eSmart

Bystander or Upstander?

At VPS we encourage our students to be smart, safe and responsible in all their online communications. From Foundation to Year 6 students are encouraged to speak up if they see unpleasant conduct, from just not nice, right through to the more serious, cyberbullying behaviours. We don't want our students to be a bystander that watches on, feeling powerless, but rather to be upstanders. This involves making a decision to stand with the person being bullied - this can be done in a number of different ways:

• Calling out the bullying behaviour – saying that is not ok
• Supporting the person being bullied, privately or offline
• Reaching out to a trusted adult to assist

The Office of eSafety have further information on how to be an upstander that will assist you in talking about this further with your child/ren.

As always if you would like to hear about a particular topic or have suggestions for future articles, please don't hesitate to email me:

julie.hall2@education.vic.gov.au