Lesson video

Hello, my name is Ms. Willow, and I'm going to be your teacher for today's lesson.

Today's lesson is called, "Feeling Powerful," and it fits into the unit, "Power in relationships: How do I get help if I don't feel safe?" During this lesson, we're going to be talking a little bit about discrimination and some sensitive content, so we recommend that for this lesson, you have an adult with you.

If at any point you do feel worried or uncomfortable, it's really important that you close the screen and that you go and speak to a trusted adult.

Okay, let's make a start on today's learning.

By the end of today's lesson, you'll be able to explain what makes people feel powerful.

Before we get started with today's lesson, we need to go over some ground rules.

These help to make sure that everyone feels safe and comfortable throughout today's lesson.

First of all, Laura says that we need to listen to others.

This means that we're not going to interrupt other people if they're speaking.

Next, Andeep says that we need to respect each other's privacy.

This means that we're not going to ask anyone any personal questions, as this can make some people feel uncomfortable.

Next, Jacob says that we need to not have any judgement.

This means that if someone chooses to share a story, experience, or a feeling, we're not going to judge them for it.

And finally, Izzy says that we can choose our level of participation.

This means it's up to us how much we want to join in.

We're now going to have a look at our keywords for today's lesson.

These are gonna pop up quite a few times in today's lesson, so it's important that we have a good understanding of what each of these keywords mean.

First of all, we have personal power.

This means the strength to know ourselves and to make decisions about our actions.

Next, we have self-respect.

This means being proud of ourselves and valuing who we are.

Next, we have popularity.

This means being well-liked or admired by many people.

And finally, we have anonymous.

This means unknown with a hidden identity.

As we go through today's lesson, keep an eye out for these keywords, and when you spot them, see if you can remember what they mean.

Today's lesson is split into two learning cycles.

Our first learning cycle is called, "What gives people power?" And our second learning cycle is called, "Why can power sometimes be harmful?" Let's make a start on our first learning cycle.

What gives people power? When we think of people who have power, we often think of people who make big decisions or who have lots of money.

We might think of members of the Royal Family or people that are in government.

However, we all have personal power, and this is something that we can develop throughout our lives.

Ms. Walsh says that someone who recognises their personal power has the strength to make decisions about their own actions often based on their own knowledge about who they are.

Izzy asks a really good question.

She says, "What does it look like when someone uses their personal power?" Someone who uses their personal power might say "No" when they don't feel comfortable doing something.

They might walk away from certain situations, especially if they feel worried or uncomfortable.

They could make healthy choices for themselves.

And they could be friends with people who support them.

They could also be an active bystander to support others.

An active bystander is someone who stands up for what is right.

Alex says, "Do people use their personal power to tell other people what to do?" This is a really good question.

No, personal power is not about telling other people what to do.

Personal power is instead about making decisions for ourselves, not making decisions for other people.

People who use their personal power recognise other people's personal power too.

Let's do a check for understanding to see how you're doing so far.

Can you decide who's correct? Sofia says, "Only some really confident people have personal power." But Aisha says, "Everyone has personal power and can develop this throughout their lives." Using what we've learned so far, can you decide who is correct? Pause the video, tell the person next to you, tell me, or have a think to yourself.

Well done if you said that Aisha's correct.

Aisha is correct that everyone has personal power and can develop this throughout their lives.

Sofia is not correct, because everyone has personal power and it's not just people who feel really confident.

Even someone who doesn't feel very confident still has personal power that they can develop throughout their lives.

Well done if you got this right.

We can all develop self-respect too.

People who use their personal power often have a high level of self-respect as well.

They care about themselves and they want to feel happy, safe, and comfortable.

Lucas says, "It's important to practise self-respect as well as respect for others.

When we develop our personal power and our self-respect too, we can make healthy choices for ourselves." Andeep asks a really good question, "How can we develop our personal power and self-respect?" We can develop our personal power and self-respect by thinking about what's important to us and what actions we can take to make us feel happy, comfortable, and safe.

Someone with self-respect knows that they deserve to be respected, cared for, and loved, and these are things that everyone deserves.

Sam says, "I develop my personal power and self-respect by talking about my ideas and opinions in class.

My voice deserves to be heard." And Jacob says, "I develop my personal power and self-respect by being friends with people who listen to me, and do not pressure me to do the things that I don't want to do.

I deserve to have great friends." Maybe you want to have a little think to yourself.

How do you develop your personal power and self-respect? Let's do a check for understanding to see how you're doing.

Which of the following are examples of showing self-respect? A, telling a trusted adult if someone's been unkind to us, B, ignoring if someone has hurt our feelings because it doesn't matter, or C, telling someone when they've hurt our feelings so that they can apologise? Which of the following are examples of self-respect? Pause the video, tell the person next to you, tell me, or have a think to yourself.

Well done if you said that A and C are correct.

Some examples of showing self-respect are telling a trusted adult if someone's been unkind to us, and telling someone when they've hurt our feelings so that they can apologise.

Well done if you got this right.

Certain things give people power too.

This might influence how they behave or treat other people.

Ms. Walsh says that a powerful person has the ability to be listened to by others, to be respected and to make decisions.

Some people have more power than others.

Strength gives people power.

Someone who is strong could overpower someone who's weaker, and this gives them power.

Some people may be afraid to say no to someone who's stronger than them.

Age gives people power as well.

So children or young people may not be able to make certain decisions, but most adults have the power to make choices affecting their lives, and some older people may feel like other people make decisions for them.

We can use this graph to help us understand how age gives people power.

When people are really young and when they're on the older side, this makes them feel like they have less power than someone who's more in the middle.

Wealth gives people power too.

When people have money, they often have the power to make the decisions and choices that work for them.

People with money are also more likely to be listened to and respected.

Popularity often gives people power.

When people are well-liked and admired by others, they they're likely to be listened to by other people.

Other people may do as they say, and try to please them if they're someone who's popular.

We're now going to do another check for understanding.

And for this task, I'd like you to fill in the missing word.

Certain things give people power, like strength, age, wealth, and blank.

Which word is missing? Pause the video, tell the person next to you, tell me, or have a think to yourself.

Well done if you said that popularity was the missing word.

When someone is popular, which means that they're well liked by lots of people, this can also give them power as well as strength, age, and wealth.

Well done if you got this right.

We're now moving on to your first practise task.

Well don for your hard work so far.

I'd like you to draw and label four pictures to show what can give people power.

Pause the video, and in a few minutes we'll go through what you might have said.

Okay, let's see what you might have drawn.

You might have drawn something like this, and you should have strength, age, wealth, and popularity.

And you should have drawn some images that will help you to remember this too.

Have a look at the pictures on the screen.

Have you drawn something similar? Or maybe yours is a bit different? Well done if your label said strength, age, wealth, and popularity.

We're now moving on to our second learning cycle.

Why can power sometimes be harmful? Some people have more power than others and may use this to cause harm.

Some people like to feel powerful, and they can feel this way when they treat people badly, especially those with less power than them.

For example, a teenager might bully or scare a younger child because they feel like they have more power.

People with less power can be seen as vulnerable.

If someone's vulnerable, this means that they're at risk of being harmed.

Dr.

Elsie tells us that "Unfortunately, some people take advantage of people who are vulnerable.

They might use their power to encourage them to do things that they don't want to do." Someone could use their power to harm others by pressuring them to do something, hurting their body, hurting their feelings, or not respecting their boundaries.

Let's do a check for understanding to see how you're doing with this learning cycle so far.

Which of these scenarios show someone using their power for harm? A, someone with lots of friends suggesting that they're unkind to someone else in their class, or B, someone with lots of friends invites a person who's on their own to join their group? Can you decide which scenario shows someone using their power for harm? Pause the video, tell the person next to you, tell me, or have a think to yourself.

Well done if you said that A is correct.

In this scenario, someone who's popular, so they have lots of friends, suggest that they're unkind to someone else in their class.

Because this person is popular, this means that they might have more people who are willing to listen to them, and who might be unkind to someone else.

This means that they're using their power for harm.

Well done if you said the same thing.

Being anonymous online can give people the feeling of power.

When people go online, others don't always know who they are.

Like this person here, we don't know who they are.

People could pretend to be anyone, including someone who has power.

When people feel powerful, they might sometimes make choices that they wouldn't make normally.

For example, an anonymous person online might do or say things that they wouldn't usually because they feel like they have power because they're anonymous online.

For example, they could be unkind to others.

They could use hate speech towards groups of people such as women or people of different ethnicities.

They could also threaten to hurt others.

Because they're anonymous, they feel like they have more power than if they weren't anonymous and if people knew who they really were.

Police Officer Kofi says that it's important to remember that online actions can still have serious consequences.

People can break the law by bullying, using hate speech, or threatening others online, and they can face real legal consequences including fines and prison time.

People with power online can also pretend to be someone that they're not so that we feel equal to them.

This person here who's anonymous online says, "I'm an adult, but I pretend to be a child online so that other children talk to me.

I know that if I said I was an adult, they wouldn't talk to me, so I pretend to not have the power of being older." Let's do a check for understanding to see how you're doing.

This time, can you decide if the statement is true or false? Online actions have no consequences.

What do you think? Is this true or false? Pause the video, tell the person next to you, tell me, or have a think to yourself.

Well done if you said that this is false.

But why? You might have said something like "Breaking the law online can have real legal consequences.

This could include bullying, hate speech and threats, which are all illegal." Someone who does these things online could face real legal consequences such as prison time or fines.

Well done if you said the same thing.

Rules and laws can protect us from others with power.

There are guidelines online which ban people from bullying others and from using hate speech.

People who discriminate against others online or who break guidelines could be at risk of being banned from that platform, as well as facing real legal consequences.

We may have rules at home and at school that encourage us to show respect and kindness to others regardless of how much power we have.

Laura says, "At our school, older pupils are expected to use their power by being role models to younger pupils.

Older pupils are expected to help younger pupils and tell a trusted adult if we see any problems." This shows how people can use their power for good.

Older pupils who may have more power than younger pupils are using their power to help people who are younger.

This is a great example of how we can use our power for good.

Laws like the Equality Act 2010 also make it unlawful for people to be treated unfairly because of certain protected characteristics.

Police Officer Kofi says that the Equality Act means that everyone should be treated equally and fairly.

For example, it states that people should not be discriminated against, which means treated unfairly, because of their sex, and that people should not be discriminated against because of their age or skin colour.

If we think that someone is using their power to harm us, we can also talk to a trusted adult for help.

Ms. Walsh says that trusted adults can help us to develop our personal power and make sure that we're safe and supported.

They can also ensure that people use their power to help others, not to harm them.

Let's do another check for understanding.

Can you decide the missing words? The blank Act means that everyone should be treated equally and fairly.

Is the missing word A, discrimination, B, equality, or C, kindness? What do you think? Pause the video, tell the person next to you, tell me, or have a think to yourself.

Well done if you said that the missing word is Equality.

The Equality Act means that everyone should be treated equally and fairly.

Well done if you got this right.

It's time to move on to your second practise task, and you've done a brilliant job.

Well done.

For this task, I'd like you to answer this question, "What are three reasons why power can be harmful?" I'd like you to use these words in your answer, choices, harm, and anonymous.

Pause the video and we'll go through some potential answers in a few minutes.

Okay, let's see what you might have said.

You might have said that power can be harmful because people might make choices that they wouldn't normally make.

People can harm others, especially those with less power than them, so people that might be vulnerable.

When people go online, they might choose to be anonymous, which makes them feel like they have the power to act without consequences.

Remember that someone anonymous is someone who isn't revealing their real name or identity online.

This could lead to them pretending to be someone else using hate speech, or threatening, or discriminating against others.

Well done if you had any of these three reasons or you had something similar.

We are now going to summarise the key learning from today's lesson.

In today's lesson, we've learned that everyone has personal power and self-respect, which they can develop in different ways throughout their lives.

Certain things can give people more power.

For example, their strength, age, wealth, and popularity.

Unfortunately, some people have more power than others, and they may use this power to hurt them.

And when people go online, they might choose to be anonymous, which can give people the feeling of being more powerful.

Online actions can still have serious consequences.

Rules and laws like the Equality Act 2010 protect us from others with power.

We can talk to our trusted adults like our parents, family, carers, or teachers if we think that someone is causing us harm.

In today's lesson, you might have found that you've got some worries or some questions.

And if you do, it's really important that you share these with a trusted adult.

There's also some resources on the screen too that are there to help you.

Well done for your hard work in today's lesson.

I'm really proud of you, and I hope to see you in another lesson soon.