Carter announces new initiatives for safer schools

Education Minister Chris Carter today launched a range of initiatives aimed at making schools safer for students and to ensure schools have anti-bullying programmes in place.

“These initiatives are aimed at focusing schools on this issue and changing school culture to encourage zero-tolerance to bullying,” said Chris Carter.

“Following a number of recent high profile incidents involving bullying, I instructed officials to come up with a range of initiatives that involve new resources for developing strategies to combat bullying in schools. These initiatives include web-based resources, student materials and new action by the Education Review Office.

“ERO will now focus attention on individual schools to ensure that they have strategies in place to combat bullying.

“A practical resource has been developed by students to raise awareness of the importance of creating a safe environment at school.”

Primary and secondary students have designed resource cards called Step Up, Be Safe, that the Ministry of Education will distribute to all state and state-integrated schools.

“Every student from Year Three will receive this personal information card informing them about ways to keep safe in their own school environment.

“This resource can be used by teachers to discuss with students the negative impacts of bullying and what can be done about it,” said Chris Carter.

From Term 3 this year ERO will ask schools whether incidents of particular types of bullying have occurred in their school. By specifically asking about bullying, as part of the formal review processes that schools undertake every three years, Chris Carter is confident that schools without targeted anti-bullying programmes will now be encouraged to develop processes and procedures that make their schools safer places for all their students.

The Ministry of Education has looked internationally at anti-bullying programmes developed in the UK, Canada, Australia and elsewhere that could be useful resources for New Zealand schools. These international resources have been included in a list of successful New Zealand programmes on the MoE Supporting Positive Behaviours website.

The government also supports and funds NetSafe, which provides information and resources about preventing and dealing with cyber bullying in our schools and communities.

Parents and families will now be able to access information on how to deal with instances of bullying through the Ministry of Education’s TeamUp website (www.teamup.govt.nz). The new pages will help parents to connect the Step Up, Be Safe resource with action they can take to support their children.

The Minister also welcomes an independent evaluation on school safety by the Children’s Commissioner. The report will investigate the nature and extent of school violence and experiences of bullying for New Zealand students.

“These new initiatives are about ensuring that our schools are safer places for students. As Minister of Education I know that all parents want their children to be safe at school and not subject to bullying or harassment,” Chris Carter said.

 

• Information for parents of secondary school students www.teamup.co.nz/secondary/helpful/Bullying/default.htm
• Information for parents of primary and intermediate school students www.teamup.co.nz/primary-int/helpful/Bullying/default.htm
• Information for Schools www.tki.org.nz/r/governance/positive_behaviours/index_e.php
• ERO's May 2007 report Safe Schools: Strategies to Prevent Bullying is http://ero.govt.nz/ero/publishing.nsf/Content/safe-schs-strats-bullying-...
• Information on cyberbullying, free phone 0508 638723 or www.netsafe.org.nz.
• Younger children experiencing problems with bullying can call Kidsline on 0800 543 754
• Older students experiencing problems with bullying can call What’s Up on 0800 942 8787