FEATURE FOCUS: MENTAL HEALTH & WELLBEING


the ability to mentally put oneself in someone else’s shoes. Affective empathy is the ability to emotionally connect with someone, experience their feelings, and respond accordingly. The development of these skills is gradual and complex, but studies have shown that cognitive empathy tends to develop earlier in girls than in boys and then rises steadily throughout adolescence for both genders. Affective empathy, by contrast, remains high and stable throughout female development and sharply declines in boys between the ages of 13 and 16. This disparity is caused to some extent by hormonal changes (higher testosterone levels correlate with reduced affective empathy in both sexes) but cultural expectations and gender norms also play a significant role, and the modern world is increasingly lean on opportunities for nurturing compassion and emotional intelligence. Excessive engagement in online socialising, for example, is consistently linked to diminished empathy development. The well-documented decline of childhood reading habits affects students’ ability to engage in perspective-taking, while the fragmented viewing habits encouraged by TikTok and YouTube similarly hinder emotional engagement. The intersection of these desensitizing influences presents a genuine challenge to our students and their ability to navigate relationships as they go through their teenage years.


Pedagogy and Innovation


The development process for these games was guided by several key principles and inspirations. The Exception Method is an innovative design process which looks at the ‘exception’ in any given creative problem-solving context: the profile of a person that would be deemed the most extreme to design for. The theory is that when you design for the most extreme you design better for everyone else that sits on that bell curve. Thinking along these lines, I asked myself what a Relationships Education programme that


targeted the least empathetic student, the most disengaged, the most negatively influenced by social media, might look like. By creating a programme tailored to an individual in the greatest need, could all our students benefit? The Listening Project made it clear that student engagement was crucial and thus the priority was to make the lessons enjoyable and markedly different from more ‘traditional’ formats. Inspired by the choose-your-own-ending Encyclopaedia Brown novels of my childhood and aiming to reintroduce the narrative engagement lost to social media, I chose a project-style of delivery to empower students to invest in their choices. A viral meme proclaiming, “Whenever something goes wrong in your life, just yell PLOT TWIST and move on” provided the final bit of inspiration in creating a series of meaningful, but low stakes ‘teachable moments’ that would illustrate the fact that adulthood is rarely a series of straightforward, black-and-white decisions.


Resource specifics


Each of the Life Story Education schemes is introduced to students as an interactive ‘game,’ spanning a duration of 6-8 weeks, where they immerse themselves in lifelike scenarios. In School Story, KS3 students step into the roles of Headteachers, collaborating with their peers to establish and manage a school in teams of three. This entails decision-making processes such as naming the school, selecting educational priorities, crafting the curriculum, and appointing teachers from ‘Top Trumps’ style CVs. As their ‘schools’ operate, they encounter unexpected challenges called Plot Twists, which mirror real- world bullying and friendship dilemmas. Students must deliberate and decide on their school’s responses, aiming to strike a balance between discipline and compassion.


The eponymous Life Story shifts focus to develop relationship skills and prepare KS4/5 students for real-life situations more explicitly. Students are paired as married (or civilly partnered) couples, navigating various aspects of adult life together over 6-8 weeks. They start by drawing job cards which determine their salaries and work locations. They calculate take- home incomes and make decisions about where to live and what type of property to buy. Each


September 2023


week, the couples receive ‘life admin’ tasks, spanning activities like grocery shopping, vacation planning, or choosing a pet. These tasks demand negotiation and compromise as students manage both their budgets and expectations. Later, Plot Twists challenge the couples to make decisions regarding the behaviours and predicaments of their fictional teenage children, requiring them to examine dilemmas common to their age group from a parental perspective.


Lastly, Love Story, designed for KS4/5 students, seeks to support students in choosing healthy romantic relationships. Here, students again work in pairs, simulating the stages of a fictional relationship, with a focus on honing communication skills, making wise choices, and fostering positive connections. They explore diverse personal qualities through Character Trait cards and collaborate on tasks such as party planning, household chore allocation, and choosing date locations. Couples Therapy pointers assist them in addressing the Plot Twists that arise, eventually culminating in a role-played breakup using the We Need to Talk section of their workbooks.


Response and conclusion


Trials of the Life Story Education package at Eltham College have been met with enthusiasm, with students and staff describing the games as “fun,” “creative,”, “realistic” and “refreshingly different”. Their approach offers a unique opportunity for students to navigate lifelike scenarios, honing their decision- making abilities and prompting reflection on the consequences of their choices within a safe and low-risk environment. Studies have consistently demonstrated that the capacity to form and maintain meaningful social connections significantly influences the mental and physical well-being of people across all age groups, but establishing these connections in a fast paced and rapidly changing world has become notably more demanding, especially for teenagers. By empowering students to solve problems, cultivate empathy, and refine their communication skills, Life Story’s approach to Relationships Education equips them with the tools they need to thrive in an interconnected but so often divided world.


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