Just Good Friends

Activities

Before viewing

1. Ask pupils to list the qualities which they feel are important in a friendship. This could be done in mixed groups or individually. Alternatively, it may be interesting to divide pupils into single-sex groups and compare the differences in the views of males and females after watching the programme.

While viewing

2. Pause the video at a key point in each of the featured stories and ask the pupils to consider what they think the characters should do. For example: near the start of the story about Simon and Christina, Christina says that Simon is unreliable. Pause the programme at this point and ask pupils to consider how they would cope with this. What would they say to their friend? Would the friendship continue? How could they resolve the situation or would they let it continue? Pupils should work in groups to complete this task. Make notes on the different types of relationships shown in the programme.

3. List the different things that brought each of the characters in the programme together. (Alternatively, this could be completed immediately after viewing the programme.)

4. Make a list of the different types of pressures put on the young people in the programme to conform to a set type of friendship.

After viewing

5. The programme stresses the importance of different relationships in filling different needs, for example parents, brothers, school friends, and so on. Ask pupils to draw a diagram of their own relationships. This should illustrate the importance of a range of relationships and reinforce the fact that, if we put our minds to it, we all generally have a great deal of friends around us who we can have fun with, support, play with and love. The children can draw a picture of themselves in the middle of a sheet of paper and add lines coming out from this central point to represent their different relationships with people (school friends, neighbours, friends from a sports or youth club, family, and so on). Each line would vary in length to represent the length of time they have known a person and vary in thickness to represent the importance or depth of the relationship.

6. Discuss how people meet and make friends. Pupils may feel they have few friends and lack the skills and confidence to make new ones. The programme provides an excellent starting point from which to build on young people’s skills. Pupils can list all the places where they could meet new friends. Try to encourage them to think outside the usual places such as school and discos. Encourage pupils to think of their hobbies, interests, where they go on holiday or their jobs if they have one.

7. Working in groups, ask pupils to list the skills and attributes needed to make and develop friendships. Encourage them to think of skills such as communication, thoughtfulness, assertiveness and innovation. The lists of each group could then be used to stimulate class discussion.

8. Ask pupils to discuss the different relationships featured in the programme. Are there any instances where one person wants one thing from a relationship and the other person wants something else? They should consider how this may make the person feel and how might this be resolved.