1. Health & Well-Being

2. STRESS!

3. Lesson Objective: To be able to: - Understand stress and its effects - Recognise the symptoms of stress - Explore stressful situations and responses to them Success Criteria: -Group discussion -Pair work to answer questions

4. Starter: Brainstorm the meaning of stress: STRESS 1

5. STRESS – a definition: 2

6. Stress can be defined as the way you feel when you are under pressure caused by major upheavals and life events (e.g. starting a new job, exams, relationship break-up etc.) ….or by a series of minor irritations or excitements (e.g. needing to get homework done, going on a date with someone new, your mobile phone running out of credit etc.) 2

7. What happens?....... …when someone has little or no stress in their lives? …when someone has too much stress in their life and it builds up? 3

8. Individually or in pairs: Think of an example of something that stresses you out. Act out your example to the group…………………. -Remember, these could be good or bad things! 4

9. In pairs: Taking your own or a classmates example of a stressful situation or thing… …Try and identify ways in which you can alter the stressful situation; what actions could you take to improve it? 5

10. In pairs: Discuss your thoughts on these questions:  What are some of the ways that people may offload their stress onto others?  What are the characteristics of someone that has ‘had it up to here’?  How do you feel when you are around a person who’s stressed out?  If you realise that someone is stressed-out, what can you do to avoid them offloading onto you?  What can we do to avoid offloading onto others?  What do people often do to combat stress?  Can some choices and coping methods actually add more stress to an already stressful life? 6

11. Symptoms of stress: Put a tick against any symptoms of stress that you have experienced recently. 7

12. Plenary: OR