KEY INFORMATION

Recommended age group: 11–14.
Time required: approx. 60 minutes and 20 minutes follow-up session one week later.
Equipment: student-facing presentation; four signs and sets of coloured sticky-notes (one for each ‘recovery character’); printable activity sheets from the presentation: recovery diary, challenge card sheets (x2), fact or fiction answer sheet, pledge sheet.


ACTIVITY IDEA

Warm up

  • Ask the students to define ‘recovery’. Ask them to watch the film to consider different recovery choices. Ask students to consider what other sources of stress or ‘load’ a young person might face, for instance, exams, part-time work, caring for family members, other hobbies.
  • Place a sign and a matching set of sticky-notes for each character around the room – one for colour and sign for each of the answer options (a/b/c/d).
  • Run the ‘Your Recovery Character’ quiz: after showing the habits on a slide, ask the students to move to the sign that best matches their own habit in that situation; ask them to collect a sticky-note to keep count; repeat.
  • After all the slides have been revealed, ask the students to count their sticky-notes to see which character they best match.
  • Group the students according to their characters and ask each group to identify the positive and negative recovery habits of their character; gather feedback from each group.
  • Use the slide to summarise.

Explore

  • Working in small groups, ask the students to complete a timed fact or fiction quiz.
  • Reveal the answers at the end and ask the groups to mark their quiz sheets. You can share the answer sheet in the recovery class activity sheets with students, or use it to explain the answers to the class.

Challenge

  • Highlight the benefits of good recovery habits. Ask pairs to share their current habits.
  • Challenge the students to keep a recovery diary for a week, logging sleep and relaxation habits. (Keep one too to encourage them.)
  • Working individually, ask the students to choose one challenge from the challenge sheets that they will aim to keep for a week; ask them to select the level they will aim for. Allow students to create their own challenge using the blank card if preferred.
  • Encourage students to cut out and keep their challenge card as a reminder.

Cool down

  • Building on their choices, ask the students to identify five top tips for recovery. Use the slide to summarise the key learnings – comparing the students’ tips to the slide.
  • Ask students to use their challenge and the discussion to create their recovery pledge.

Reflection – one week later

  • Working in pairs, ask the students to share their experiences: what helped or hindered them in keeping the challenge? What effect did achieving or not achieving the challenge have on their recovery routines as logged in their diary? Share ‘what helped’ tips in the whole group.
  • Ask the students to update their recovery pledge by continuing or changing their challenge – building on their learnings and the class tips.

EXTENSION

Challenge students to move to a new level (creating a level 4 if required) in their original challenge or to adopt a different challenge.

MAKE IT ACTIVE

Ideas for active learning are included throughout the resource. Adapt as required to suit your class and learning environment.