Stories of Us: Bullying

Classroom Program (Primary)

 

One of a series of film-based programs created in collaboration with students, teachers and their communities. The series uses storytelling and interactive design to promote positive relationships and behaviour – to change school culture and help students flourish.

“APPA takes great pleasure in endorsing two video resources for upper primary students on Bullying and Belonging. They really are a fantastic resource and should be in every primary school in the nation.”

Leonie Trimper, President, Australian Primary Principals Association

 

Format

Video and Extensive Teacher’s Guide

Objective

The aim of this program is to motivate students to discuss and explore the dynamics of bullying and develop an understanding of what happens and why. In the process this program addresses a number of factors, including:

  • The critical role of bystanders in both perpetuating and resolving bullying
  • Types of bullying, including cyberbullying
  • How situations escalate
  • Supportive and non-supportive friendship
  • Group dynamics in bullying situations
  • The experience of power and control by bullies, victims and bystanders
  • Consequences of bullying
  • Where to turn for support
  • Options for dealing with typical bullying situations

This Stories of Us education resource is composed of a 40 page Teacher’s Guide and a dramatised Video.

 

Audience

This program is designed for the upper primary years. At the discretion of their teacher, it may also be used with Year 4 students.

The Teacher’s Guide

The Teacher’s Guide outlines how the resource is used over a number of classes with step-by-step instructions, discussion starters, summary notes and extensive teacher support material.

The film presents the story of two ‘students’ as they deal, in their own way, with the given issue. The objective is to engage, rather than tell – to motivate students to discuss and explore the dynamics of the issues and develop an understanding of what happens and why. With the aid of the Guide the young audience are asked a series of open questions as they explore the issues in-depth. At each stage the Guide clearly indicates the territory to be explored, and provides additional information for teachers should any details need clarification.

Because of their realism the videos also form an excellent basis for extension activities in English or Drama.

A preview of the Teacher’s Guide can be downloaded here as a PDF document.

The Film

There are two versions of the film provided.

The Play Version is played without interruption, with a prompt at the end to refer to the Teacher’s Guide for questions to begin the discussion. In this version the story is left intentionally unresolved to maximise student engagement in the discussion.

The Segmented Version repeats the main program but with a series of pause points (with Teacher’s Guide questions) for a more in-depth discussion. At the end the main characters tell us how they resolved their situations – with a positive outcome.

The duration the Play Version is 26 minutes 33 seconds and the Segmented Version is 28 minutes 24 seconds.

A 5 minute preview of the film is available above on this page.

The Story

Kelly and Simon are two Year 6 students in the same class of an average public school. Kelly and her friends (Rebecca, Vanessa, Maria and Paula) are puzzled by the absence of the twins – who have been away for a week and haven’t answered their calls. Meanwhile Simon manages to provoke classmate Jimmy by standing up for a girl Jimmy has bullied. Simon does this in front of Rebecca, on whom Jimmy has a private crush…

Production Information

This program’s film was produced at Woodville Primary in Adelaide, South Australia. Over a two month period filmmaker Christopher Faull worked with the Year 5 and 6 students exploring the subject, developing characters, then workshopping the scripts. The students performed all the main acting roles in the dramatised videos, and fulfilled all of the secondary roles in supporting the professional film crew. Every detail of the story and its staging was approved by the students, and every word of dialogue is their own.

 

 

To place an order for this program resource, please visit our online store.

Program guides are distributed as a PDF download and the videos can be streamed or downloaded.

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