Consent: Understanding consent (non-intimate)

Group agreement

5 mins

Teaching tip: A group agreement must be established before any Relationships and Sexuality Education (RSE) program begins to ensure a safe learning environment. Read: Essential tools: Establishing a group agreement for tips on how to create one and what to include.

1. Revise or create the class group agreement.

Trigger warning: Let students know you will be talking about relationships, both healthy and unhealthy relationships. Reiterate you want everyone to have safe, healthy, positive relationships, and while we will be promoting healthy behaviours, we do need to discuss unhealthy behaviours. Remind students of their right to pass and to speak to teacher/other support if required. 

Consent Stories 

25 min

2. Ask:

   Do you know what consent means? 

   (Consent means giving permission. Not giving consent means not giving permission.)

3. Split class into four equal groups. Each group is given a scenario and needs to build on the story. Tell class that it doesn't have to be a story from their own life, it could be a story from a book, movie or song. Stories can be a few lines about who the person was and how each person felt. 
4. Scenarios:
   1. Took something without asking
   2. Didn't want to do something
   3. Asked their parents/carers to go somewhere
   4. Asked to spend time together
5. Ask groups to share what stories they came up with. 

6. After each story is shared, ask the group: 

   Who gave consent or didn't give consent in that story?

   How did each person feel?

   What did asking for consent sound like/could have sounded like in that story? 

    

Consent at home

10 min

4.  Discuss:

   As children, our parents, grandparents, guardians or caregivers need to ask us to do things to help out around the house or look after our bodies. Who can think of a job they've been asked to do that they really didn't want to do? Consent with these people can be different. We might not want to clean our room or feed the pets because we have other things we would rather do.

5. Ask

   What is different about consent when our parents or caregivers ask us to do, or not do something?

   (To keep bodies healthy - clean teeth, brush hair, help around the house - sweep floor, feed pets, tidy room, to help you learn - do homework, practice piano). 

6. Say: 

   It's important to know that no one should be asking you to do anything that would harm you or that really scares you. If you have been asked to do something that hurts or scares you, who could you talk to about that?

    

Helping hand

15 min

7. Ask students to hold up one hand (5 fingers) and see if they can list a trusted adult for each finger.
8. Tell class that they may have done this activity before, but it can be helpful to repeat. In pairs, give students a piece of A4 paper each and have them trace around their partner's hand on a piece of blank paper.
9. Ask students to write the name of a trusted adult on the end of each finger. They do not have to have 5, they can have more or less. Remind students that trusted adults can include teachers, police officers, doctors, family friends, etc.

Teaching tip: It is very important not to list the trusted adults for students to write (e.g. Do not tell them to write mum on the first finger, dad on the second finger, etc). For some students these may not be trusted adults in their lives. 

10. Students are encouraged to take home their helping hand and put it up on the fridge or somewhere they can see often to remind them of who is there to help them if they need.