An example of good practice Juliet Prescott Child and Educational Psychologist Okay today I am going to talk about a pice of work that involved 10 year 7 and 8 pupils from different high schools. A dram project that involved developing a dvd. The background behind this project relates to an evidence based anti-bullying intervention called KIVA. Kiva focuses on the bystanders, those that stand and watch a bullying incident and its impact on the victim.

KiVa – Is a Finnish anti-bullying programme. “Influencing the behaviours of classmates can reduce social rewards that the bullies gain.” (Salmivalli and Poskipart, 2012 p.46) Skills to be targeted are bystander “empathy” for victims and “self-efficacy” to defend victims. KiVa also appears to have had impact upon “less internalising of the problem by the victim” (Salmivalli and Poskipart 2012, p.50). The focus of the intervention is on the bystander and their reactions; how these serve to encourage or discourage bullying. If the bully perceives the bystanders to approve, this approval seems to encourage repetition. If the bystander, stands watching, but does nothing, this is also regarded as supporting the bully. They use various strategies but one particular on is dvds which aim to provoke empathy and understanding of impact on victims. The aim is to get bystanders to at least walk away. Bullying is often about the bully wanting a sense of power and gaining recognition from classmates. (POINT TO QUOTE): “Influencing the behaviours of classmates can reduce social rewards that the bullies gain.” (Salmivalli and Poskipart, 2012 p.46) The aim of this project was similar to that of the Finnish programme – KIVA. (POINT TO QUOTE) Skills targeted in this programme are bystander “empathy” for victims and “self-efficacy” to defend victims. Kiva also appears to have had impact upon “less internalising of the problem by the victim” Some times if targeted by a group, the victim may use self-talk such as “if you all think this, then there must be something wrong with me” Reducing the group has impact. Not all participants in the project had been bullied, but doing drama work around bullying helped them to talk about what was happening and understand that parts of this bullying is to do with the environment, the bullies and not to do with there being something wrong with them.

Look at sheet in packs http://www.antibullyinghalton.co.uk/index.php/adviceforschools/ Okay the video that I am about to show can be found on: (POINT TO POWERPOINT) There is a supplementary sheet in your packs explaining likes all anti-bullying interventions that you need to consider context, the ethos of you school and pupils and other prior work may be needed / or this intervention may not fit your context. We acknowledge that formulating a dvd of your own context / scenarios developed by your own pupils would be far more beneficial than using this, but this is an example of what might be done. Don’t forget OFSTED in all of this. (FLICK SLIDE)

OFSTED Criteria / Descriptors Within the section on Behaviour and Safety. To get outstanding: instances of bullying are extremely rare. Pupils understand different forms of bullying and are instrumental in preventing its occurrence. The school has a proactive approach to the identification of any bullying and this prevents it from happening. They want to know how children are being involved in preventing bullying in your schools. This DVD I think goes some way in supporting OFSTED’s aims. It involves an example of physical bullying, non-verbal bullying, cyber bullying. But it is better if your own children are involved as it supports them considering their own context. So let’s look at the video. In this video, be prepared as the victims had to wear masks to preserve identity. This does in my view affect the video. At the end of each clip we have put some restorative practice type questions to provoke discussion, but again teachers should consider ones relevant to their own context. It is also important to note that teachers are acting in loco parentis, so knowledge of their children and consideration of the relevance of this intervention is important.

Video

Resilience: the ability to bounce back from adversities A resilient child is one who exhibits positive adaptation in circumstances where one would expect a significant de-gradation of coping skills to take place. So the aim wasn’t just that viewers may benefit. The aim was to support people in a structured activity to encourage a sense of belonging around a task, a sense of achievement – learning about film making, acting and producing something that they could be proud of. All of these elements are found to support resilience the ability to take knocks and get over them. This project was about reducing bullying, but also supporting victims. Some pupils with Autism were involved (research show that they are times more likely to be bullied). FLICK POWERPOINT

RESILIENCE Friendships & belonging Caring & Support Skills for A fulfilling life Meaningful Participation These are some of the variables involved in supporting resilience. Okay to conclude some quotes from participants themselves. (FLICK SLIDE) Clear & Consistent expectations Possibilities Through Character strengths From Cheshire Educational Psychology team.

Confidence “This project has made me feel more confident about myself.” 9 out of 10 said they did feel more confident “I feel more confident. Being around people I have got to know them more.” “I have new friends and this has made me more confident with each other. It wasn’t as embarrassing as we were all doing it.” “I feel like I’ve done well with the acting and this has brought confidence on.”

“Usually I don’t like being with people “Usually I don’t like being with people. I don’t know, but in this group, I have gained confidence.” “I have discovered a talent and passion for acting.” “I have gained confidence This is the first time I have ever been on film. I would like to do more of it.”

“Other young people should have an opportunity to engage in a project like this?” 8 out of 10 agreed. (The other 2 said that they would not put their hand up because they wanted to do it again instead of other people.) 10 out of 10 would like to do the project again

Juliet.prescott@halton.gov.uk Good practice advice to head teachers, staff and governing bodies (DFE, 2012) suggests that: “Schools should : Have positive behaviour policies – based on respect; Involve pupils; Openly discuss difference between people and value diversity; Work with the wider community (Let’s show other good practice at the anti-bullying conference 2015); Create an inclusive environment; Celebrate success” Okay here is my e-mail. If anyone else is thinknig of doing something relevant to tackle anti-bullying in their schools, get in touch. We would be keen to support and give ideas. An look Ofsted want to know what you are doing in the wider community – sharing this good practice at the anti-bullying conference is so very important.

Frisen et al. (2013), in their research found that bystander interventions were not as successful as other interventions. They wonder the extent that fear of loss of status by the bystander, them being selected as the next victim, leads them not to intervene. Group pressures and the ability to rationalise when in a group, rather than to separate from the group are factors that seem to make bystander intervention difficult. A quick end note about being cautious about encouraging bystanders to intervene and the need to understand context – We don’t want to explicitly encourage this. It is good to discuss, but ???