2
Activity3
Unit
Resisting peer
pressure
Purpose
For students to consider the strengths, skills, and
people that can help them resist peer pressure
(Health and PE AOs: L3 A4, C1, C2, C3, D2, D3)
Learning outcomes
Students will be able to:
• identify times when they have been subject to peer pressure;
• outline strategies for managing peer pressure;
• identify their internal warning signs that tell them when something doesn’t feel right.
Activities
Discuss the importance of friends – having people to hang out
with, laugh with, and be with through tough times. Raise the idea
that sometimes friends have different ideas about what to do and
what’s OK and not OK. Talk about the need (now and in the future)
to be connected with people who can improve our well-being.
Have the students identify some of the groups they are involved
with and consider how they support their well-being.
Under pressure
Pg 11
Ask the students to think about when they feel peer pressure,
for example, pressure to smoke or do other risky things, to look
a certain way, or to do well at school or sport. Have them record
their ideas in the first row of the “Under pressure” graphic
organiser on page 11 of their journals.
doing the next activity). They may have identified people already
in activity 1.1. See if they can come up with at least one person
that they can phone:
• at school, kura kaupapa, or wharekura;
• in their home or community.
Personal radar
Introduce the idea of a personal “radar” or “alarm” – the thing
inside that tells you that something is wrong or that you’re not
comfortable. (Some people might call this your intuition or
conscience.)
What is your personal radar like? What are the signs inside when
the alarm starts going off?
Which are positive pressures, and which are negative pressures? They
could put a plus or minus symbol beside each.
Discuss the importance of paying attention to this radar. You
may have personal examples that you can share.
What strengths or skills can help you to resist negative pressures,
including the pressure to smoke? What skills would you like to develop?
How could you do that? Have them complete the next two rows.
Then ask them to write about a time when they did or didn’t
listen to their radar, including the effects on their or others’
well-being.
Pg 12
Now have the students respond to the final two questions of
the graphic organiser – what they could say or do to resist peer
pressure and who could help them (they can add more after
Possible lines of inquiry
• How do other people deal with peer pressure? (Also see activity 2.4.)
• What help is there in the school, kura kaupapa, wharekura, or
community to deal with peer pressure?
24
Staying Smokefree/Te Noho Auahi Kore
• What activities could we introduce for lunchtimes to develop a
stronger sense of belonging in our school, kura kaupapa, or
wharekura? How can we identify and establish activities to
support as many students as possible to engage in fun, healthenhancing activities?