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Primary schools in Jersey are ‘flying the flag’ this week to show they want to make bullying unacceptable. A new project devised by children at St Clement’s School involving specially-designed flags is part of National Anti-Bullying Week.
Primary schools in Jersey are ‘flying the flag’ this week to show they want to make bullying unacceptable. A new project devised by children at St Clement’s School involving specially-designed flags is part of National Anti-Bullying Week.
The flag idea came from a BeatBullying training session earlier this year at the school, when trainers from the UK charity asked pupils how they could involve everybody in anti-bullying activities. The resulting flags have a bold emblem in the middle that says ‘No Bullying Here’ and enough white space surrounding it for all the pupils in a school to sign their names in support of the logo’s message.
St Clement’s headteacher, Sheila Ponomarenko, expressed her delight that the school’s suggestion has been shared across the Island. “The flags will be a very public way of uniting the school community against bullying. This week at St Clement’s School our older classes will be teaching playground games to our younger children to ensure that playtimes are happy and inclusive.”
Coinciding with National Anti-Bullying Week, BeatBullying’s trainers are once again in Jersey developing awareness in schools. Eight primary schools (Bel Royal, St Saviour’s, Janvrin, JCG Prep, Rouge Bouillon, Plat Douet, Les Landes and Grouville) as well as two secondary schools (Mont a l’Abbe and De La Salle) are participating in the programme on this occasion.
At Grouville, one class of Y5 pupils took part in the training earlier this year and it was so successful that another three classes will benefit during BeatBullying’s current visit. Headteacher Pam Pitman said: “The training was very memorable and really had an impact on the children. Nearly six months later they are still very clear about the messages they were given and the strategies they were taught to recognise bullying and how to tackle it or to deal with it.”
Jon Tarrant, E-Safety and E-Learning Manager at the Education, Sport and Culture Department, added: “Bullying incidents often start off with what one person thinks is just a joke but it isn’t funny to the person on the receiving end. This training is all about making students aware of the unforeseen effects that their actions can have. In secondary schools the trainers go further and explore how the students themselves can actively support victims of bullying on a peer-to-peer level, which is likely to be much more effective in reducing low-level bullying. The fact that so many students want to be involved in this way is a very positive sign.”
