Friendly Schools & Families Materials
WHOLE-SCHOOL
CLASSROOM PRACTICE HANDBOOK
Teachers are the key to change. If our teachers can be sensitised to the ill effects of bullying behaviour, then future generations of children and parents will in turn be sensitised. Today’s child is tomorrow’s parent.
Research has shown that through whole-school activity, schools can have a positive impact on bullying. An important component of whole-school activity to reduce and prevent bullying, is addressing the topic in the classroom.
Successful intervention to reduce bullying through the classroom curriculum should aim to change attitudes and behaviour, particularly in regard to reducing engagement in bullying behaviour and encouraging positive action of bystanders.
The Friendly Schools & Families Classroom Pack contains Teaching and Learning Handbooks which contain activities aimed to enhance empathy and positive peer support for the person being bullied, encouragement for students to feel comfortable talking about and dealing with bullying and positive social skill development for students as an alternative to bullying behaviours.
Having received adequate training and support, teachers can use the classroom situation, the teaching and learning activities and their knowledge of students to mobilise bystanders to reject bullying behaviour and to help those who are bullied, as well as those who engage in bullying.
What is in the Classroom Practice
Handbook?
Principles for Success in Classroom Practice
The Principles for Success for Bullying Reduction in Schools provide a framework for developing and implementing whole-school programs to reduce bullying in schools. This handbook provides the Principles for Success that have been identified as critical to the successful development of Classroom Practice. It also includes information, strategies and samples of from real schools to engage the school community in discussion and planning toward a whole-school response to bullying.
School Snippets
Case study examples, called ‘School Snippets’, have been included throughout the handbooks. These are designed to illustrate in a practical way the guidelines and activities suggested within each handbook. Teachers and administrators from schools involved in the Friendly Schools Research and contributed to the ‘School Snippets’ based on their experiences implementing the Whole-school Program.
Teachers in the Friendly Schools Research Project were encouraged to provide opportunities for students to practice their social and communication skills both in the classroom and in the schoolyard. The activities in the Friendly Schools & Families teaching and learning materials provide opportunities for students to ‘try out’ new skills, eg. games, role play and discussion.
Teachers reported that the more opportunities provided for students to practice their skills in the structured environment of the classroom, the more likely they were to try those skills with their peers.
Teachers reported hearing significant changes in students’ vocabulary in the schoolyard as they began to use the terminology from the project to express their feelings about situations, e.g. saying, “I don’t like it when…”, saying, “Please don’t …” and saying, “I really want to be your friend but I don’t want to…”.
Check out
When samples, toolkits or extra resources are available to support the particular principle being explained there will be a ‘check out’ symbol and then references to the information.
Tool kits
Included in the Classroom Practice tool kits are:
- How to use the Friendly Schools & Families Teaching and Learning Handbooks;
- Strategies for planning a positive social environment in the classroom;
- Problem solving approach in the classroom;
- About values education;
- Social Skills; and
- Schools case Studies
Samples
Click each sample image below to see a larger version.
