Sex and Relationships Education, Personal, Social and Health Education, Educational Resources and Training
Playing the pyramid
Obtainable from Centre for HIV and Sexual Health, Sheffield: www.sexualhealthsheffield.nhs.uk
VALUES PYRAMID on CD with explanatory booklet:
UK £20.00
€25.24
US$33.14
plus p&p and VAT (VAT to EU member states only).
“One of the most successful parts of the day was when we were asked to play a values pyramid game. In small groups, we arranged a number of cards onto the pyramid grid – and the overriding value differed in each group, from ‘Respect’ to ‘Enjoying Myself’. This would be an excellent activity for staff and/or governors to engage in, as after deciding where a card should be placed, we could challenge each other and move it. A great deal of purposeful discussion arose, centred around what we perceive to be the most important drivers in terms of the values that we have and use to shape our school ethos.”
R. Washford Mower, head of Nash Mills Primary School, Hemel Hempstead, evaluating a Drugs Awareness Training Day, November 2007
See an interactive demo of the Values Pyramid. Click here
The Values Pyramid is a board game activity that encourages individuals to:
• express their own values
• consider which of their values are most important to them
• listen to other people
• weigh up other people’s views
• recognise that others may hold very different views on a range of issues
From the pdf-format files on the CD you print your own board and cards for use in the activity. There is a separate file on the CD for each of:
• Values Pyramid board (requires A3 printer)
• 18 Values Cards
• 18 colour-coded Theme Cards on each of the topics: Sex and Relationships; Drugs; Faith, Culture and Ethnicity; Health; Finances; Environment; Politics; Families; Parenting; Risk and Safety; Beliefs and Behaviours; Fashion; Work.
• In addition there are three templates from which you can make your own cards
The Values Pyramid encourages a group to:
• cooperate
• listen well
• learn to weigh up different views
• discuss differences constructively
• deal with conflict
The Values Pyramid can be used in a wide variety of contexts:
• adults and young people
• school-based lessons, youth service settings, informal group work and adult training courses
• personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) education, sex and relationships education (SRE), drug education, citizenship and religious education
Using the Values Pyramid
The Values Pyramid is an activity which needs the ability to reason, listen well and respect other people and their differences. It should be used in situations where the group is able and willing to listen with respect to others.
The teacher or facilitator decides in advance which cards will be used, ideally focusing on one theme which is relevant to the work in hand, and selects between 18 and 24 cards.
Participants are split into sub-groups of 4–6 people. Each sub-group is given a Values Pyramid board and a set of the selected cards. All sub-groups play simultaneously.
Play continues until all the cards have been placed, or time is up. Then the teacher or facilitator brings all the participants together to process the activity using some or all of the following questions:
• did anything surprise you?
• how did you feel when others clearly had very different values or views?
• why do you think other people sometimes have (or appear to have) very different values?
• which were the most difficult cards to place and why ?
• what have you learned from this activity – about yourself or others?
• what will you do differently as a result of your learning?