Respectful Relationships video transcript
Respectful relationship is about tackling family violence through education.
We asked teachers and students for their thoughts on Respectful Relationships education…
Sue McGowan, Teacher, Manor Lakes P-12 College
‘It’s about society and what we’re finding out in society that is not acceptable anymore, gender inequality and violence against women.
And what we’re saying is that we need to educate our boys and girls early and in class where it is a safe and positive environment about what they are entitled to and capable of and what legally they should be aware of.’
Leah, Year 9 Student, Manor Lakes P-12 College
‘The program definitely opened my eyes to how much men and women need to be treated equally because I never thought about it on that large of a scale. It doesn’t matter how you act or how you look you should still be treated the same’
Ruby, student, Canterbury Primary School
‘Gender equality means that no matter if we’re male or female that we should be treated equally because we’re all human so we all deserve the same respect. It just makes me feel happy and when people are being mean, you just shouldn’t be mean it’s not the right thing to do and it’s good to be nice and caring.’
Gina Di Stefano, Teacher, St Josephs College
‘It was amazing seeing how engaged and involved they were with the topic.
They’re certainly not conversations they’d normally have, they’d speak about the weekend and footy or sport or whatever that they all those different things they do on the weekend but they never really chat about this sort of stuff which also
I think brought them closer together.
We could say to the students if they came in and there was an altercation You’ve done the respectful relationships course. What have you done here? Oh yeah, I didn’t value his opinion and I cut him down and I made him feel like this when I should have done that.
So we’ve been able to tap into it, a lot.’
In our class we’ve become a lot more respectful towards each other, we don’t tease each other as much and we usually help each other out
What we found was even that even though we have respectful relationships and we promote it and we don’t allow disrespectful relationships to occur when it wasn’t being discussed or being pointed out as gender inequality, the students weren’t aware of it.
Zoe Student, Manor Lakes P to 12 College
‘Since this unit I have seen more inequality than I had before because previously we were asked how do you feel about the community and even the school and I would say I don’t think we have a problem with it I think everything’s fine and I never felt like that. but then after learning it and learning about all the different kinds of violence you realise how much there actually is and how much inequality there really is.’
Gina Di Stefano, Teacher, St Josephs College
‘One particular student comes to mind. He’s actually got this new found confidence
to call out inappropriate behaviour. We spoke a lot about this sort of idea of
the power imbalance with gender, now I think he’s kind of actually been empowered
by that whole conversation to now speak up when he sees something.
Ruby, student, Canterbury Primary School
‘I don’t think there’s any difference between boys and girls so there’s no reason why for example boys should get treated better than girls or girls getting treated better than boys they should both be treated equally.’
Sue McGowan, Teacher, Manor Lakes P-12 College
What we discovered from a cultural point of view within our college we believed that respectful relationships was an area that was a strength of ours. However what we found was we didn’t necessarily talk about it from gender inequality. And so what we tried to do was bring that to the forefront of everyone’s thoughts and minds and what we found was that there was lots of information available to our staff but not accessible so things such as policies or how to follow procedures if someone was to disclose violence against them. What we did was made that accessible and being modelled by our staff.
Joseph Dykes Teacher Canterbury Primary School
‘They feel safer and ultimately it leads to better student outcomes everyone enjoys their time at the school more and it leads to a better environment that the students are happier to learn in and enjoy learning. ‘
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