Tryouts kick off to certify schools on their antibullying policy

students and teachers discus the certificate in a meeting in Liverpool, March 2019

2 April 2019 - In the next two months, pilots will take place in 8 high schools in 5 European countries to certify the quality of a school’s antibullying policy. The Antibullying Certification method is an initiative of the European Antibullying Network (EAN), and the development is lead by GALE. It is being developed by partners from across Europe thanks to Erasmus+ funding of the European Union. The intention is to make the certification inclusive for a range of diversities, including LGBTI.

The method

The certification method focuses on exploring the current school policies and reviewing how they can be improved. The certification is a participative process. Surveys are filled in by students and teachers in the framework of dedicated workshops. In addition, students and teachers do their own interactive reviews and provide recommendations to the management. The management then makes a final analysis and suggests strategies to improve the antibullying strategy.

Tryouts

The partners of the project worked in the past year on draft products and updated them based on feedback from 30 students and 20 teachers from 8 participating schools. In the first week of March, students and teachers had their final say on the draft products during a meeting held in Liverpool. Participants discussed how students, teachers and principals can work together in order to develop a school policy with the full commitment of the entire school population.
In April and May schools will test this method and it will be evaluated by users and national committees of experts and authorities in June. Watch here a short film on the ABC-exchange in Liverpool with the participation of students from schools across Europe.

Presentation

The method will be published in November 2019 and will be presented during a conference that will be held by the European Antibullying Network on 29 November in Brussels. The method will be free for use for any school and EAN will offer professional consultancy and an independent audit.
The Antibullying Certification partnership consists of Organizations from 5 countries: Greece (The Smile of the Child), Italy (Fondazione Hallgarten Franchetti - Villa Montesca and CESIE), The Netherlands (GALE - The Global Alliance for LGBT Education), Spain (Asociación Cívica de Comunicación y Educación “Sophia” - ACCESO) and the UK (Merseyside Expanding Horizons). GALE is the lead partner of the project.
If you are interested to apply for a position in one of the national or the European Feedback Committees, please contact one of the partners or info@gale.info.
More information about the project can be found on: https://www.gale.info/en/projects/abc-project