Course Content 

(based on PHE learning standards)

Module 1: SMASHING THE BOXES: Breaking free from gender stereotypes.

✔ Identify the social and cultural aspects of gender roles, challenge sexism and inequality, and reflect on their own experience.
✔ Examine traditionally masculine and feminine gender roles and the societal expectations placed on them.
✔ Gain a better understanding of the gender spectrum and how it shapes their identity.

Module 2: MONSTERS AND SUPERHEROES: Using your inner power to honour, manage and express your emotions.

✔ Identify a wide range of emotions and learn how to honor, manage, and express them in a healthy way.
✔ Learn strategies that help them feel good about themselves.
✔ Understand factors that contribute to self-esteem and a healthy body image.

Module 3: STANDING UP: Being assertive in even the toughest situations.

✔ Learn assertiveness skills to respond to bullying, discrimination, and peer pressure.
✔ Identify different types of power and learn how to hold on to theirs.
✔ Be equipped with strategies for responding to unsafe, uncomfortable, and abusive situations.

Module 4: HEALTHY RELATIONSHIPS: Making sure yours are H.E.R.I.

✔ Learn what consent looks and sounds like, and the laws surrounding it.
✔ Practice how to express boundaries in a healthy relationship.
✔ Identify the characteristics of healthy and unhealthy relationships.
✔ Recognize warning signs of unhealthy or abusive situations.
✔ Develop strategies for effective communication and informed decision-making in relationships.

Module 5: PUBERTY: Understanding it, rolling with it, celebrating your body.

✔ Review the physical and emotional changes that happen during puberty.
✔ Hear answers to the most common questions asked by their peers.
✔ Explore strategies for navigating physical, emotional, and social changes.
✔ Examine how puberty affects body image and learn coping strategies to lessen the impact.

Module 6: INTERNET LIFE: Having fun and making smart decisions online.

✔ Identify strategies for staying safe and anonymous online.
✔ Learn how to avoid and respond to unsafe, abusive, or exploitative situations.
✔ Understand how to respond to cyberbullying and discrimination by being a responsible bystander.
✔ Think critically about social media content around body image, sexualization, and gender stereotypes.
✔ Learn to evaluate online content, including pornography and sexualized images.
✔ Explore smart decision-making when posting online, understanding long-term impacts, and maintaining a balance between online and offline life.

Bonus Module 1: A Game Plan for Managing Anxiety: Brain Health and Mindful Meditation.

In this video, Asha Diaz of Grit Vancouver shows Growing Up Game Plan participants how to manage anxiety by quieting their minds. She uses a preteen-friendly Mindful Meditation with a mantra of “I am here, I am loved.”...the exact message we want our kids to take with them as they move through life!

Bonus Module 2: A Game Plan for Exploring Masculinity: Breaking down stereotypes and honouring identities.

Using honesty, humour and language that’s relatable to preteens in this video, educators and advocates Brandon Yan and Gavin Somers reflect on how messages around masculinity shaped their experiences of growing up. They offer valuable insight for all ages when it comes to the intersection of gender stereotypes, discrimination, and race, and what the term “toxic masculinity” means today.