School events

School events and whole-school activities help to raise awareness of how to prevent and deal with bullying. Use these suggestions or come up with your own. You can hold these during the annual Bullying-Free NZ Week or at any time of the year to focus on your school's bullying prevention approach.

Creative events — make and do

Take an aerial photo

Take an aerial photo of students organised in the playground or on the school field to spell out a key bullying prevention message, for example 'Stop Bullying' or 'NO bullying at our school'.

Stonefield Primary and Thames High School

Hand imprint wall, bubble display or collage

Select a wall in your school where all members of your school community can make an imprint of their hand under the heading 'Together we can prevent bullying'. Or create a display with speech bubbles of positive messages or students' individual commitments to making their school safe and supportive.

Another idea is to write out a short slogan related to stopping bullying in large block writing and ask students to write one work that makes them think about bullying – stick these inside the writing to make a collage.

Sunnynook Primary School

Competitions

Hold a competition to design an anti-bullying poster, create a bullying prevention emblem or logo, or come up with a motto. Display entries around the school and involve members of your community to present prizes.

Ella Mason, Casebrook Intermediate School

School mural

Create a school mural or other artwork of a positive message about your students' contributions to making their school safe and supportive, or that reflects your school's values. Or create an anti-bullying graffiti wall which everyone can sign or write a message on.

Bucklands Beach Primary School

Kind hearts

Or put up a large heart in the school. Each week, ask students to put a post-it note on it stating what they have done that week to be kind to someone. Students or staff could pick their favourites each week.

Make a commitment

• Stepping stones: What small actions could we take to make our school a happy and safe place for everyone? Talk in classes or small groups and ask each student to name one small action they will commit to doing that week.
• Take the pledge: Create and anti-bullying pledge and ask all students to sign it. Ensure it is clearly displayed in school. Refer back to it when bullying incidents arise.
• Draw up a charter: Or ask students to come up with their top 10 tips on how to overcome bullying and share them with the rest of the class. Record those most commonly suggested and use them to produce a classroom charter.

Performance events — create and perform

Bullying prevention poem or rap

Decide on a topic for a whole school poem or rap. Ask each class to write a section and put them all together at the end of the week. Display the poem or rap in the main section of the school or on your website, invite parents, whānau and community to attend a performance. Share on social media or ask the local community radio station to play it.

'Bully Buster', Avalon Intermediate School

Winner, Junior/Intermediate Short Film, Bullying-Free NZ Awards 2017

Song

Write a song about how someone sucessfully managed bullying, record it and ask the local radio station to play it for the community to hear.

Video

Make a 'public service broadcast' video about how to deal with bullying or tell a story with an anti-bullying message. Take a look at the Bullying-Free NZ Awards Short Film 2017 and Performance 2018 categories for inspiration.

'Friends', Whanganui High School

Winner, Senior Short Film, Bullying-Free NZ Awards 2017

'Fake', Wentworth College Choir, Auckland

Performance

Hold a school event where student showcase theatre, song, dance or other performance they have developed in class. Invite parents, whānau and community members to attend.

March

Hold a bullying prevention march around the playground. Get students to design posters and signs with anti-bullying slogans and pictures.