A healthy relationships programme for secondary school students

Through class discussions and a film resource, students will be introduced to the programme. A safe atmosphere will be established for discussions about healthy and unhealthy behaviour in relationships of all types.

• Understand the qualities of a healthy relationship and healthy friendship.
• Value and recognise the qualities of caring relationships.
• Identify people, behaviours and characteristics that make them feel good about themselves.

Through class discussions and a film resource, students will be introduced to the programme. Students will identify effective communication and be introduced to the Mates & Dates consent poster.

• Understand the concept of consent.
• Value communications as key to consent.
• Demonstrate ways to communicate effectively with others.

Through class discussions and a film resource, students will be introduced to the programme. Students will also consider what they want from relationships, and healthy and unhealthy behaviours in relationships.

• Understand healthy and unhealthy characteristics in relationships.
• Explore their own values in relationships.
• Identify what they want out of relationships.

Through class discussions and a film resource, students will be introduced to the programme and explore ways to end a relationship respectfully.

• Understand that relationship break-ups are hurtful and may cause people to behave badly towards one another.
• Value respect throughout all stages of a relationship.
• Identify respectful ways to end a relationship.

Through individual and group activities and discussions, students will practise negotiation and communication skills to interact positively with each other.

• Understand the concept of consent.
• Value the communications as key to consent.
• Demonstrate how to negotiate consent in a range of situations.

Through small group work and class discussions, students will role play effective communication skills and be responding to pressure, including sexual pressure.

• Understand components of effective communications.
• Recognise that pressure, including sexual pressure, is inconsistent with consent.
• Demonstrate effective communications skills in responding to pressure, including sexual pressure.

Through group activity and discussions, students will identify legal definitions of consent, the four parts of consent and how it applies to sexual situations.

• Understand legal definitions of consent and the four parts of consent.
• Recognise that sexual consent is impossible in the context of high alcohol use.
• Demonstrate skills in negotiating consent.

Through role play and class discussions, students will identify and practise consent, particularly in terms of non-verbal communication.

• Identify the four parts of consent and how they might apply in non-verbal contexts.
• Recognise that non-verbal communication may require an explicit connection to consent.
• Practise non-verbal communication and negotiation skills.

Through class discussions and small group work, students will learn about power and control behaviours in unhealthy relationships.

• Understand how power and control work in practice.
• Recognise abuse as harmful with potentially negative impacts on people and their friends and families/whanau.
• Identify and name abusive and controlling behaviour.

Through a film resource, class discussion and small group work, students will discuss consent in the context of sexual activity and the consequences of not gaining consent.

• Understand the legal definitions of consent.
• Recognise sexual violence as harmful with potentially negative impacts on people, their friends, family and whānau.
• Identify that alcohol and drug use impairs judgement and the ability for sexual negotiation.

Through a film resource, class discussions and small group work, students will learn how to identify and manage their feelings, particularly anger, and develop strategies to make non-violent choices.

• Identify their own triggers to anger.
• Recognise that anger does not need to lead to violence.
• Develop strategies for managing anger.

Through a film resource and group discussions, students will consider the barriers to reporting sexual violence and learn what specialist help can provide.

• Understand that sexual violence has negative impacts and victims may need help to recover.
• Value peers and specialist support as important sources of help.
• Identify barriers to disclosing sexual abuse.

Through small group work and class discussions, students will consider gender stereotypes, the way men and women are represented in music videos and song lyrics and the impacts these stereotypes and representations may have on individuals.

• Understand the impacts that gender role expectations have on individuals.
• Respect a diverse range of gender identities.
• Develop skills in critiquing messages about gender sexuality in popular media.

Through class discussions, scenario work and a continuum exercise, students will consider gender stereotypes and expectations and how these may affect the way individuals behave.

• Recognise gender role expectations and stereotypes and the impacts they have on the way individuals behave.
• Respect a diverse range of gender identities.
• Identify the effects of gender role stereotypes on individuals and society.

Through class discussions, a continuum exercise and an advertising analysis, students will explore the relationship between alcohol and gender stereotypes related to sexual relationships.

• Understand gender role expectations and stereotypes and how they are reinforced in alcohol advertising.
• Recognise the role that alcohol plays in victim blaming.
• Develop skills in critiquing the impacts of alcohol on negotiating consent, including in terms of the law.

Through role play and class discussions, students will consider different perspectives on sex and sexuality and explore how they can learn from these different perspectives.

• Understand that different people have different expectations of sexual intimacy and different attitudes to sex and relationships.
• Respect a diverse range of attitudes to sex and relationships.
• Identify the influences that shape how we think about sexuality, gender and relationships.

Through group discussions and film resources, students will learn about how to help friends who are being harmed or who are harming others.

• Understand the importance of getting help for both victims of and people with harmful behaviour.
• Value the importance of peers and specialist agencies as sources of help.
• Identify a variety of way s to support a friend who is a victim of abuse or has harmful behaviour.

Through group discussions and a scenario exercise, students will learn how to help friends who are being harmed or who are harming others.

• Understand the importance of getting help for both victims of and people with harmful behaviour.
• Value peers and specialist agencies as important sources of help.
• Identify a variety of ways to support a friend who is being harmed or who is harming others.

Through group discussions and a film resource, students will consider the positives and negatives of online and communication technology and think about what it means to behave respectfully online.

• Understand that online behaviour can have both positive and negative impacts.
• Recognise that abusive online communication can have potentially negative impacts on people, their friends, family and whānau.
• Develop the capacity to reflect on online behaviour before they act.

Through group discussions and a film resource, students will explore strategies to intervene in precursors to unsafe situations.

• Understand the barriers and reasons for intervening when people are in precursors to unsafe situations.
• Believe that intervening is possible and can help.
• Demonstrate a range of strategies to intervene when people are in precursors to unsafe situations.

• Leadership is the focus for year 13 students.
• Young people learn best with support from other young people, so year 13 encourages students to share their understandings of how to prevent sexual and dating violence with their peers.
• Students work together to create their own projects to promote healthy relationships, skills and consent, identity, gender and sexuality when things go wrong and keeping safe together at their school.