PSHE & Citizenship Protected Characteristics Backstory Cards – Diversity & Inclusion Activities

📦 Back Story Cards – Behind the Behaviour

Description: The Back Story Cards (8 scenarios) are designed to help students look beyond actions and labels to understand the human experiences that shape behaviour. Each card provides a glimpse into the challenges, pressures, and emotions behind a character’s choices, encouraging students to explore how context influences decisions.

Why they’re useful for Social Emotional Learning (SEL):

• Build empathy: Students learn to see the person behind the behaviour, not just the action.
• Encourage reflection: They connect personal experiences (feeling unheard, excluded, pressured) to wider social struggles.
• Support restorative practice: By exploring back stories, students recognise how understanding context can lead to more compassionate responses.
• Develop collective intelligence: Group discussions highlight shared struggles and strengths, showing how communities can respond together.
• Promote resilience: Students see how challenges can be overcome with support, helping them identify coping strategies in their own lives.

How to use:

• Group work: Give each group a card and ask them to discuss the challenges, strengths, and possible supports.
• Paired with Offender Cards: Use back stories alongside offender scenarios to show both perspectives — the action and the history behind it.
• Circle time: Read a card aloud, invite silent reflection, then open up collective discussion.
• Comparative analysis: Compare two back stories to highlight common struggles and differences.

Curriculum relevance:

• UK: PSHE (respectful relationships, identity, resilience), Citizenship (rights & responsibilities, community cohesion), Equality Act (protected characteristics).
• US: SEL (self-awareness, social awareness, empathy, responsible decision-making), Health Education (bullying prevention, identity inclusion), Civics/Advisory programs.

🌐 Part of the Web of Lives Series

The Back Story Cards are a key strand in the Web of Lives Series, which uses relatable scenarios to build empathy, resilience, and inclusion across the classroom. Pair them with the Offender Cards for a powerful two-perspective resource, or combine with packs on Values & Identity, Protected Characteristics, and Resilience & Reflection to create a whole-school approach to wellbeing and collective learning.

© 2025 Jennifer Darch, InclusiveEd.co.uk. . All rights reserved. This resource and all associated materials are the intellectual property of Jennifer Darch. No part of this resource may be copied, reproduced, or redistributed in any form outside of the purchasing teacher’s classroom.

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