Respectful Relationships

Respectful Relationships is a core component of the Victorian Curriculum and promotes respect and equality across the school community. 

The Respectful Relationships curriculum covers eight topics of Social and Emotional Learning across all levels. This term at Brookside, we are teaching topics 1 and 2 across all year levels, as we make our way through all 8 topics throughout the course of the year.

We are passionate about the implementation of the Respectful Relationships curriculum at our school. By embedding a culture of respect and equality across our entire community, from our classrooms to staffrooms, sporting fields, and other school events, we can have a positive impact on our students’ academic outcomes, their mental health, classroom behaviours and the important relationships between each other and our staff. Below we’ve outlined the 8 topics, as well as included more information about the two we are focusing on this term.

•    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

Topic 1: Emotional Literacy 

Emotional literacy can be defined as the ability to understand ourselves, and other people. It includes the ability to understand, express and manage our own emotions, build empathy, and to respond appropriately to the emotions of others. Building a large vocabulary of emotions helps to increase emotional literacy and build self awareness and empathy for others. 

Topic 2: Personal Strengths 

Children and young people need a vocabulary to help them recognise and understand strengths and positive qualities in themselves and others. This topic provides learning activities to build this vocabulary and to use it when discussing personal, social and ethical challenges. 

Research in the field of positive psychology emphasises the importance of identifying and using individual strengths. Social and emotional learning programs which use strength based approaches promote student wellbeing, positive behaviour and academic achievement.

Students in grade 5 have been learning about what it means to understand the feelings of others by pulling apart the theme of empathy.

Students in grade 6 have identified the character strengths they admire and value in others through these visual displays.

We can’t wait to share more student work with you throughout the year.

Thank you,

The Respectful Relationships Working Party