Bullying prevention, along with addressing student behavior, chronic absenteeism, and mental health, remains a top priority for educators across the country. At CharacterStrong, we've been listening and have developed a proactive approach to equip students with the necessary social-emotional skills to foster a positive and inclusive school environment.
Access our Bullying Prevention Checklist
A Proactive Approach to Bullying
Our proactive strategy involves integrating social-emotional skills like empathy, respect, and conflict resolution into the curriculum. By explicitly teaching and practicing these skills, schools can create a foundation for a positive environment. Here’s how we do it:
Elementary and Secondary Curriculum
CharacterStrong employs a relationship-driven, research-based, proactive approach to bullying prevention. This two-pronged strategy combines proactive skills with direct bullying prevention content to enhance well-being, belonging, and engagement, while promoting a positive school culture and climate. Book a call to learn more.
Key Components:
- Proactive Skills: These skills, proven to reduce bullying, are integrated throughout our curriculum. They include empathy, respect, friendship, conflict resolution, interpersonal problem-solving, and emotion regulation.
- Direct Bullying Prevention: Bullying prevention is explicitly taught across multiple sessions in each grade level, with touchpoints embedded throughout the year.
Unique Features of Our Approach
- Engaging Activities: Interactive and engaging activities make learning about bullying prevention enjoyable and memorable.
- Relationship-Focused Instruction: Emphasizing the importance of relationships in creating a positive school culture.
- Co-Created Classroom Agreements: Involving students in creating agreements that promote empathy and respect.
- Character and Values in Action: Encouraging students to put character and values into practice, establishing a culture of empathy and respect within the school.
Access our Bullying Prevention Checklist
Understand the Bullying Prevention Standards
Our curriculum is built on comprehensive standards that ensure students understand, prevent, and respond to bullying effectively.
Understand and Define Bullying:
- Identify Key Components: Students learn the four key components of bullying: imbalance of power, unwanted behavior, harmful behavior, and the likelihood of repetition.
- Distinguish Behaviors: Students can differentiate between negative behavior and bullying.
- Recognize Types: Understanding various types of bullying, including cyberbullying.
- Reasons for Bullying: Identifying why people might engage in mean or unkind behavior.
Know the Impact of Bullying:
- On the Victim: Understanding the effects of bullying on those being bullied.
- On the Bully: Understanding the impact on those who bully.
- On Others Involved: Recognizing the wider impact on bystanders and the community.
- On School Culture: Comprehending how bullying affects the overall school environment.
Prevent and Respond to Bullying:
- Respectful Relationships: How respectful relationships and inclusion can prevent bullying.
- Community Agreements: Co-creating agreements to ensure respectful treatment of others.
- Upstander vs. Bystander: Cultivating advocacy skills and understanding the role of an upstander.
- Response Strategies: Learning assertive language and strategies to stop and report bullying.
- Trusted Adults: Identifying adults to confide in when encountering bullying.
- Resilience: Practicing resilience to handle bullying situations.
Know Your School’s Rules:
- School Policies: Understanding school rules and expectations regarding bullying.
- Reporting Bullying: Knowing how to report and respond to bullying incidents.
- School Response: Understanding how the school addresses bullying, including support for both the victim and the bully.
Again, starting in the 2024-2025 school year in both our elementary and secondary curricula, CharacterStrong employs a relationship-driven, research-based, proactive approach to bullying prevention at no extra cost within our Tier 1 Solutions.
By adopting this comprehensive approach, schools can proactively prevent bullying and create a safer, more inclusive environment where all students can thrive.
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