Best for
Years 6-10 health, pastoral care, hauora, friendship lessons, and any sequence about choices, influence, and safer decision-making.
Health / Decision-making • Years 6-10 • Influence, boundaries, response
Peer Pressure & Choices
Help ākonga recognise the difference between positive influence and risky pressure. This handout gives students a clear decision filter, assertive language, and support planning so they can act with rangatiratanga when friends, teams, chats, or groups are pushing them in the wrong direction.
Free decision-making scaffold, premium localising path
This handout already includes scenario prompts, decision filters, assertive stems, and support maps. Te Wānanga becomes useful when you want versions built around your year level, sports culture, online group chats, or school-specific pastoral language.
- Generate a lower-reading-level version with more sentence stems.
- Swap in local scenarios such as vaping, skipping class, social pressure, or team conflict.
- Save a localised version in My Kete and refine it in Creation Studio.
Kaiako planning snapshot
- Use length: 30-40 minutes for explicit teaching and scenario practice.
- Grouping: Whole-class modelling first, then pairs or small groups for role-play and writing.
- Prep: Choose whether students will work from personal, fictional, or mixed scenarios.
- Teaching move: Emphasise that good choices protect hauora, relationships, and future options. Saying no is a strength skill.
Resources already provided
- Positive vs risky influence sort
- Pause-check-choose decision flow
- Assertive response stems
- Scenario practice with write-on space
- Support and exit-plan reflection
- Teacher-only curriculum companion
If the sequence mentions decision frames, response stems, or a support map, those resources are already provided here.
Ngā Whāinga Akoranga / Learning Intentions
- We are learning to recognise positive influence and risky peer pressure.
- We are learning to use a decision filter before we act.
- We are learning to respond assertively and seek support when needed.
Paearu Angitu / Success Criteria
- I can explain why a situation is supportive, risky, or unsafe.
- I can use words that say no clearly and respectfully.
- I can name people or places that could support me if pressure increases.
Curriculum integration / Te Marautanga alignment
Use the curriculum companion to connect this page to relationship learning, self-management, respectful discussion, and help-seeking. The strongest use keeps peer pressure connected to hauora and real decision-making, not just rule-following.
Influence is real, and not all of it is bad
Friends and groups influence what we wear, say, try, and believe. Some influence is positive: it helps us persist, join in, or stand up for others. Some pressure is risky: it pushes us away from our values, our safety, or our sense of what is right. Students need practice naming the difference and responding with confidence.
Positive influence or risky pressure?
| Example | Positive influence, risky pressure, or both? | Why? |
|---|---|---|
| Friends encourage you to join kapa haka practice even though you feel nervous. | ||
| A group pushes you to skip class because "everyone does it". | ||
| A chat thread keeps pushing someone to post a private photo. |
Pause, check, choose
-
1
Pause Notice the pressure. If you feel rushed, embarrassed, or pushed, stop before agreeing.
-
2
Check Ask: Is this safe? Does it fit my values? Would I be okay if a trusted adult knew?
-
3
Choose Say yes, no, not now, or leave. Good choices do not need an audience to approve them.
-
4
Get backup If the pressure continues, move toward a trusted person, place, or school support.
Assertive response stems
Clear no
"No thanks. I'm not doing that."
Change direction
"Let's do something else instead."
Leave with dignity
"I'm heading off now. Catch you later."
Scenario practice
Scenario 1
Your friends want you to join in mocking another student on a group chat.
Scenario 2
A group at lunch keeps pressuring you to try something you know is unsafe.
Scenario 3
Friends want you to skip training and lie about where you were.
My support and exit plan
People I can move toward
How I could leave a risky situation
Different pathways
Support
Use one scenario, one assertive stem, and one trusted-support option with teacher modelling.
Core
Complete the influence sort, a full scenario response, and the support-and-exit plan.
Stretch
Role-play a short scene showing pressure, assertive response, and safe follow-through.
Hononga Marautanga · Curriculum Alignment
Social Sciences — Tikanga ā-Iwi
Level 3–4: Investigate social, cultural, environmental, and economic questions; gather and evaluate evidence from diverse sources; communicate findings and reasoning clearly for different audiences and purposes.
English — Communication
Level 3–4: Read, interpret, and evaluate information texts; write clearly and purposefully for specific audiences; apply critical thinking skills to evaluate sources and construct well-reasoned responses.
Aronga Mātauranga Māori
This resource sits within a kaupapa that recognises mātauranga Māori as a living knowledge system with its own frameworks, values, and ways of understanding the world. The New Zealand Curriculum calls for learning that reflects the bicultural partnership of Te Tiriti o Waitangi, which means every subject area has an obligation to engage authentically with Māori perspectives — not as cultural decoration but as substantive contributions to how we understand our topics. The concepts of manaakitanga (care for others), kaitiakitanga (guardianship), whanaungatanga (relationship and belonging), and tino rangatiratanga (self-determination) provide a values framework applicable across all learning areas, and all are relevant to the work in this handout.
Ngā Rauemi Tautoko · Support Materials
This handout is designed to be used alongside the broader unit resources available at Te Kete Ako handouts library. Related resources from the same unit are linked in the unit planner. All resources are provided — no additional preparation is required to use this handout in your classroom.