Hello and welcome to lesson two in our series of lessons on intimate relationships, positivity and health.

Today is all about the diversity of intimate relationships that you will see in your day-to-day life now and as you go through into the future and that you may experience yourself in your relationships.

There maybe one or two things in this lesson that you may want to speak to a trusted adult about.

So it's worth just mentioning it to a trusted adult before you embark on this lesson and having them nearby whilst you go through it.

I really hope you enjoy the lesson.

Thank you very much for joining me, let's begin.

So in today's lesson, you will need something to write on whether that be an exercise book or a piece of paper and something to write with, ideally a pen or maybe a pencil if not a pen.

Go and grab those things now, if you need them.

Okay, let's look at the agenda of today's lesson.

Now, hopefully you've already completed the intro quiz for today's lesson.

At the end of the lesson, I will be directing you towards our exit quiz.

The learning for today will consist of the following.

We're to look at same sex and opposite sex relationships.

We're to look at cultural and religious differences between relationships.

We're going to look at relationships with and without children.

And we're going to look at the choice to be married or to remain single.

So, our keywords for today's lesson.

Everything's here in a paragraph for you.

I'd like you to read to get the sense of what opposite sex relationships are and same sex relationships.

It's also important you understand what marriage is.

That it's a legally binding agreement between two people in an intimate relationship.

And that many people choose to remain unmarried or single whether that be they're unmarried in a relationship or not, and single which can be a lifestyle choice or whether that might be because someone hasn't yet found a relationship they're happy to continue with.

So I'd like you to consider this true or false question please.

Legal marriage in the UK is only between a man and a woman.

Please point to the screen, true or false.

Okay, you'd like to see if you're correct.

It is false.

Marriage is also legal in the UK between same sex couples.

This is a relatively recent change in the law.

Back when I was at school, marriage wasn't possible between people of the same sex, but it's important to know that the marriage is completely legal between two men and two women or a man and a woman.

So, thinking back to our last lesson within this unit or if you're joining us on this lesson and you didn't complete the last lesson within the unit, please just think about this term 'intimate relationship' and try and recall what is meant by that.

Just give you a moment to do that before we go over the answer.

Intimacy involves feelings of emotional closeness with another person.

People may be sexual, having sex or engaging in sexual activity with an intimate partner.

So, the sexual element of an intimate relationship, it is not necessary.

Some people in intimate relationships won't have sex with their partner, some people will.

So intimacy, although we often think of it as meaning a sexual relationship, it can also refer to an emotionally close relationship.

It doesn't necessarily have to mean that the couple are having sex.

So let's look at same sex and opposite sex relationships.

So, some people are in intimate relationships with another person of the same sex, and some with people of a different sex.

And there's no difference in the value of those different types of relationships, no difference at all.

And now this is something I would like you to now reflect on.

I'd like you to pause the video in a moment and copy and complete this sentence.

It is important that opposite sex and same sex relationships are valued equally because.

Please pause the video when you're ready to copy and complete that sentence and rejoin when complete, thank you.

Let's have a look at a possible answer.

What I've written here is that it's important that opposite sex and same sex relationships are valued equally because this shows fairness and equality for all.

You may have put something slightly different, you may have worded it slightly differently.

Let's now move on to look at a different kind of diversity within relationships.

Here, we're going to look at cultural and religious differences.

So, some people are in intimate relationships with another person who may or may not share the same religious beliefs.

Similarly, they may not share the same cultural background.

I would like you to try and identify three positives for couples who may be of different religious and cultural backgrounds Try and identify three potential difficulties that a couple might face if they've got these different religious or cultural backgrounds within in your positives and potential challenges or difficulties for that couple.

You might even start to think about how couples might overcome those challenges but that's a little bit of extra challenge for you if you can do that.

So, please pause the video when you're ready to have a go at this task before we go through the answers, thank you.

Wonderful, okay.

Let's have a look.

So, do any of your answers to this task match mine? So here are some potential advantages for couples who may have different religious backgrounds or cultural backgrounds.

Both can develop appreciation and learning of each other's cultures and religions.

The may identify common values across their religions with all backgrounds which will really help strengthen their relationship.

So just because a culture may be different to another one or a religion is different, doesn't mean that there isn't common ground to be shared.

Let's have a look at some potential difficulties or challenges for couples whose background or religions or cultural heritage is different.

They may have different ideas about raising children.

About which religion to raise those children in, for example.

They may have family and friends who aren't fully supportive of the relationship or they may have different beliefs that affect their ideas about lifestyle.

But to overcome this, if they have honest and open communication from the start and make an effort to learn about each other's faith or background, incorporating perhaps elements of both cultures and religions into their everyday life.

There certainly is a way forward for couples who come from those different religious, cultural backgrounds.

Certainly there is examples of lots and lots of successful relationships of people from very diverse backgrounds.

People who may have completely different beliefs to their partner, but who through compromise and discussion managed to make their relationship work.

We're now going to have a look at intimate relationships between those with and without children.

So this is another kind of diversity, the idea that relationships differ from one another because some relationships have children and that is something that is really important to that relationship and really important to the people within it.

And yeah, there are relationships where the couple involved have made the decision that they don't want to have children and both relationships are equally valid.

But let's explore that a little bit more.

So I would like you to, first of all, think about the benefits of having children.

So a benefit of having children might be.

What might be the benefits of not having children? So I would like you to have a think about those different sides to relationships.

Benefits of having children and of choosing not to have children.

And I would like you to have a go at completing the sentence starters that I have there left on the screen for you.

Please pause the video now.

Let's now have a look at some potential answers here.

So a benefit of having children might be creating a family unit.

However, benefit of not having children might be to pursue all the interests for you like without the constraints of children and the commitment to having children that might hold you back from completing certain interests or certain activities that you might wish to.

So for some people having that family unit is really really important.

Seeing amazing children as they grow and then appreciating the value that that brings.

But for all of this, there are the priorities that actually are more important to them.

You may have come up with lots of different ideas here.

Again it's really really subjective, an open question.

It's very much based on your opinion.

There's not necessarily a right or wrong answer here.

Similarly, there are relationships between people who are married and unmarried.

And we need to think about those types of relationships.

So I'd like to read the information on this slide, please.

Some people are in an intimate relationship with another person and they choose to take part in a marriage ceremony.

To them this is really important that their relationship is recognised in perhaps their faith and their religion, although it's important to note that not all religious ceremonies are actually recognised in law.

To some it's important to have that legal binding between each other so that the law recognises that they are a couple.

And the notion of being married to some people is just something that is highly important.

It solidifies their relationship.

But it's a personal choice because not everybody who is in an intimate or emotional, romantic relationship chooses to get married.

To some couples it's seen as unnecessary.

They don't need marriage for their relationship to be valuable and valid and to feel fulfilled.

So it's a complete personal choice.

Sometimes you might hear people talk about that they live together or they are cohabitating or they might refer to each other as their partner which might indicate that they are not married and they choose not to be married whether that's just for the time being or whether that's for the length of the entire relationship.

Again, it's down to personal choice.

Just like to reflect on this question for a moment, please.

All religious marriage ceremonies in the UK are legally recognised.

Is that true or is that false? Please point to the correct answer on the screen now.

Okay, let's see if you're correct.

It's false.

Only certain religious ceremonies are recognised in UK law.

Some maybe followed up with a civil service.

So for example, if within a particular religion or at a particular religious venue there is not the official licences for that marriage to be legal then normally the couple who get married and have their marriage recognised in the faith that they which then might afterwards or beforehand go to what's called a registry office just do the legal part of marriage and to have a ceremony that legally solidifies their marriage.

That's a choice that some people choose to make.

And again here I'd like you to now reflect why is marriage important to some, but not to others? Have a think, maybe drop two or three bullet points down.

You might want to say the answer out loud instead if you've not written this down.

Okay.

Thank you for rejoining me.

Let's have a look at a possible response.

You might've written down bullets to do with being recognised in your faith or the legal validation and commitment that's important to some, but not all.

To many people they don't need those things for their relationship to be valid.

Again, it's personal choice and preference.

Some people choose to be single.

They decide that they don't want to be in a relationship either for a particular period in their life, at that moment in time or perhaps they're focusing on their own personal issues or perhaps while they explore certain interests or activities and they want to be on their own for that.

And other people decide that they don't want to be in a relationship at all ever.

And that's absolutely fine because single life has a great many advantages for many, could be just as valuable as being in an intimate relationship.

There's something that we need to recognise that the choice to be single, whether for a short time or for a long time is something that we should respect.

So, we have a final, multiple choice option here.

I'm going to give you three different possible benefits of being single.

I would like you to have a look and to point, it might be there is more than one answer so you might need to point to more than one.

Point at the answers that you think are possible benefits of being single.

We have free choice.

Lifestyle decisions that can be made based on your own choice.

Friendship.

That friends can offer the connection of an intimate relationship.

And independence.

The satisfaction in providing and taking care of oneself.

Which of them did you think are possible benefits of being single? Okay, point to the one or more answer that you think is correct? Let's see if you are right.

So free choice, yes that is a benefit of being single.

Friendship and independence.

It's like I tricked you a little bit because the answer is in fact all of them, all of them are potential benefits of being single to some people.

So let's end with a reflection.

I want you to think of however many different types of relationships you will come across over in the next week, in life, in school, on TV, et cetera.

And how are they all valuable? And keep that in your mind as you come across different relationships in the next few days, next week or so, how each of those relationships is valuable in different ways.

Thank you very much for joining me today.

Do not forget to complete today's exit quiz.

And I really hope that you'll join me for our next lesson in intimate relationships, positivity and health unit.

Thank you, goodbye.