ANTI-BULLYING FORUM Thursday 17 May 2012 Presentation for the National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals (NAPD) Tim Geraghty (Past President) As today is an International Day against Homophobia and Transphobia, I would just like to say that last March NAPD was delighted to be invited to be part of the launch of Stand Up! BelonGTo’s LGBT Awareness Week which was aimed at creating a positive understanding of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender young people and their issues. NAPD have been to the fore in providing leadership to its members on addressing homophobic bullying in schools. NAPD in conjunction with the Equality Authority, Glen and BeLongG To have piloted whole school training in combating homophobic bullying. This training is currently being evaluated by the Equality Authority. The information, class plans and recommendations contained in BeLonG To’s literature are, I believe, going a long way to helping a greater acknowledgement, recognition and appreciation of all our different expressions of gender identity. BeLong To had valuable suggestions on a whole school approach to homophobic bullying and how it can be specifically included in Anti Bullying Policies. I hope that NAPD’s leadership role is having a positive impact in your work. Clearly, today is about all forms of bullying and NAPD is actively engaged in seeking and developing resources to tackle bullying in schools. NAPD has commissioned Genevieve Murray to conduct research for NAPD. She is a Doctoral student with Prof Mona O’More and is researching bullying in schools with a view to providing resources for school leaders and school management to combat the problem. NAPD is the National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals and represents school leaders in second level schools throughout Ireland and that includes Community and Comprehensive schools, Secondary Schools and Community Colleges and as such we are hugely engaged with young people in the critical period of their lives between childhood and young adulthood. When students enter our second level schools they are still young girls and boys on the threshold of adolescence a period in all our lives that is unparalleled in its intensity, excitement and promise. As school leaders we are and have to be very conscious of our responsibility to create a safe, secure and supportive environment where students can learn, develop and express themselves. Any form of Bullying is an affront to human dignity and diminishes all our lives. 1
During adolescence we make huge strides on the journey towards forming our life identities and huge questions present themselves: Who am I? What will I do with my life? What are my strengths? How do I use my talents? Will people like me? Accept me? Our search for identity is a profound element of each one’s unique search for meaning in our lives and acknowledgement and acceptance of that identity is a profound human right. As school leaders we strive daily to develop schools where all members of the school community are respected regardless of gender, civil status, family status, age, race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, membership of the travelling community or indeed any other dimension to our being which might mark us out as different I attended a meeting recently of the Children’s Mental Health Coalition of which NAPD is a member and the keynote speaker, Margaret Barry, Professor of Health Promotion and Public Health, NUI, Galway spoke of mental health operating on an Individual, Community and Societal basis On a community level she spoke of the mental health benefits of being included in your community and of feeling included and for young people school is a very significant community in their lives. She spoke of the risks to mental health where students did not feel accepted. All bullying is a form of exclusion and all forms of exclusion are painful. Ignorance and apprehension are very often the enemies of understanding and acceptance and today is an opportunity to raise everyone’s consciousness. MORAL PURPOSE OF EDUCATION As school leaders we have always to keep before our eyes a clear moral purpose. From the very beginning philosophers like Plato have spoken of not seeing education in a narrow sense, but in a broader sense of “that other education in virtue, from youth upwards, which makes a man eagerly pursue the ideal perfection of citizenship, and teaches him how rightly to rule and how to obey.” Today, there is common consent that education should be holistic and that the development of the full person is the proper aim of education As an association we endeavour to listen to the voice of young people and it is clear that their wish is that education should engage with their full person. At our National Conference in October 2010 representatives from Comhairle Na nÓg shared with Principals and Deputy Principals the results of a survey of second level students which highlighted “teenagers needs for life skills, education that prepares us for the challenges and decisions we face every day. We ask parents and educators to accept that achieving high points in the Leaving Cert should not be the only focus of the education system.” Equally, Leanne McCauley, President of ISSU and a founding member spoke at our symposium in February of that year . “Educational achievement is too often viewed as just the fulfillment of academic roles, when really a wider view of achievement should be taken, to include both academic and social goals.” 2
She went on to say that most students wouldn’t even know there is an anti-bullying policy, which is there largely to protect them, in their schools and wondered how they are supposed to follow the policy if they don’t know about it. She acknowledged that these policies exist and that teachers and management apply them and she pleaded for wider student involvement in drafting the policies SCHOOLS ARE ACTIVE But schools are active and as school leaders we must ensure that all are aware of the policies there for their protection and how they can have recourse to them, Schools now have Codes of Conduct, Anti Bullying Policies and Policies on Internet Usage which are clear and explicit. They recognise that schools are people rich environments and the complexity of relationships that exist between pupils, pupils and teachers, teachers and pupils and amongst staff and staff and parents. They are specific about the processes and procedures to be followed for breaches of the codes and the consequences. Schools, as centres of learning, have the opportunity in dealing with the complexity of bullying when it does occur in a way that protects the victim and educates the bully. Schools have developed strong structures to grow and foster an atmosphere of care and safety where learning can take place. • Strong pastoral care systems with Class Tutors and a Year Head who have designated responsibility for the welfare of students and who meet regularly to review students’ progress • Care Teams comprising Principal, Deputy Principal, Guidance Counsellor, Chaplain, and other key people for the care of students e.g. Home School Liaison Coordinator which meet regularly • Wise Principals will encourage an active Student Council and devolve real responsibility to Prefects and Class Captains and listen carefully to their recommendations • Since the provision for Supervision negotiated by ASTI and TUI, all schools now have capacity for enhanced professional supervision of students at free time which can be one of the risk times in schools • Schools have developed structured transfer programmes from Primary to Secondary School and induction classes and buddy systems to ease the anxiety of transition and to detect early signs of vulnerability. The Transfer document agreement between NAPD & and our sister association at Primary level, IPPN, will enhance the flow of information between Primary and Second level schools • Many schools have developed Positive Discipline Programmes designed to foster, encourage and recognise what is good in the manner in which students grow and develop • SPHE, RSE, CSPE and RE programmes 3
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