Protected Characteristics Cards

Web of Lives – Building Empathy, Oracy, Respect & Agency Through Human-Centred Learning PSHE RSHE Lessons and assemblies

Empathy, Oracy & Whole-School Ethos Through Safe Human-Centred Learning PSHE | Citizenship | SMSC | Personal Development | KS3–KS5 Struggling to help students discuss sensitive human issues with confidence, empathy, and respect — without triggering unsafe disclosures or shallow responses? The Web of Lives Bundle is an interactive, fictional, card-based learning system that enables young people to explore identity, behaviour, relationships, power, and consequence safely and meaningfully. By using fictional lives rather than personal disclosure, learners engage deeply while teachers maintain clear safeguarding boundaries. ✅ The problem it solves Teachers often face: Superficial answers to complex social issues Learners shutting down during PSHE or Citizenship Difficulty teaching empathy, accountability, and respect Risk around sensitive topics and disclosures A lack of consistency in whole-school values work 💡 The solution: Web of Lives This resource provides a structured yet flexible framework that: ✔ Builds empathy, respect, and shared understanding ✔ Develops oracy, presentation, and reflective skills ✔ Creates a safe fictional space to explore real human problems ✔ Supports a whole-school ethos of care, responsibility, and dignity ✔ Helps learners see how small actions (kindness or harm) ripple across lives and families Teachers can manipulate the same card sets to draw out different learning outcomes — from inclusion and disempowerment to accountability, resilience, and change. 🧠 Why it works Fictional characters remove fear of exposure Human-centred scenarios cut across identity differences Learners relate emotionally without self-disclosing Discussion is structured, purposeful, and safe This allows meaningful exploration of issues affecting all young people, while encouraging learners to see themselves as instigators of positive change, not passive products of circumstance. 🎯 Ideal for PSHE, Citizenship, RS, tutor time Oracy & presentation development Personal Development & SMSC Whole-school values and inclusion work KS3, KS4, KS5 (easily scaffolded) 🔑 Outcomes Learners will: Communicate ideas confidently and respectfully Understand how lives and choices are interconnected Build empathy across difference Recognise responsibility, impact, and change