Bullying – Skills that Matter beyond Borders Erasmus Project

Project Title

Bullying – Skills that Matter beyond Borders

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for Schools Only

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2016

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Early School Leaving / combating failure in education; Inclusion – equity; ICT – new technologies – digital competences

Project Summary

The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child’s General Comment No 13 (2011) highlights that violence, harassment and bullying are unacceptable in any context and violate a range of human rights. Even if we believe that the obtained data regarding bullying represent just the tip of the iceberg, the researches’ findings show a significant increase of bullying in the last years. Child Helpline International (2012) involved 142 countries in their research and evidenced that in 2012 there were 251 640 cases of bullying worldwide, whilst in 2004 there were 67 142 cases of bullying. Furthermore the same research underlines that nine out of ten cases of bullying take place at school. On the other hand, relevant and updated studies (EU Kids Online, 2014) that involved 33 countries, including Romania, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Poland and Italy, underline that students are more likely to be exposed to bullying and cyberbullying than in 2010 and a cohesive and proactive strategy is needed in order to decrease the risk of being bullied. Furthermore, bullying and cyberbullying have a negative impact on the child’s development, school and social life and the victims are likely to become more vulnerable, to suffer from depression, to encounter school failure and to face suicidal thoughts and behavioural problems (Asociatia Telefonul Copilului, 2014; McDougall and Vaillancourt, 2015). As bullying and cyber bullying seemed to be a growing phenomenon in our schools, during the project’s implementation, we focused on this problem and proposed an appropriate approach to effectively manage online and offline bullying. Our target group was made of students who faced social and economical obstacles, students who were bullied, students who bullied or were likely to bully, students who had limited social skills and anti-social or risky behaviour, teachers and parents who wanted to manage effectively online and offline bullying. Based on the needs’ analysis that we conducted in our schools, the objectives of our project were:
1. To develop 3 skills that prevent online and offline bullying (effective communication, problem solving and creativity) for 1 000 students from 5 school partners.
2. To improve 1 250 students’ self-esteem and self-efficacy from 5 school partners.
3. To raise the awareness of 500 parents from 5 school partners regarding online and offline bullying.
4. To develop one model of good practice regarding the effective management of online and offline bullying.
5. To strengthen the capacity of 620 teachers to manage effectively online and offline bullying whilst promoting participatory approaches and ICT – based methodologies.

Our project promoted inclusive education and proposed a complex methodology rooted in child protection research and child’s psychology. The project planed not only to manage bullying but also to prevent bullying whilst developing an Open Resource, one model of good practice regarding the effective management of online and offline bullying. Based on the current researches, the school partners decided to help the students to develop skills that matter, such as effective communication, problem solving and creativity as well as the students’ self-esteem and self-efficacy, stimulating their involvement in SmartClubs whereby they learnt to cooperate with others in order to achieve specific goals and to express appropriately their views and feelings. The students from our target group developed skills that matter and can enable them to not bully others, to achieve their full potential and to become active and supportive citizens that accept differences of opinion, of conviction, of belief and of lifestyle, while respecting the rule of law, diversity and gender equality. The project strengthened our students’ ability to think critically, to exercise judgement, to communicate better with others and to appropriately express their thoughts and feelings. Our students started to bully less as they became more emphatic and focused on solutions rather than problems and differences. On the other hand, the project strengthened the profile of the teaching professions and the teachers from the target group improved their teaching style, using more participatory approaches and ICT – based methodologies, which made the act of teaching more attractive for their students. Furthermore, the school partners increased their capacity and professionalism to work at an international level and improved their management competences. The project reinforced the international cooperation with partners from other European countries and the teachers and the students involved improved further their English language competences.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 120900 Eur

Project Coordinator

Scoala Gimnaziala “Dimitrie A Sturdza” Iasi & Country: RO

Project Partners

• ou ’20 april’
• Publiczne Gimnazjum nr 1 w Strzelcach Opolskich
• ISTITUTO COMPRENSIVO “PAOLO EMILIANI GIUDICI”
• Zakladni skola, Uhersky Brod,Na Vysluni 2047, okres Uherske Hradiste