Highfield Leadership Academy proudly hosted an event to equip schoolchildren from across the North West with the skills to stamp out bullying in their school communities.
The Diana Award, an organisation that aims to empower young people to change the world, led the event to upskill the North West’s youth to share top tips on how to prevent bullying in their schools and communities.
Around 70 young people gathered in our school to take part in Anti-Bullying Ambassador training. The day brought together young people from primary and secondary schools, of all ages and abilities, to creatively explore and understand the issue of bullying. Working together, they exchanged ideas and experiences and gained practical ideas on bullying prevention. Ambassadors also drew up their own action plans to address the issue and ensure everyone feels safe and happy in their school.
The Diana Awards runs the Anti-Bullying Ambassadors programme in over 2,500 schools. There are currently over 18,000 trained Ambassadors across the UK, Ireland, Channel Islands and United Emirates.
Helen Mackenzie OBE, Executive Principal of Highfield Leadership Academy, commented:
“Tacking bullying is an issue of huge importance to our entire school community and Highfield was thrilled to host this event. Our pupils embraced the opportunity to share experiences and hear from other pupils from different backgrounds. The day was a very valuable peer-to-peer learning experience and equipped young people with essential skills to carry out their Anti-Bullying Ambassador roles.”
21 Highfield pupils took part in the training day on Wednesday 17 January.
Year 10 pupil Ella Thacker commented,
“After being trained as an anti-bullying ambassador, I feel that my ability to deal with this difficult issue has improved. The Diana Award Team were helpful and informative and have given us lots of ideas of how we can be effective mediators and help to improve our academy’s community. We can’t wait to get started.”
Pupil Aya Sovayed from Year 10 added,
“After today’s workshops I feel confident that I would know what to do to help someone who was being bullied.”
Alex Holmes, Head of Anti-Bullying Campaign for The Diana Award, said,
“As a former victim of bullying I know how isolated and unhappy a young person can feel when they are being targeted and I am passionate about helping these people. The Anti-Bullying Ambassadors programme gives young people the confidence to stand together against bullies and support one another. We give Ambassadors the skills and tools to successfully spread the message – bullying will not be tolerated.”
For more information about the Anti-Bullying Ambassadors programme, visit The Diana Awards website www.diana-award.org.uk.