FEATURE FOCUS: MENTAL HEALTH & WELLBEING
Rehearsing for reality
games collectively called ‘Life Story’ – were shortlisted for a TES Award and will soon be available at
www.lifestoryeducation.com.
Life Story is a trio of innovative educational games that provide students with meaningful opportunities to develop key relational skills and ‘rehearse for reality’. Each game uses a different framework to invite students to take the roles of adults in real-life situations. Over the course of 6-8 weeks, students face tasks and surprise ‘Plot Twists’ in their new roles. They must work together to manage both challenges and triumphs, always considering the consequences of their decisions. They keep track of their choices in individual workbooks, thereby writing their own ‘stories’.
Development context I
n our final piece this month looking at mental health and wellbeing in schools we are delighted to hear from English teacher Vicki Barsby, from Eltham College in Southwest London, who shares her work on a ‘Devolved Leadership Project’ that examined the school’s approach to Relationships Education. The resources she subsequently developed – a trio of
The demand for comprehensive Relationships Education in schools has surged in recent years, accelerated by concern over the social impact of Covid-19 lockdowns and by the harrowing tales of harassment and sexism uncovered by the ‘Everyone’s Invited’ movement. The increasingly digital nature of our social landscapes – exacerbated by the pandemic – means that today’s teenagers find themselves at once more connected and more isolated than ever before. In this context, it becomes imperative
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www.education-today.co.uk
to equip students with the skills necessary to cultivate and navigate meaningful and respectful relationships with their peers. At Eltham College, we took the decision to conduct a school wide ‘Listening Project’, which sought to identify what students truly desired and needed from their Sex and Relationships Education curriculum. The overwhelming consensus was that they felt well-informed about the physical aspects and consequences of sexual interactions but lacked a similar grasp of the emotional complexities of intimate relationships. They called emphatically for a departure from a traditional lecture-style delivery of content and did not want to be either patronised or, in the words of one Year 11 boy, “told off for something we haven’t done yet”. Subsequent investigations by the Department for Education, The Times Education Commission and relationship experts at Exeter University supported a shift towards Relationships Education that prioritises “skills over knowledge” and offers young people opportunities to “observe and rehearse” those skills during their lessons.
Research
The cornerstone of any successful relationship – romantic or otherwise – is empathy. Research has identified two distinct types of ‘skill’ in this area. Cognitive empathy is the ability to recognise and logically understand another’s perspective:
September 2023
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