PSHE: Friendship in Year 2

As part of our learning and understanding the importance of taking care of our mental health, we took part in a workshop about friendship. This was a really important workshop that was led by Iris from Mind. Here, we spoke about what makes a good friend and discussed with our classmates, what we think is important within a friendship. We said kindness, honesty and trust are all really important values to have within a friend. We watched a video from Sesame Street all about how to navigate feelings around feeling left out and what we can do if we ever feel like that. We know that we can talk to a teacher, or a trusted adult, who can help to guide us to make the right choice, suggestion or decision when it comes to how to speak to our friends. In the video, Elmo felt left out and he then spoke with a teacher who comforted him and helped him to come up with a solution to his problem, which meant that he and his friends could play together in a way that included everyone.

In class, we focused on one of our Ten Ten lessons which looked at friendship. We looked at, and discussed, the things that people can say and the impact that this can have on others. We know that this is not always intentional, but we have to be mindful of what we say to those around us. We watched a short video of two monsters who both said things that could have upset each other and we spoke about ways in which they could have acted differently. This activity showed us the value of using kind words and ensuring that we do not continue to act in a way that others do not like, especially if they have made this clear to us in the past. We decided that both monsters made wrong choices and we know that we would act very differently! We had lots of things to say about their words and actions, and worked brilliantly with our learning partners and those on our table to discuss what we had seen within the video.

We then took turns to come to the board to decide which traits we would usually consider to be associated with a “bad friend” and what we would like to see within a “good friend”. This being said, we know that everyone can at times make silly choices but we know how to rectify this and we are becoming more and more aware of how to treat others with kindness. We discussed that being fun is usually thought of as a good quality, but sometimes being fun can lead us to make the wrong choice at times. We know that we have to consider our surroundings and to try to make individual choices, despite what our friends might think.

Well done for your fantastic work, Year 2. You all showed what kind and caring people you are and you continue to impress me each day. Keep up the brilliant work!