minding
lesson 13:
keeping nortH
Lesson Summary
We have learnt so far about the “friendship compass” - helping students to understand “North” - is the healthy and positive direction we want our friendships to be heading in. Unhealthy friendships are those which are heading “South”. This lesson gives students a deeper insight into what a healthy friendship is and looks like, to help keep them heading North.
Purpose
Purpose: This lesson helps students to understand the different directions their friendship can head in. “North” represents friendships that are growing and developing and feel healthy and safe. “South” represents friendships that are challenging and stressful and may become unhealthy and unsafe.
Process
Time Needed: 30 - 35 minutes.
Activity: Video (5 mins)
Intro: (2 mins)
Activity: What does a healthy friendship look and sound like? (10-15mins)
Activity: Keeping North Poster (10-15 mins)
Debrief and Reflection (5 mins)
Materials & downloads
For this lesson, you will need the following:
Plain Paper
Pen or Pencil
Coloured Pens and Pencils
Activity: how to be a good friend - Scooby doo - (5 mins)
How it works:
Watch the video and then ask students to turn to their partner and share one thing they have learned about how to be a great friend.
Debrief:
There are lots of things we can do to be a great friend to others! Being a great friend is not about being perfect and doing everything right all the time. Instead, it is about being there for our friends, being kind and supporting them.
intro (2 mins)
We have previously learned about our friendship compass. When our friendships are strong, healthy and safe, they are heading “North”. When we experience friendships that feel challenging, stressful or unsafe, these can be signs of an unhealthy friendship which is heading “South”. We want to keep our friendships feeling healthy and safe, but what can we do to keep our friendships heading North? Let’s find out!
Activity: What does a healthy friendship look and sound like? (10 mins)
For us to be able to keep our friendships heading North, we need to first understand what a healthy friendship looks and sounds like.
Ask students the following questions and then ask them to share their answers with a partner or small group:
“What does a healthy friendship look like?”
“What does it feel like?”Draw a North arrow on the board. Write down student ideas around the arrow.
Ask students the following questions and then ask them to share their answers with a partner or small group:
Examples of answers (for a healthy friendship):
Acts of kindness (compliment, sharing)
Listening (not interrupting, remembering answers)
Being curious and asking kind questions to find out more about our friends)
Fairness (sharing, turn taking)
Honesty
Having fun (laughter, joy)
Feeling included
Teacher Script: Knowing what a healthy friendship is helps us not only to be a great friend but also to experience healthy friendships instead of unhealthy ones. It's important to know the signs of an unhealthy friendship, so that we can make sure we choose actions that strengthen our friendships, instead of weakening them.
Share with students that sometimes we might think a friend is “just joking” when they display unhealthy friendship behaviours, or that a friendship having unhealthy parts is “normal”. This is not about us blaming anyone, it’s about understanding which behaviours do not keep a friendship healthy, safe of heading North.
Next, ask students to share, without naming names, what some of the signs of an unhealthy friendship are. Write their answers on the board.
Examples:
teasing that keeps going after someone asks it to stop
saying “I was just joking” instead of saying sorry (apologising) when we have upset our friend
being scared to speak up
telling someone who they can or can’t play with
getting angry if a friend spends time with others
Debrief:
A healthy friendship does not mean a perfect friendship - none of us are perfect, including our friends and that is okay! Friends can have moments when they disagree or feel upset, but in healthy friendships, people treat each other kindly and fairly. This helps us to keep our friendships heading North!
Activity: Keeping North Poster (10-15 mins)
We’ve talked about what a healthy friendship looks like. Now we’re going to create a poster about how we can keep our friendships safe, healthy and heading North.
Teacher Instructions:
Give each student a piece of paper and markers.
Ask them to:
Draw a character - This can be a person, superhero, animal, or imaginary character.
Add ‘North Actions’ around the character
These show what someone does to keep friendships healthy and heading North.Add ‘North Words’
These are things someone might say to keep their friendship heading North..
Debrief:
Your poster shows us that healthy friendships don’t just happen — we keep them strong with our choices of how we act and speak towards our friends. If we can do and say all of the great things we have put on our posters, we can support our friendships to be healthy and safe!
Lesson Debrief:
Healthy friendships help us feel safe, happy, and respected, and this is what we mean by the phrase Keeping North. We have also learned about what healthy friendships do not look like - this is when a friendship involves unkind words, control, or hurtful jokes.
We learned that friendships don’t have to be perfect to be healthy — friends can disagree or make mistakes — but what matters is how we treat each other and how we fix problems. Our everyday choices, such as listening, including others, and saying sorry, help us keep friendships pointing North.
Remember, everyone deserves friendships that feel kind and fair. If a friendship starts to feel like it is not pointing North, and instead is starting to point South (unhealthy, unsafe) we can try positive actions or ask a trusted adult for help.
