Friendship Foundations

Overview

This is lesson 2 of 10 in Building Resilience Together. Students explore the qualities that help friendships become respectful, safe and supportive, building on prior learning about resilience and positive relationships through structured small-group discussion.

Learning intentions

• WALT identify qualities of strong friendships.
• Students will explore how friendship qualities are shown through actions and communication.
• Students will practise listening, sharing ideas and responding respectfully in a small group.
• Students will connect friendship qualities with resilience and help-seeking.

Success criteria

• I can list five qualities that make a good friend.
• I can explain how at least one quality supports a strong friendship.
• I can listen to others and contribute respectfully to a group discussion.
• I can identify a helpful action a friend could take in a challenging situation.

Curriculum links

• Interact with others using modelled language to exchange information about self and personal worlds.
• Engage in signed and visual exchanges with peers to organise activities in the school environment.
• Collaborate in activities involving negotiating, transacting and justifying ideas.
• Personal and social capability: self-awareness, social awareness, relationship skills and responsible decision-making.

Lesson structure (30 minutes)

1. 0–4 min · Hook and connection. Display the opening question in the friendship hook and learning intention slides: “What makes someone a good friend when things are difficult?” Teacher briefly connects responses to the previous resilience lesson and establishes that friendship is shown through repeated choices and actions. Students silently think of one quality, then share with a partner.

2. 4–8 min · Explicit teaching. Use the friendship qualities teaching slides to introduce possible qualities: trust, respect, honesty, kindness, empathy, reliability, inclusion, cooperation and good communication. Teacher explains that a quality is a personal characteristic demonstrated through behaviour, and models one example: “Respect might look like listening without interrupting or accepting a different opinion.” Students identify the action that demonstrates each quality.

3. 8–16 min · Small-group discussion. Place students in one group of five, or two groups if appropriate, and distribute the friendship qualities discussion worksheet. Teacher explains the discussion routine: each student suggests a quality, gives an example of what it looks like, and listens while others contribute. Students record possible qualities, group similar ideas, and agree on their five strongest qualities. Encourage students to use respectful turn-taking and to ask for clarification when needed.

4. 16–22 min · Scenario application. Show the scenarios on the discussion scenario slides. Teacher presents two brief situations: a student is left out of a group activity; and a friend shares a private problem. Students discuss which friendship quality is needed and what a supportive response could look like. They add one action-based example to their worksheet. Teacher checks that students distinguish between a quality, such as empathy, and an action, such as asking how someone feels.

5. 22–27 min · Share and justify. Return to the group share and justification slide. Each student shares one quality or example from the group’s list. The group explains why its five selected qualities matter, using the sentence frame “We chose ___ because ___.” Teacher records common qualities on the board and acknowledges different but well-justified choices.

6. 27–30 min · Reflection and exit check. Hand out the retrieval practice exit-ticket slips. Students independently list five qualities of a good friend and complete the confidence rating. They add one sentence or labelled example explaining how one quality can strengthen a friendship. Collect slips to identify qualities requiring further teaching in lesson 3.

Resources

• the Friendship Foundations slide deck
• the friendship qualities discussion worksheet
• the retrieval practice exit-ticket slips
• Whiteboard and markers
• Pens or pencils
• Visible timer
• Optional calm seating arrangement for small-group discussion

Assessment

• Listen for students naming qualities rather than only describing isolated behaviours during the group discussion.
• Use questioning to check understanding: “What would this quality look like?” and “How could it help when a friendship is under pressure?”
• Review worksheets and exit slips for five relevant qualities, an action-based explanation, and respectful participation; use responses to plan the next lesson.

Differentiation

• Support students with a word bank and simple icons on the worksheet, including trust, respect, kindness, honesty, empathy, inclusion and communication. Provide sentence starters such as “A good friend…” and “This helps because…”.
• For dyslexia-friendly access, use a clear sans-serif font, short lines of text, generous spacing, uncluttered lists and diagrams, and read scenario text aloud. Allow students to record ideas through labelled drawings or speech before writing.
• During group discussion, give each student a defined turn and permit students to point to a quality before explaining it. Rephrase contributions without correcting publicly, and provide additional processing time.
• Extension students rank their five qualities in order of importance, justify their ranking, and explain whether the same quality might look different in an online friendship or during conflict.

Extension

• Create a visual poster showing five friendship qualities, using a symbol, short definition and example action for each.
• Add a “resilience response” panel showing how a friend could support someone experiencing disappointment, disagreement or exclusion.