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3.3 Raising awareness with a whole school approach

Evidence now shows that bullying is not a problem of individuals, but a systematic problem that occurs because of what happens in the wider social environment. This means that schools need to develop a whole school approach, which focus on a range of elements to prevent and respond to bullying. What do we actually mean by a whole-school approach? A whole-school approach covers all aspects of the school experience, including policies, culture and classroom practice. Effective bullying prevention strategies require a broad range of activities that promote a positive, inclusive learning environment and involves all staff, students, boards, parents and the wider community.



KiVa, the innovative research-based antibullying program developed in Finland, is operating at both universal and indicated prevention levels. The following video explains the key elements of the program.

• Setting your anti-bullying school policy: giving direction and guidance to the whole school community in preventing and tackling any type of bullying behaviour is a first step towards ensuring safety at your setting.
• Training: making sure that students, school staff and parents are aware of this policy and are frequently updated on new risks and challenges related to the topic is required.
• Ensuring a safe and secure school network: using a filtering/monitoring tool allow educators to be aware of what sites students visit when using school-issued devices and Internet services, and ensure access is used for educational-purposes only.

• Create an inclusive classroom climate: the class syllabus should recognize the need for accommodations and the course content should consider that the perspectives of diverse groups are being represented.
• Setting ground rules for class discussions: create an inclusive atmosphere and signal that you are open to the ideas of your students, that’s a key to their engagement in learning.
• Violation of rules: consider the violation of rules as a teaching opportunity for all. Don’t ignore it, stay calm and model the behaviour you would like students to use.
• Frequent audit of the school’s safety measures: the process of monitoring, reviewing and evaluating the school’s safety standards should happen systematically to ensure that the last version of the agreed policy covers all the needs of the school.

Activity

Whole school approach: How to?

Let’s assume that you want to move forward to implement a whole school approach to preventing/combating bullying and promoting a safe, inclusive and accepting school climate. How would you proceed? Which are the essential elements and steps you need to consider for a successful implementation of a whole school approach?

Teachers and the principal board together with experts can set up the goals how to implement   prevention of bullying. Provide the help to the students and the teachers if they ask for help or some additional training. Moreover, they can set the rules and go strictly to it. Inform the students and parents about it.

Conducting training sessions for teachers and parents on how to fight bullying and parents' participation in establishing the rules of conduct necessary to prevent bullying in schools with the help of specialists, teachers and educational counselors. Raise the skills of mutual respect among students by giving activities within the classroom to support it, develop communication strategies and cooperation among students.

3.2 Working with parents

Sometimes it is hard for parents to support their children if they do not understand the problems with cyberbullying or do not see it happen. 

The video below features six real life families, and their children telling their stories of being cyberbullied. The kids read some of the messages they have received on their phones, while their parents listen on the other side of the room. 

The following video, Park Yuhyun, co-founder of Infollution Zero, underlines the importance of communication between parents and children and shares tips for parents to spot and stop bullying. Teachers can use these tips as notes for their communication with parents when they try to engage them in the fight against bullying.

 — Activity —

Parents and cyberbullying

Many parents feel they cannot control what their child sees or does online, they feel powerless in face of cyberbullying and look for support from the school. What type of activities could you engage parents in that will help them and your students to deal with bullying?

How Parents Can Help

We can organise information sessions both for students and for parents. During parent-teacher meetings such issues can be discussed on a one-to-one basis. The videos posted on this topic are very powerful and can be a good introduction to the topic both for parents and students.

We can help parents by saying that If they discover that their child is being cyberbullied, they can offer comfort and support. Talking about any bullying experiences they had in their childhood might help their child feel less alone.
Let their child know that it's not his or her fault, and that bullying says more about the bully than the victim. Praise their child for doing the right thing by talking to them about it. Remind their child that he or she isn't alone — a lot of people get bullied at some point. Reassure their child that they will figure out what to do about it together.

In case their child is the bully, we can suggest meetings with social therapists and psycologists. The parents are part of the solution, so if they get motivated, they can help the child find his way.

Good cooperation between the school and the parents is the solution to the bullying problems.

3.1 Social and emotional learning

Activity

Get to know myself

Aristotle, the greek philosopher (384–322 BC), once said that knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom. Self-awareness is a core SEL competence. How do you support your students to become more self-aware?

We discuss in the classroom. I talk to them privately. I try to convince them that they have to use only the best part of them, something everyone has. They then believe in them selves and choose their bright side.

Moreover, we often play role plays and create movies about these issues.

Module 3: Creating a safe learning environment

“Everyone should have an opportunity to learn in a positive environment, to enjoy the learning process, and feel comfortable and content within it”

- Barry Saide

• Identify ways of managing conflicts of your students
• Identify the key ingredients of social emotional learning aiming at the development of social emotional well-being
• Discover ways to collaborate with parents to develop a whole school approach to tackle bullying
• Discuss learning activities and apps
• Make connections to other course participants
• Reflect about own practice and beliefs
• Design activities that raise the mutual respect among students aiming at preventing and combating all types of bullying

2.5 Webinar - Tackling bullying and being safe at school: Suggestions for teachers

2.4 Faking

The problem of “faking” news or information on the internet is not only concerning politicians nowadays, but it is also a phenomenon teenagers have to deal with in the context of bullying situations.

For instance, Deepfakes, a new AI-based technology that is used for producing or altering video content so that it presents something that did not in fact occur, is becoming increasingly easy to reach and use for teenagers.

How do we deal with such scenarios? A good start would surely entail teaching our students to critically evaluate all information they find online, not just in the context of recognising fake news but also for their own personal well-being. If you are unsure how to go about this, start out by taking a look at the resources and teaching materials developed by Webwise (the Irish Internet Safety Awareness Centre) which can help teachers to enable their students to be wiser and safer internet users.

Activity

Fact-finding web detectives

How could you help your students to distinguish fake from real? Think of one short activity that could help them to do so and share it here. In the context of this, think (and share) about the following question: Is it more effective if students approach this issue from a personal well-being perspective (i.e. understanding the issue as a matter of protecting themselves from harmful behaviour towards them or others) rather than in the context of political discussions about the impact of fake news, etc.? Or does this not matter?

Sometimes it is very difficult to identify fake or real news. I always say my students that they do not need to follow gossipings, and I raise the awarness with the question "what if you were in the pic or the video? would it be funny? Before sharing something they/we should look for the same information in different real sources. 

Use critical thinking, show them examples. It depends of the age of our students. In primary school we have to approach this issue from the personal perspective.

Students can learn how to distinguish real news from fake news only with examples.

2.3 Outing

What is it?

Another form of cyberbullying is the act of outing, meaning the act of sharing and publishing private information online or forwarding personal communications to people who did not mean to be the recipients. It aims at embarrassing or publicly humiliating a person through the online posting of sensitive, private or embarrassing information without their consent. As an action, it can cause real psychological damage to the people involved.

Activity

Data protection

Sometimes outing can happen due to our negligence to protect our personal data. How can you raise awareness of data protection in your classroom?

It is necessary to constantly repeat the rules of conduct on the internet and teach them. We need to raise awareness on the repercussions of making ourselves public. We need to teach pupils about the importance of conducting ourselves ethically online and that decisions made at a young age can have severe repercussions ever some years later. I think that it all boils down to educations and to make pupils aware in terms of statistics about the effects of being online.

2.2 Impersonation

What is it?
It is the action of hijacking someone’s Facebook page when they are still logged in, but not present. It involves the unauthorised alteration of information on an individual’s online social network site. This type of bullying happens in an offline context, when the victim leaves their phone of computer unlocked, but it’s actually taking place online.

https://www.welivesecurity.com/2011/10/27/scary-halloween-cyber-pranks/

Activity

A modern form of prank or a severe violation of privacy?

It seems that the central aim of impersonation is to amuse the members of the victim’s social network. Based on this, should we consider it just a simple new form of prank or a severe violation of privacy? Share your views about this question below.

This practice can start as a joke, but it is not a joke at all. Like any form of joke, this online prank has its limits. What may be intended as a joke can have the effect of violating privacy. We should, however, treat the act based on the effect, not the intention.

2.1 Bullying online

Cyberbullying is often defined as bullying using electronic forms of contact such as email, chat rooms, blogs, websites, social networking sites, virtual learning environments, mobile phones etc. for repeatedly deliberate and hostile behaviour by an individual or group aiming at hurting another individual

Insafe and INHOPE work together through a network of Safer Internet Centres (SICs)across Europe, and support you to find further information on services in your country. For instance, Webwise, the Irish Internet Safety Awareness Centre, offers you this Primary Anti-Cyber Bullying Teachers’ Handbook 

Activity

Cyberbullying laws

Although it can be difficult to take legal action for some kinds of cyberbullying, many countries are introducing new legislation or amending existing laws to incorporate digital abuse and harassment online. What’s the status in your country? Try to find out the legal standards of your country related to this topic and share it here.

The legislation applied in Greece can be found on the following page:
http://www.safeline.gr/sites/default/files/Cyberbullying.pdf.
Also, there is the General Data Policy Regulation in EU law on data protection.

Module 2: Peer abuse in new contexts

Activity

Online and offline ID

Are you the same person online and offline? How different are your online and offline personalities?

 I don't share any personal info about me online. So I am the same person.

1.5 Impact of bullying

Activity:

Conflict vs. Bullying

Sometimes people think that bullying and conflict are the same thing, but they are not. What is the difference between conflict and bullying? What are the characteristics of peer conflict and how do they differ from those of bullying? How does the impact of a conflict differ from the impact of bullying?

The conflict is between equals because there are differences between them and it creates a contrast, they argue, it comes to hands, but then it all ends at some point. The conflict may remain unsolved because none of the parties changes their mind or perhaps it happens that one of the two parties realizes they are wrong. the conflict could also be something positive, from which a friendship is born.

Bullying, on the other hand, is completely negative, since the bully is targeting a person with the purpose of verbally hurting him, sometimes even physically; the bully feels pleasure inflicting suffering on another person, enjoying isolating him, putting him in the corner and often the consequences can be extreme.

1.4 Bystanders: Hurtful and Helpful

 

Adults can prepare children to become helpful bystanders by explaining the ways they can intervene and by encouraging them to make a difference in such situations. A “What If” activity could help you raise such discussions in your classroom and make students think of specific ways to change the bullying situation. Useful learning resources for teachers and students are also videos like this, where YouTube influencers underline the fact that no one can stop bullying on their own. They strengthen people to take action when they are witnesses.

Activity 

To intervene or not to intervene?

In your opinion, what’s the motivations that lead bystanders of bullying situations to different responses and how are these behaviours reinforced? Why do some students choose to help or not to help the victim when witnessing bullying?