All Different, All Equal: Anti-bullying Week

Throughout anti-bulling week (13 – 17 November 2017), Atkinson students engaged in a range of activities around the issues involving bullying. In planning for the week, it was decided that we would encourage all students to actively work towards an AQA award in Bullying Awareness and to aim to complete a course in Internet safety that incorporates an element on cyberbullying.

In English and PHSE lessons, students started the first session of the week by listening to a poem by Mark Grist. This was successful in initiating discussions about bullying and about equality. Several students linked this poem to work we had covered earlier in the term on Human Rights and helped to set the tone and nature of discussions.

Following this, the students then watched and discussed two videos linking directly to bullying, one a clip from the TV soap Coronation Street and one a 7-minute compilation of interviews made by an Atkinson student during film sessions.

The quality of conversation and discussion was overwhelmingly positive, with all our students showing a good understanding of issues around bullying and a very real empathy with victims of bullying and the damaging effect it can have on people.

Students then completed a simple worksheet and took part in a poster making activity to complete the AQA award. The posters will be displayed around school.

Six students successfully completed the AQA award and are awaiting their certificates, the seventh student was not able to owing to a busy week of exams, meetings and work experience.

In ICT students worked on completing the cyberbullying element of the AQA award they were working towards, with students producing some excellent Power Point presentations which are now on display in the Science room.

The week was ended with a whole school assembly around the theme which was well received by the students and will be followed up by the presentation of certificates and display of posters around school.