Two Wyndham schools were part of a successful pilot program that has led to a statewide roll-out of a new curriculum.
The state government last week announced that the Respectful Relationships curriculum would be implemented in all state-run primary and secondary schools. A result of the Royal Commission into Family Violence, the curriculum aims to educate students on how to be respectful in all relationships in life.
Hoppers Crossing Secondary College and Manor Lakes P-12 College were two of the 20 trial schools in Victoria.
Hoppers Crossing junior program manager Kat Bordon said students in years eight and nine had embraced the curriculum over the past two years, and “could not have shown more support for the program”.
“We’re most proud to see the culture change in the school in just two years,” Ms Bordon said. “At the beginning, students thought that something had happened to lead to the curriculum, but we explained that it’s about being proactive, not reactive.”
In year eight the program begins with learning about what respect is, what relationships are – whether that be a relationship with parents, a boyfriend or girlfriend, colleagues as an adult, or even the person serving you at a milk bar – and how you should treat others.
There’s also a component on gender and equality.
In year nine, the curriculum delves deeper into dynamics, Ms Bordon said, exploring power imbalance, non-respectful relationships, issues around consent, the law, sexual harassment, and agencies that can help.
Tarneit MP Telmo Languiller said the new curriculum was about teaching children to treat everyone with respect and dignity “so we can start the cultural change we need in our society to end the scourge of family violence.”
Werribee MP Tim Pallas said that the Royal Commission showed education is key to ending “the violent cycle” of family violence.
