Stand Up Project- Parent Session

Stand Up Project- Parent Session

It’s been a big week for the Stand Up Project at BEPS! On Monday morning, a group of our Year 5 leaders presented at assembly to talk to the student body about what bullying is and provided some initial strategies students could use for support, which they will build upon when they go into classrooms to run the workshops they are developing. One of the key ideas underpinning the Stand Up Project is about empowering students, they don’t necessarily have to “call out” all poor behaviour directly if they aren’t comfortable or it isn’t safe to do so, the project gives them other options. There are multiple ways to be an Upstander, it is a lot more than just being direct when you see something unkind. Its been really positive to see that idea planted and begin to grow as our students build a framework in which they can conceptualise and process things they see or things that are happening to them, which has been evident in several recent conversations with students.

This week we also ran our parent Stand Up Project workshop, where our amazing Year 5 SUP leaders co-facilitated with Dr. Zach Greig. Before the session, the students planned who would assist with which areas and discussed where they were up to with other activities relating to the project, many of our leaders have shown the initiative to develop resources or activities we can use and it’s been really amazing to see this authentic leadership develop.

The parent session focussed on how the Stand Up Project works as well as providing parents with practical ideas for how they can help support their child in a negative peer situation, but also how they can promote that overall respectful school culture through the use of preventative strategies and mindsets. Having shared language that we can all use as a community can assist us in this space. For example:

Rather than using language like “victim” and “perpetrator” which can ascribe a label and attributes to students that they may not believe about themselves or that may not benefit them, as it can be a form of disempowerment. Instead, we use “target” and “person who was mean”.

We will use the shared language of “friendship fires”, “mean on purpose” and “bullying”.

“Friendship fires” involve a conflict between friends where there was not the intention to be mean or unkind or to hurt somebody.

“Mean on purpose”, involves an action where somebody did something intentional to hurt or upset someone, but it was a one-off situation.

When “mean on purpose” occurs repeatedly and there is a power imbalance involved, that’s where the behaviours have become bullying. Students and teachers are already beginning to use and unpack these terms and speaking from personal experience, it has been really useful in working through situations or conflicts with students already.

Our Year 5 leaders will now focus on planning their workshops, ready to deliver to classes!

Zach, in partnership with Team Kids, also ran a free webinar last week for parents about bullying prevention and empowering our young people, which was excellent and very informative. If you missed it, the link is here to watch it on demand Preventing Bullying & Empowering Children Webinar - The Stand Up Project on Vimeo

If you have any questions about the Stand Up Project, please email me katie.abbott@education.vic.gov.au