An army of cyberMentors is being trained at Simon Langton Girls’ School in as part of an innovative beat bullying campaign, the first of its kind in the country.
Counsellors from Beatbullying, a leading bullying prevention charity, have already taken a team of 20 girls in Years 7, 8, 9 10 and 12 through an intensive two-day programme which is the first of its kind in the UK.
The girls have been trained to mentor students both face to face in school as well as online on the CyberMentors website which launched last week.
The girls explored the different types of bullying that are occurring on the internet as well as in schools, and learned the skills necessary to be a good mentor, found out how to support students online and looked at ways of promoting the service in and out of school.
Over the next two years, the new CyberMentors project will be brought to other schools across the country as part of the national peer mentoring pilot announced by the Government.
Year 11 student, Molly, said: “I thought it was really good. Students will always have someone to talk to so they will know that someone cares.
“They can send us a private message via the website and we can either talk to them in person in school or over the internet.”
ICT Teacher, Mrs Karen Parsons, who organised the training said: “The girls have amazed me as the level of insight they have into issues around personal safety, internet safety and bullying.
“They’ve made really insightful comments which demonstrate their maturity.”
The training will be followed up throughout the year with four supervision group sessions from Beatbullying counsellors.
Students who have registered can use the CyberMentors web site to safely report any inappropriate, bullying or predatory behaviour.
Young people can visit the website at http://www.cybermentors.org.uk/ and must register the first time they use the site.
POSTED: 12/03/2009 12:00:00
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