A Personal Development and Health Education Course for Stage 6
Crossroads is a mandatory 25 hour course in all Department of Education and Communities schools. At Beverly Hills Girls High School this course is run over a number of successive days during Year 11.
Crossroads reflects some of the contemporary health issues facing young people. It acknowledges and aims to support senior students as they address changing issues related to identity, independence and their changing responsibilities. In Crossroads, students have the opportunity to develop knowledge, understandings and skills to enable them to make informed decisions about issues which are pertinent to them
Crossroads offers a specific opportunity for schools to invite senior students to reflect upon and share issues that are important to them. Through this course, teachers can encourage students to discuss their aspirations, opinions, thoughts and feelings in a familiar and safe environment.
The course aims to help prepare senior students to lead, and contribute to, lives which are healthy and promote social justice.
Objectives
Students will develop knowledge and understanding about establishing and maintaining
- Positive relationships
- Non-violent relationships
Outcomes
Students should be able to:
- Analyse how different relationships influence personal identity
- Describe and defend those factors that build positive and caring relationships
- Identify ways of managing changes in relationships
- Describe the rights and responsibilities involved in a range of relationships.
- How drugs can influence aspects of their lives.
Students will develop skills in:
- Clarifying and acting on a positive set of personal values
- Critically analyse the impact of drug use on the individual and the community
- Identify the relationships between drug use and risk behaviours of young people
- Describe the role of the individual in responding to a variety of drug issues.
Students should be able to:
- Identify those aspects they value about themselves and their lives
- Respect the right of others to hold their own values and beliefs
- Demonstrate behaviours that model positive attitudes to health.
- Communicate and interacting effectively with others
- Accept that as relationships take on different meanings so too do their responsibilities
- Demonstrate an ability to change the ways they relate to people as the situation changes
- Show respect for the ideas, feelings and contributions of others.
- Evaluating and making decisions on issues that affect the health of themselves and others
- Identify options available to solve difficulties
- Predict outcomes and analyse the consequences of personal actions
- Determine how they will respond to risk situations involving drug use
- Demonstrate how they can seek help for themselves or a friend.
Students will develop:
- Strategies for supporting their own identity and worth
Students should be able to:
- Recognise positive aspects of their lives
- Appreciate that relationships play an important part in constructing their personal identity
- Appreciate the need to reflect on personal actions.
- Appreciation for and commitment to leading lives which are healthy and promote social justice.
- Demonstrate behaviours that value lifestyles associated with minimal and appropriate drug use
- Value and appreciate the need to work at maintaining positive relationships in their lives
- Challenge discrimination and harassment based on sex, race, marital status, disability (including HIV/AIDS), homosexuality, transgender and age.