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

Activity

How do you address issues related to (cyber)bullying at your school?

Each teacher has a plan with emotional and social learning. We all teacher discuss about how we deal with bullying issues.

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.

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.

3.3 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.