Erasmus Project "Bullying: NOT in my school"
Context
When students are faced with the bullying phenomenon, they develop a sense of insecurity, lack of self-confidence, a feeling of guilt and unworth, which has negative consequences on school engagement, motivation and ambition. This, in turn leads to poor school results, falling behind or even dropping out. Those who witness bullying situations and choose not to take any action often develop themselves a sense of guilt and wrong unhealthy views about power dynamics.
Through this project, we intend to apply a holistic approach: we address students – victims, perpetrators and bystanders, in the attempt to raise their awareness about bullying, causes and consequences, to improve their social and emotional skills and reduce the phenomenon.
We believe that an effective anti-bullying strategy should include measures to improve relationships at all levels: student-student, teacher-student, parents-students, management-students-teachers- parents
OBJECTIVES
SO1 – to reduce the incidence of bullying by at least 50 percent in the following 2 years and by 80 percent in the next 2 years.
SO2 – to develop a common anti-bullying program which is piloted by all the schools in the first year after the project
SO3 – to improve the relationships student-student, student-teacher, student-family
SO4 – to develop the schools’ European dimension through effective cooperation with partner schools
SO5 – to develop a set of materials and anti-bullying activities
SO6 – to improve students’, teachers’ and parents’ capacity to deal with bullying situations
SO7 – to improve students’ transversal skills: critical and innovative thinking, inter-personal skills, intra-personal skills, global citizenship (tolerance, openness, respect for diversity, intercultural understanding)
PARTICIPANTS
Students in our schools aged 13-14, from a variety of social, cultural and economic backgrounds. The target group is made up of about 500 students, some of whom fall into disadvantaged categories: 25% face social obstacles, 5% face cultural differences as refugees or part of other minority groups, while 18% are SEN students or have different disabilities.
The selection of students will be done on this target group. 100 students will take part in the activities, while the remaining 400 will benefit from similar activities as in C2-C5, after each exchange.
Teachers - 32 will also participate directly as accompanying persons in C2-C5, while 16 teachers will attend C1 (coordinator, school counsellor, English teacher, PE teacher)
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MAIN ACTIVITIES
There are 1 joint staff training (C1) event and 4 exchanges we have planned:
C1 – Joint-staff training event. Topic: Comparative analysis among partner countries in terms of bullying
C2 – Improving students’ awareness about bullying. SEL activities
C3 – Improving student-teacher relationship. Sport activities
C4 – Involving parents against bullying. Outdoor activities
C5 – Establishing school norms and policies. Anti-bullying arts and crafts activities
During C2-C4 each partner will contribute with sample activities. After the exchange, they will apply similar activities in their school, to widen the impact of the project on the target group. The activities are followed by feedback from students, teachers, parents, which will help us analyse the strengths and weaknesses of the activities and adjust them in order to include them in the final program
RESULTS
Comparative study of bullying across the 5 partner schools
Sample SEL activities to improve students’ intra- and interpersonal skills Sample sports activities to improve the student-teacher relationship Sample outdoor activities to involve parents
Sample arts and crafts activities for students. NO Bullying program (common output)
Other results: 5 newsletters, 80 students’ diaries, 5 dissemination platforms (eTwinning, website, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter), 5 exchange reports, certificates of attendance, Europass documents, initial and final questionnaires, interim and final reports.
IMPACT
We aim to raise awareness about bullying, to equip students, teachers and parents with the necessary tools and courses of action to take in case they either fall victims or witness bullying acts. The school will become a safe environment for students, where they understand that teachers and parents are their allies and will support them no matter what.
The parents’ involvement in the activities is expected to strengthen the cooperation between schools and parents, which will translate into an openness of parents to the school and an understanding of how cooperation of parents with the school can only bring benefits to students.
We will increase the schools’ adaptability to the 21st century requirements and add to their European dimension
We intend to reduce the bullying incidence by 50% in the following years.
Our schools will become resources for other schools who will implement the NO Bullying program, thus promoting our image in the local community.