The Heads Up resource has
been developed to support students to develop coping strategies,
help seeking behaviours and the skills needed to support themselves
or friends if they are going through tough times.
The resource focuses on the use of the Internet as a source of
health information, in particular the ReachOut.com website.
Using the Heads Up resource in the
classroom
The module of work is driven by a process described in the
resource as key actions or steps. Students work through activities
linked to each step of the process developing and enhancing their
knowledge in relation to selected adolescent health issues whilst
also developing skills such as critical health literacy,
communication, problem solving, decision-making and help seeking
skills.
Step 1: Investigate
Students begin the module by Investigating youth mental health
issues through online resources and develop their critical health
literacy skills.
Step 2: Create
The Create step will involve students creating four fictional
characters who will make up their "peer group" for the rest of the
module.
Step 3: Deviate
It is important when exploring any adolescent health issue that
teachers ensure any scenarios are explored through the third
person. In this step, common scenarios involving adolescent health
behaviours and risk taking will be explored through the third
person using the fictional characters created in the previous step.
Students will propose strategies that they couldimplement to
support their character's in the selected scenarios.
Step 4: Collaborate
In this step, students join into small groups and discuss their
proposed strategies and actions that the characters could implement
to work through the situation in a healthy and safe way. The
strategies and actions proposed should take into account the
factors that influence health decision making and support young
people to behave in safe and healthy ways.
Step 5: Evaluate
Students will evaluate the strategies and actions proposed in the
previous step and determine which actions would be most effective
in dealing with the selected scenarios.
Step 6: Celebrate or
Activate
Students are able to choose the final step of the process.
In the Celebrate step, students use multimedia
technologies to design and create a digital artefact that
celebrates a positive aspect of their life.
In the Activate step, students take action to
change or improve an aspect of their school or local community.
Use the links below to download the teacher and student
resources.
Heads Up: Skills for Life teacher
resource
Heads Up: Skills for Life student
journal (digital version)
Heads Up: Skills for Life student
journal (print version)