Peer Support in Action
CONNECT AT KINGSBURY HIGH SCHOOL
ANUSHA KESAVANATHAN
To tell you the truth I am not really sure why I joined 'Connect', it just seemed like another extra-curricular activity at the time. I had this mindset that we the peer workers were going to save kids from the peril of bullying and become overnight heroes.
This idea soon vanished when I began one to one sessions with children from Years 7-9 and realised how truly difficult it is to gain the trust of a child. The hardest part of the drop in session is probably the first ten to fifteen minutes, it is within this time that you are really able to engage with the child or they become completely bored and leave.
It was extremely important that we were able to remove the stigma attached to coming to the session so we made it seem more like a casual drop in centre rather than a place for children who had experienced bullying. We played simple games like 'hangman' and 'noughts and crosses' that were popular and worked to provide a much more relaxed atmosphere. Still sticking on the games theme we would play the 'name game' this is an exercise where you write your name vertically down the page and beside each letter write a word to describe your character.
The different words that the kids chose gave us an idea of what they felt about themselves and also an indication of their confidence. We would often have many kids describing themselves as 'sad', 'lonely' and even 'stupid' as peer workers we would then explore why they chose these words. We find that lots of different issues come up, not just bullying but problems ranging from eating disorders and racism to exam stress.
'Every day they wait for me at the school gates. They kick me, spit in my hair, call me horrible names and steal my dinner money'.
Bullying hurts. It makes kids terrified of going to school and leaves them feeling vulnerable and alone. 'Connect' was designed to encourage positive relationships among students and support for them.
There is a drop-in centre; peer supervised playground service and a one to one peer listening service. The commitment and contribution of our group to making our school a safer place was recognised last year when we received the Philip Lawrence Award.
At Kingsbury High School we hope that we are leading the way in tackling the problems and issues that kids deal with everyday which are not part of the teaching curriculum. Schools need to be proactive in developing anti-bullying schemes and by listening to children and involving them we can develop a firm grip on bullying.
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