Published: 19/04/2018 - 10:55
One of Share's key values and principles is that Share should always be a safe and happy place for everyone, where we are all kind and respectful to one another.
In order to instil and uphold this core value among our students, we set up a session for our students to help them to understand what bullying is and how we can make sure it doesn't happen at Share.
Some topics – such as bullying – can be difficult to address in a fun and accessible way. So we decided to get creative and get a helping hand from Eastenders! Such shows can often provide role models for people and, by association, have the potential for viewers to mimic both good and bad behaviour.
Eastenders is very popular among Share students and provided a familar backdrop for us to tackle this subject. First, we watched a number of Eastenders' clips and identified appropriate behaviour and behaviour that might constitute bullying. We looked at each character and discussed whether that person was a bully and how a person being bullied might feel.
We then asked our students which Eastenders character they would like to befriend and, to our initial surprise, one of our students, Medina, replied that she wanted to be friends with a bully! Until we heard why – because "she is a bully and needs a hug".
Our students concluded that bullying wasn't a nice thing to do and that it can make people feel sad.