Inspiring Positive Change in Upper Elementary
Maria Montessori believed strongly in showing children how to respect themselves, each other and their environment. She believed that respect is an invaluable character trait that when learned and practiced at a young age will stay with a child throughout their school years and beyond. These are foundations on which we build our Upper Elementary community, and it is always a delight to witness this respect being demonstrated daily through the helpfulness they show towards each other.
Everything we do in our Upper Elementary classroom is carefully planned to encourage each child to be a citizen who sparks the change they want to see in the world.
With this in mind, the students recently took part in the ‘Stood Up’ anti-bullying training workshop. The workshop was delivered by the Family Support Centre and showed them how they could be more helpful in inspiring a wholesome school environment.
During the workshop, we learned the difference between arguments and fights vs bullying and that to be considered bullying it needed to have three key features:
- It involves a misuse of power in relationships
- It is ongoing and repeated
- It involves behaviours that can cause harm.
We also learned about different bystander roles and how to be an ‘upstander’ which is someone who actively tries to support or report when they witness wrong behaviours. They explored real-life scenarios to help them identify how to be an upstander.
We know that our Upper Elementary students are now ready to lead by example and be helpful in modeling the change they want to see in their community.