Cambridge Primary

Making peace

A Cambridge Global Perspectives® Challenge

Skill focus: Communication Stage: 4 Age: 8–9 Topic: Keeping the peace

Learning objectives Success criteria

Communication
Learners actively listen to others, seeking and offering advice and clarification where appropriate
Learners demonstrate an appreciation of other people’s views and perspectives
Listen to others in class discussions and respond with relevant ideas Learners start to encourage others to participate, using visual cues, where appropriate, to understand
and questions levels of engagement by other members of the class or group
Learners use correct terminology when discussing or describing different aspects of how to maintain good
relationships and avoid conflicts

Analysis
Learners can describe consequences of conflict and some actions that can help resolve conflicts
Talk about simple causes of personal actions and consequences on Learners start to identify causes of conflict and relate these to their own actions, and the actions of others
others Following their research, learners can identify what compromises and agreements have to be made when
addressing the problem of conflict in their relationships with others

Challenge summary

By the end of this Challenge, learners will have developed their communication skills by participating in and contributing to class discussions on the attitudes needed for good
relationships, and how to avoid conflicts. Learners will analyse the way friendships are created and maintained through practical research and case studies.

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 Activities (sequence)

Note: If the Challenge is being delivered as part of an extended day rather than by a series of lessons, the questionnaire in the first activity could be done before the day, as a
preparatory activity.

What makes a good friend?

Introduce the concept of friendship by using a clip from a local drama or film that depicts warmth between two people, or someone helping another person.
Lead a class discussion on the question ‘How can you tell when two people have a good relationship?’
Learners research the question ‘What makes a good friend?’ This should involve a simple questionnaire given to a range of people in school and/or within
learners’ families. The sample should be small and number of questions limited. It might be created through class discussion or in small groups (Learner
Resource – Making peace L4.1 is an example which can be adapted).
Learners analyse the responses and create a simple list of the qualities of a ‘good friend’. Learners use the outcomes of their research to create a display or
poster about the qualities of a ‘good friend’.
Possible extension activity: a class assembly could be created on the theme, perhaps using some video recordings of the interviews.

What causes arguments or conflict between people?

Introduce the idea that people, even friends, sometimes have differences of opinion and conflicts. Show learners several short video clips from age-appropriate
television dramas depicting differences of opinion or conflict between two people. Ask pairs to try and work out the issue and the reasons. Analyse both the
causes and the underlying emotions such as anger, jealousy, pride, competition, fear, desire for status, feeling hurt, revenge, greed, protection of others close
to us, loyalty.
Watch again two of the video clips showing conflict between people. Discuss with the class how the conflict could be resolved and relationships re-established.
In groups, learners role-play different friendship or family scenarios involving conflict. Teachers should produce several different age-related situations for
exploration. Firstly, conduct the role plays assuming the participants do not want to resolve the issue causing the conflict. Repeat the role plays with the
participants wanting to resolve the issue causing the conflict.
Lead a class discussion about the attitudes needed to keep good relationships. Ideas may include:
• listening to the other person’s views
• saying thank you
• being willing to do what the other person wants sometimes
• praising the other person
• giving time to the person and doing things with them
• talking and sharing your feelings.

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 How can I maintain good relationships and resolve conflict with others?

Organise a visit from a professional counsellor to talk about how to make and keep good friends. The aim of the visit is to explore and hear about how good
relationships are created and how to resolve conflict if it does occur.
Possible extension activity: discuss the quality and value of evidence and testimony from professionals and people with experience. Compare this with the
evidence gathered from questionnaires.
Possible extension activity: to reinforce learning, give learners in pairs several short, age-appropriate sources on making friends, creating good relationships
and resolving conflict. Analyse and evaluate the main methods suggested.
Lead a whole class discussion to reinforce learning. Key questions for discussion, in language appropriate to the age group:
• How can we make and keep good friends even if we have different views and ideas?
• How do attitudes like respect, tolerance, and listening prevent conflict?
• What are the main causes of conflict in everyday life?
• What methods, formal and informal, can be used between individuals and groups to resolve conflict?
• Who can we ask to help if we experience conflict with someone?
Introduce a range of simulated relationship problems, possibly based on letters from magazine ‘problem pages’ about friendship situations. These may be
based on real letters from magazines adapted for Stage 4 learners (Teacher Resource – Making peace T4.2). In small groups, learners compose letters in
reply, giving advice on how to solve the problem. Emphasise that in discussing the letters and suggesting solutions to resolve the conflicts, learners need to
show care towards the people with problems and suggest ways to find answers (for example, where they could seek advice, or suggest that the two friends talk
to each other with a shared friend) rather than tell the people ‘what to do’ in the situation.

What causes conflict between different people in the community?

Learners in pairs analyse a range of case studies adapted by the teacher from newspaper cuttings illustrating conflicts in the local community. The scenarios
should reflect different types of conflict between different groups. The pairs should analyse the cause of the conflict. For extra support or as an extension,
resources at different levels of complexity could be made available.

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 How can conflict between people in the community be resolved?

Organise a visit from a community police officer (or someone with a similar role depending on local/cultural circumstances) to talk about their work in bringing
community groups together and reducing conflict. The aim of the visit is to hear about how good relationships in the community are created and how to resolve
conflict, when it does occur. Key questions for discussion:
• What are the main causes of conflict in the community?
• What methods are used to resolve different conflicts?
• How did you decide which method(s) are appropriate?
• What would you do if the first method didn’t work? What else could you try?
Possible extension activity: discuss the quality and value of evidence and testimony from people with a particular role in the community.

What have you learnt?

Learners are asked to reflect on (and summarise in writing):

• what they have learnt about friendship and relationships
• how the research has changed their views about how to avoid and resolve conflict
• how one of their own relationships could be improved.
Individually, learners write a short booklet or brochure as a guide to other children of their age about keeping good friendships/relationships and how to resolve
differences between individuals or groups in everyday life. In small groups, learners prepare a role play or drama to illustrate the guidance in action. Prepare a
class assembly to share the principles with others using the booklets and role plays.

Why do conflicts between countries take place?

Lead a discussion introducing the idea that conflict can also occur between countries. Learners in pairs then analyse carefully prepared, age-related resources
related to one or two simple case studies of recent examples of international conflict that have been heavily featured in the local media, particularly children’s
news programmes. Learners work in pairs to compare the case studies (Learner Resource – Making peace L4.3). Key questions to explore are:
• What is the background to the conflict? Where? Who? Why? Impact?
• What is the reason given by each side for their actions?
• Will it be easy to bring peace?

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 Challenge resources

Provided by Cambridge
Teacher Resource – Making peace T4.2 Learner Resource – Making peace L4.1
Learner Resource – Making peace L4.3

Other resources
Short video clips depicting friendship
Short video clips depicting conflict
Scenarios involving conflict for role play (optional)
Visitors: counsellor, police officer
Sources on making and keeping friends (optional)
Sources on conflict in the community
Software tools for online publishing (optional)
Creative materials for displays
Simple case studies of international conflict

Personal Local Global

This Global Perspectives Challenge has been designed to be flexible and should be adapted to school requirements and the needs of your learners. Further guidance and
support for planning is given in the Teacher Guide.

Copyright © UCLES 2018

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