What is a healthy relationship?

What are the main qualities of a good friendship?

In this film, M8-E the robot is trying to figure out the answer to this question, with help from his classmates Milo, Emma, Josh, Tanvi and Zayn.

To help pupils explore this question too, why not watch the film as a class to see what M8-E learns, and then explore the activities to get them thinking critically about what they want from their own friendships.

Through observation and discussion of the group’s experiences, M8-E discovers the fundamentals of good friendships - honesty, listening and support.

You can use the activities in this guide to help pupils reflect on their own friendships and think about how they would help a friend who is being made to feel uncomfortable.

Learning objectives:

• I can describe a good friendship.
• I can explain why honesty, listening and support are key features of a healthy friendship.

In the film, M8-E identified some key aspects of a good friendship - honesty, listening and support. You could use this as a starting point to make your own list as a class. What qualities do your pupils value the most in their friendships?

Think about Zayn’s question at the end: “I used to love playing games with my friends from Saturday Club, but now they're more into pulling pranks and it’s making me feel uncomfortable. Should I say something or leave it?”

Zayn’s description doesn’t seem to match up with the qualities that M8-E identified. Pupils could think about the additional words they have added to the list. Do Zayn’s Saturday Club friends act in ways that reflect good friendship? You can help them think critically by prompting them to consider how Zayn’s feelings could be a clue to the answer.

You could ask pupils to think about what they would do in this situation - if they were Milo, how would they answer Zayn’s question? How might this make Zayn feel when he next goes to Saturday Club? Try acting it out in pairs and share the good advice that comes up.

It’s important to speak up when we are feeling uncomfortable, but it is not always easy. Pupils could reflect on how practising this with a friend might help them in a similar situation in the future.

You could also use this film to help pupils think about their own friendships. Prompt them to think of a time when they experienced a healthy relationship through honesty, listening or support. It could be a time they felt supported by a friend or when they took the time to listen to a friend in need.

You could turn this into a creative task - for example asking pupils to write a description, story, script or poem, to draw a comic strip or picture of the event, or even act it out with a partner.

You can prompt them to include details about things that were said and the ways people behaved. Thinking about these details will help them to reflect on what fundamental qualities they value most in themselves and how they can demonstrate them in their friendships.

You might want to make the qualities of a good friendship a permanent feature in the classroom. You could use them as inspiration for pupils to create their own friendship posters.

To help pupils develop their creative ideas, you could set up three large pieces of paper around the room, with one of the following headings written on each:

• It is important to be honest with your friends because…
• It is important to listen to your friends because…
• It is important to support your friends because…

Prompt pupils to go around the room and write a response to each on the paper. On a fourth, unheaded piece of paper, they could write down anything else that is fundamental to a good friendship that they might want to include too.

You could display the posters in the classroom, or around the wider school as a daily visual reminder of what it means to be a good friend.

Do your pupils understand what the qualities of a good friendship are?

You can use this multiple-choice quiz to test their knowledge. Try voting as a class before selecting an answer or prompt pupils to consider an individual question in small groups.