Mental Health and Wellbeing:

 Supporting Inclusion and Respectful Curiosity at School 

 Term 2

Resilience, Rights and Respectful Relationships program (RRRR)

This term we are covering the following topics: Positive coping, Problem solving and Stress management.

On Friday 15th of May, Mr Saxon and I took 10 excited students from Year 6 to Euroa Primary for a day of interactive activities with Dr Zach, the founder of the Stand Up Project (SUP). 

In the first session, Dr Zach shared with us his experiences being bullied as a child and how this shaped his life. He shared three ways students can be unkind towards each other and the differences between them.

Mean on purpose -deliberately being unkind in action and in words

Friendship fight - a disagreement between friends and

Bullying - when someone repeatedly and intentionally uses their power or status to harm, upset or intimidate someone else. It can cause physical, social or psychological harm. 

He talked about the differences between being a bystander, someone who watches a situation unfold and does nothing, and being an upstander, someone who sees a situation take place and steps into help. 

Dr Zach outlined four ways we can be an upstander:

DIRECT - Say something to call out the poor behaviour and support the persons being targeted. Be kind and remember that everyone makes mistakes.

DELAY - If you can't step in at the time, you can talk to the person afterwards to check if they are okay. 

DISTRACT - You could ask for help, or accidently drop your bag to gain their attention.

DELEGATE - Tell a trusted adult, like a teacher or a parent, what you saw and how it made you feel. 

In the middle session the students the focus was: Empowering Students to Lead Change. Students worked on creating a teaching plan that they can bring into classrooms and teach their peers. 

Testimonials:

Ava - You don't know what other people's lives are like, or what they are going through. We need to treat people as we would like to be treated. 

Queenie - It can be hard to talk to people about feelings and know who you can talk to. The Stand Up Project leaders are a group you can talk to and help you to solve your problems. 

Clare - It wasn't what I expected. It was interactive. I am looking forward to going into classes and teaching the students about the importance of being an upstander.

Ted - We learnt that there are many children who get bullied. We need to learn ways to stop bullies by not letting the fire get bigger. Think before you say is a good strategy when you talk to people. Come and talk to the Stand Up Project leaders, we can help you. 

Bradley - We are going to go into different classes and teach students how to stand up for themselves and to stand up for others. We might do a play to show the students how to be an upstander.

Eligh - Be nice to others because you don't know what they are going through. I am going to teach others how to use the RRRR in school.

Jocelyn - It's not a nice feeling when you are bullied. We want students to think that school is a safe place and I am excited to go into other classes and teach the students how to be kind to each other. 

Georgia - The Stand Up Project is about helping others and helping the people to understand what it is like to be bullied and how it can affect them. We are going to go into classes to explain, why and how it happens and strategies for how to stop it. 

Maggie - It was a good day. I learnt how bullying can affect people and we how it can affect your body in different ways. I am looking forward to going into classrooms and teaching students not to bully because it can impact people. 

Ollie - It's good to learn about what is happening in the world and how to help others. It's good to know the effect that bullying has on other people.

Congratulations to our proud Stand Up Project leaders. With the mantra: Students learn best from other students, over the next few weeks this group will be working together to prepare some lessons to share with their peers about bullying, the difference between a bystander and an upstander, and how to make our school a safer place for all.

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