On Friday December 6th we held a special Whole-School Assembly to introduce our recently trained Anti-Bullying Ambassadors to the rest of the school and to launch their campaign to help create in our school an atmosphere of positive relationships in an effort to have a bully-free school.
In the days prior to the assembly, posters with smiley faces had been mysteriously appearing around the school. Any adults who were asked about them, strangely did not seem to know what they were about, so the children engaged in much speculation! At the assembly each Ambassador came up to the stage in turn, wearing a t-shirt with a smiley face. They introduced themselves, then referred to the posters and explained that they were part of the launch of their anti-bullying campaign. They engaged with the children, asking them questions about bullying and explaining about different types of bullying. They then did a short sketch with the strong message: “It’s good to tell!” Finally, they explained that there was a smiley face sticker for everyone caught smiling at lunchtime!
Role of the anti-bullying ambassadors.
Some of the anti-bullying ambassadors had been confused about their role initially, as they felt that there really is no bullying in the school. As we teased out the issue, they accepted that occasionally subtle bullying can be going on and they realised that their role is to help build positive relationships within the school and an atmosphere where no bullying of any sort will be tolerated. Once they had established their role, the members of the team took on this role with great enthusiasm.
The Anti-Bullying Ambassadors will continue to meet during the year and they have a number of other initiatives planned to keep the momentum going and to build a truly positive school atmosphere where bullying won’t be tolerated by anyone.
In September 2013 the Department of Education and Skills issued new anti-bullying procedures to be followed by all schools. The main key principle outlined in these procedures as being best practice for both preventing and tackling bullying is “a positive school culture and climate”. The very successful Anti-Bullying Campaign, started in 2003 by Seán Fallon in Coláiste Éanna, has recently been extended to include a programme for primary schools. The Anti-Bullying Campaign has a two-strand approach. Strand 1 raises pupils’ awareness about the nature and unacceptability of bullying, enabling them to Recognise, Reject and Report bullying when they see it. The campaign recognises the invaluable role which pupils play in this process. Strand 2 offers a six-step approach to dealing effectively with alleged/suspected bullying situations. Central to this strand is the Reform, not Blame approach, which overcomes the ‘no ratting’ culture and empowers pupils to report bullying without fear of any backlash. Our anti-bullying ambassadors were introduced to the key principles of the anti-bullying campaign at their training day and we hope, through creating a positive school culture that says an emphatic “NO” to bullying, and by encouraging pupils to tell if they are a victim of or see bullying, that we can have a school that is a complete bully-free zone.
Parents will be updated as our campaign continues in the New Year.
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