Wellbeing

Updated Respectful Relationships Curriculum

At the end of 2024, the Respectful Relationships team at the Department of Education published updated resources and curriculum for the Respectful Relationships program. Earlier this term, we had regional staff from the implementation team come out to support staff professional learning about the initiative in general and about the new curriculum materials.

For anyone who is not familiar with this program, the premise and overarching aim for this initiative is to support social emotional learning and explicit teaching on respectful relationships. This is a mandatory component of the curriculum, that supports the learning our students do in the Personal and Social capability of the Victorian Curriculum as well as other initiatives in place, like the Stand Up Project.

Over the past couple of weeks, staff have explored the curriculum materials and spent time as a staff team in year levels selecting lessons from the program that suit the needs of our students and then planned how the learning would be implemented. 

For example, using a picture story book about friendships to discuss kindness, exploring different emotions through games and circle time. By sharing and facilitating discussions about diversity we explore personal and cultural strengths that help us navigate social situations or problems.

This term, all year levels across the school will explore relevant concepts from 

Topic 1: Emotional Literacy and Topic 2: Personal and Cultural Strengths.

At BEPS, we have been using our weekly timetabled library sessions to implement our planned wellbeing lessons before we do our browsing, borrowing and quiet reading. This week the Foundation classes explored how we share, from both a cultural and personal lens using a mentor text about the way in which Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders share and care for the resources of Country (such as, “we only take what we need, no more and no less”).

They then made connections to how we share as a way to be kind, brainstorming what sharing looks like at school. 

Students drew pictures to represent their experiences of sharing (such as, by taking turns on the playground, by giving out party bags and by sharing pencils and textas on the tables).

The Year 1s completed an activity from Topic 1: Emotional Literacy, where they shared how they felt just prior to the session at playtime and then unpacked an example that the teacher shared about something that happened that made someone feel upset. 

The students considered and discussed how the person would have felt when that happened and compared that to how they would have felt after they got help from some other friends. Students had a go at showing each other different emotions and identifying what that emotion would look like in terms of facial expressions, body language and actions. 

If you have any questions at all about the Respectful Relationships curriculum, please email me at katie.abbott@education.vic.gov.au or you can call the school to get in touch with me.

Katie,

Wellbeing Officer