What can we do..?
This week the CP Investigators have been thinking about bystanders – people who might witness something happening, but may not be part of the situation. In previous sessions the CP Investigators have talked about the impact that people ‘standing by and just watching’ can have on a bullying situation. The children agreed that there should be advice for people who find themselves witness to bullying, but maybe don’t know how to help. Below are some of the messages the children created:
As well as creating messages the CP Investigators created scenarios to help them think about how it feels to be in the different roles within a bullying situation. Each scenario featured a bully, a victim and a bystander. Can you tell which character is in each role?
Let the CP Investigators know what you think by leaving them a comment at the bottom of the page.
Posters: Children need adults to…
The CP Investigators have been thinking about what they need from the Adults in Their Lives and they have created messages in poster form. The children have designed these posters as aides to ‘help adults help children’ if they suspect or know the child is being bullied.
The posters capture recurring ideas that children have discussed during their CP investigates workshops, such as ‘adults are often too busy to help’ or ‘adults forget what it’s like for children who are experiencing bullying’ – the children hope that their posters will remind adults that they CAN help.
See some of the children’s poster ideas below. What do you think? What would you like others to think or do if you are experiencing bullying? Leave the investigators a comment below.
Fourth Meeting
Think, Feel & Do.
In this session the CP Investigators were asked to think about 5 adults they would talk to about being bullied; what do those adults need to THINK, FEEL & DO to help and what might adults THINK, FEEL & DO which may be unhelpful to them?
After thinking through some ideas the CP Investigators will produce posters highlighting both the helpful and unhelpful things that adults THINK, FEEL & DO. The posters will be displayed in school and we will have copies of them available here too…
Some of the children’s initial ideas about trust are below:
“If adults need to share information with others to help sort bullying they should always talk to you and tell you what they are doing and why.”
“If adults don’t listen to us it makes us feel like we are not being taken seriously. You feel abandoned.”
“When adults make tutting sounds, roll their eyes and don’t make eye contact. This is rude and dismissive.”
The group also discussed the idea of being a bystander to bullying:
“It’s difficult to know when to get involved. If I saw someone being overpowered I would get involved. I wouldn’t get involved if people were just arguing, as I wouldn’t know what the argument was about or who I agreed with. It’s complicated and I don’t want to take sides.”
“Watching someone being bullied makes me feel as bad as if I was being bullied. You don’t know what to do to help. It can be distressing and I feel upset.”
Third Meeting
Today the CP investigators heard a short story about a child named Sandy; Sandy is having a difficult time with bullying and he isn’t sure what to do. Our CP Investigators listened to Sandy’s story and afterwards they were set the challenge of suggesting how the story could be better for Sandy. Below are some of our CP Investigators insights, the investigators also chose to be recorded discussing their ideas.
To read Sandy’s Story for yourself, please click on this link…
CP Investigates (Sandy’s Story)
In the clip below you can hear the group discussing their ideas about Sandy’s Story and their own experience of such situations (Audio clip: 7 minutes).
Following the discussion the children decided that they would like to create mottos for their group…
Second Meeting
‘It’s hard to put bullying into words’
‘Sometimes you can be anxious about telling someone when you are bullied.’ Comment from Happy, Healthy, Safe Poster
‘I know that the railings in school are there to keep us safe but it can feel like you are locked up.’ Comment from Happy, Healthy, Safe Poster
This week we looked at what we need to be healthy, happy and feel safe at school. We talked about what happens on our way to school, how we get there and who with. We also looked at break times and lunchtimes, our time in the playground and in the corridors. We thought about what happens in the classroom, our teachers and learning assistants and what they can do to help us feel happy and safe when in school. Some of us interviewed each other with our new CP Investigates notebooks and you can read some of our comments here beside the photographs of our Healthy Happy Safe School poster.
We hope you enjoy!
“Sometimes you are a bit shy to tell someone” Rebecca
“Some people don’t really care when you tell them stuff” Lily
“I think it’s important to have someone at school that you trust” Rebecca
First Meeting
We met for our first session as Children’s Parliament Investigators in Wardie Primary School to begin investigating bullying. But first we wanted to talk about coming together as a team, how we would work together, discuss our ideas, and share our work with our school, our family and our community.
During this first meeting we looked at the idea of human dignity. We discussed what we knew about human dignity and the feelings we experienced when our dignity was respected and promoted or how we felt when our dignity wasn’t respected and we were made to feel bad or small. In pairs we produced a “dignometer” which you can see on this page and we hope that you enjoy seeing how we wanted to represent our feelings using words, images and colour.
Leave a comment below and let the investigators know what you think about dignity…
I really like what you are doing and hope I can see more of your thoughts and creative ideas in future. I agree with Rebecca’s comment that it is important to have someone you trust in the school. In fact I think it is essential! How do you think we adults can make sure that this happens like for example when a teacher leaves and a new teacher arrives?
It’s fantastic to see all of the amazing hard work that you have done! I am very proud of you all. The class really enjoy hearing about your work and we look forward to hearing more as the project develops! I’d like to know what you have enjoyed most about taking part in Children’s Parliament so far?
🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂
Your role play work looks fantastic! I also really like all of your art work… you have all worked so hard on this and I love reading all about it. Well done, I am very proud of you all.
Having reached the mid-point in our Children’s Parliament Investigates Bullying project we would like to give a big thank you to all of our Children’s Parliament Investigators from Hermitage Park Primary, James Gillespies Primary, St Peter’s RC Primary and Wardie Primary Schools’, for your hard work and brilliant insights into what you feel about bullying behaviours as “bullied” or as “bystander”.
Your voices, ideas and wishes have been captured and we are really looking forward to working with 4 new schools after the summer break, hearing from the children there and comparing their messages with those you have given us.
The 4 new schools are Abbeyhill Primary, Flora Stevenson Primary, Granton Primary and St John’s RC Primary. We hope you will all keep an eye on the blog after the summer and it would be great if you had any advice or comments you would like to share with our new Investigators.
We look forward to seeing you all again very soon. We’ll be in after the summer holidays with your printed posters and to catch up on how your ideas and messages are being carried forward and acted on in each school.
Have a brilliant fun filled summer from all at Children’s Parliament