decency that apply in different settings • Students practice ways to tell people when they do not like the way their body is being touched or treated by others • Students will practice ways to seek safety when in the presence of violence or inappropriate forms of personal contact • Students will practice ways to seek help and inform a trusted adult if they or others they observe are treated inappropriately by others |
| Years 1/2 - Gender and Identity |
• Students identify some of the different things that they enjoy doing • Students compare ways in which their preferences may be similar to or different from those of their peers • Students identify that it is important to have a variety of skills and strengths to develop resilience • Students identify that knowing about our own and other people’s interests and preferences can improve the way we work and play together • Students describe what labels are used for • Students compare the difference between labels used on containers and those applied to people • Students identify that it is not helpful to apply labels to people • Students practice using statements which challenge the limiting nature of gender labels • Students identify that being a girl or a boy should not determine or limit the sorts of sports or activities that they enjoy • Students talk about they can do if someone tells them boys can’t or girls can’t do these things just because of their gender • Students review the character strengths cards • Students identify personal strengths that could be useful when dealing with situations in which people seek to limit their interests based on gender stereotypes • Students identify and describe personal strengths which they have used in the previous few days • Students select a character strength which they intend to use more in the upcoming week • Students develop their strengths through cooperative play |
| Years 1/2 - Positive Gender Relations |
• Students identify the ways in which the rules of the game assist people to play the game • Students identify that unfair play or breaking the rules of the game can lead to conflict • Students identify that it is equally important for boys and girls to play in a fair and friendly manner • Students identify skills we need to build respectful gender relationships • Students identify gender-friendly behaviours they can practice in the classroom and playground • Students identify the emotions people can have when they witness gender-based violence or are the target of gender-based violence • Students identify the bodily sensations people can feel when they witness gender-based violence or are the target of gender-based violence • Students identify that the opposite of violence is helpful and respectful cooperation • Students identify how people feel when their friends play with them in a way that is friendly, fair and respectful • Students identify and demonstrate strategies that peers can use to solve problems in a respectful way • Students will learn ways to tell people when they do not like the way their body is being treated by others • Students will learn ways to seek safety or seek help when in the presence of violence or inappropriate forms of personal contact |
| Years 3/4 - Gender and Identity |
• Students name and share some of the different interests that make up their identity or individuality • Learn about some of the differences and similarities between students in the class • Appreciate that it is important to respect differences between people • Understand that boys and girls can share similar interests • Students describe and compare the roles commonly given to male and female characters in traditional fairy tales • Students describe and compare the roles given to male and female characters in modern children’s literature • Students identify gendered messages fairy tales give readers • Students identify situations in which people learn through copying what they see others do • Students understand the difference between the meanings of the words sex and gender • Students identify examples of behaviours that are influenced by expectations relating to gender • Students identify gendered types that are commonly found within children’s media |
| Years 3/4 - Positive Gender Relations |
• Students give examples of various forms of violence, including physical, verbal and psychological • Students describe the impact that violence can have on people who witness or experience it • Students identify the contribution that acts of friendship can make to those who have been affected by violence • Students give examples of various forms of gender-based violence, including physical, verbal and psychological • Students describe the impact that gender-based violence might have on people who witness or experience it, as well as those who enact the violence • Students identify what they understand by the concepts of ‘rights’ and ‘responsibilities’ • Students compare their ideas about child rights with some of those listed in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child • Students list some of the responsibilities that they have for self and for others • Students identify some of the people in their lives who take responsibility for protecting their basic human rights • Students identify what they understand by the word ‘respect’ • Students demonstrate what they think respect looks like in a range of situations involving peers and adults • Students identify actions that they can take to build respectful gender-friendly relationships in different parts of their lives • Students discriminate between problems they can solve by themselves, and those for which they need to ask for help • Students identify strategies they can use to withdraw from a situation involving conflict or violence to protect their own or others’ safety • Students describe help-seeking strategies they can use when a problem involving gender-based violence is too big to solve by themselves • Students practice help-seeking strategies they can use when a problem involving gender-based violence is too big to solve all by themselves |
| Years 5/6 - Gender and Identity |
• Students describe the way in which gender influences how people relate to young children • Students understand the difference between the terms sex and gender • Students understand the difference between the terms same-sex attracted, heterosexual and transgender • Students identify actions that children and adults can take to contribute to a respectful, friendly and inclusive school • Students identify the ways in which gender norms can influence boys and girls as they enter early adolescence • Students identify strategies that some peers and adults may use to reinforce or police limiting gender norms • Students use data to identify the ways in which inequitable gender norms, stigma and discrimination operate to limit the opportunities some people have to participate fully and equally in life • Students learn about the concept of human rights as articulated in a range of United Nations declarations and conventions • Students compare the various human rights priorities and concerns addressed in key UN declarations and conventions. Students recognise that because some groups have been more likely to have their human rights abused, there has been a need to create additional conventions or declarations to try and achieve better treatment for them • Students explore ways in which gender norms are transmitted through intergenerational cultural practices • Students identify how gender norms change over time |
| Years 5/6 - Positive Gender Relations |
• Students build a definition f violence which includes physical, verbal, psychological and sexual forms through which violence can be enacted • Students give examples of the types of violence that can play out in face-to-face and digital environments • Students identify the emotional effects that violence can have for victims, observers, perpetrators and those closely connected to them. • Students describe the kinds of gender-based violence boys and girls may witness, experience or perpetrate in and around the school • Students engage with data showing the gendered pattern of violence in the adult community • Students explore power relations within interpersonal relationships • Students draw parallels between the power hierarchies experienced in the games, and those experienced in relationships • Students engage with the concepts of dominant and submissive within relationships • Students identify what it can feel like when a person with power or influence does not respect the rights or needs of those they have power over • Students identify the importance of behaving responsibly when in a situation of power or influence over others • Students identify the behaviours and actions they value in respectful friendships • Students identify the key behaviours indicative of respectful relationships and explore these as potential standards for cross-gender relationships • Students nominate what they think ‘respect’ would look like in romantic relationships • Students understand types of behaviour that are included within definitions of sexual harassment and sexual assault • Students understand there are laws and policies which clearly communicate that sexual assault and sexual harassment are not acceptable • Students script possible responses that a victim of peer based sexual harassment can use to assert their right to be free from harassment, or to ask for help • Students identify strategies people can use to assert standards and boundaries or to help-seek if they witness sexual harassment occurring among their peers • Students practice assertive help-seeking skills with reference to situations involving peer-based sexual harassment |