Bullying is one of the few words that trigger alarm in students, parents, teachers, and school leaders alike. The UNESCO report, Behind the numbers: ending school violence and bullying, released in 2019 Education World Forum, reveals that nearly one-in-three boys and girls have been bullied at least once at school over the last month, and a similar proportion have been affected by physical violence. Overall, says the report, physical bullying is the biggest problem in most regions, but in North America and Europe, psychological bullying is the most common, followed by sexually-related bullying. Online and smartphone bullying are gradually rising. Bullying must be addressed because it significantly affects children’s mental health, quality of life and academic achievement. Frequently bullied children are nearly three times more likely to feel shunned and more than twice as likely to miss school. Their educational-outcomes decline, and they are more likely to leave after finishing secondary school. Both kids who are bullied and who bully others may have serious, lasting problems. School safety is the right of all students and it’s up to educators to put a bullying prevention actions in place to ensure that students feel safe, comfortable, and confident. Creating an entire bullying prevention actions seems like a tall order that is why the main goal of our project proposal is to provide easy-going, applicable and user-friendly tools for teachers to tackle the increasing problem of bullying at schools by using game methodology in self-elaborated and adapted games. On the assumption that bullying is a systemic problem, and, by implication, an intervention must be directed at the entire school not just at individual bullies and victims (Schneider, Smith, & Ananiadou, 2004). Games4Tolerance project puts an objective to involve all students and their families in the prevention activities. There is a need to focus on the topic of bullying at schools with the involvement of stakeholders as teachers, victims, aggressors, parents, counsellors etc. Though there are many projects with focus on the victims and very little is done to raise awareness on how to treat the aggressor. Willing to reduce and smooth the problem of bullying starting prevention from an early age and contribute to the reduction of the bully cases, the Partnership plans to create new educational anti bullying games and a Database with analysis of games and resources for three age groups (4-5, 6-7, 8-10 years old). The main aim of the project is to equip pre and primary school teachers with knowledge and skills for using game methodology. For the achievement of this aim the partnership plans to accomplish the following objectives: - better trained teachers and support staff to address bullying in all its forms - better informed communities, children and their parents´ networks to address bullying - greater confidence in using games at kindergartens and primary schools in and outside of the classroom to create safe places to discuss bullying and other contentious issues - offering greater flexibility for teachers to use a more diverse range of learning styles and content by using games in education techniques - improving the content of anti-bullying programmes offered for small children within the compulsory education sector by adopting game methodology as a school anti bullying approach - reducing the disparity in knowledge, skills and understanding between countries in the partnership in regard to bullying and its impact To achieve the objectives the partnership will elaborate three intellectual outputs (Game Methodology; Guide and testing scenarios on game methodology for educators; Database of games and activities and resources for bullying prevention and facilitation), will held multiplier events in each country and short term teaching and training activity. The project will introduce innovation lying in gamified learning and a gamification method will be utilised in several stages. Firstly, to train educational practicioners and parents on how to address the topic of bullying with children, but also on how to train other teachers on the topic; secondly to allow children to tackle and understand the topic according to their needs and abilities. Game elements will increase the involvement of the target groups and make the difficult and sensible issue quickly and easily approachable, especially to such a specific target group as small children (5-10 years old). A unique methodology for creation of educational games will be taught to educational practitioners. Methodology, in combination with the game database, represents a complex intervention model. As they will work with both children and their parents, they will significantly raise awareness of bullying within the whole community and maximize its reach. The direct target group is pre and primary school teachers. The indirect target group: children aged 4-10, community members and families.
The T-GAMES project aims to involve all students and their families in violence prevention activities. The topic of bullying in schools needs to be addressed with the participation of all stakeholders such as teachers, victims, aggressors, parents, counselors, etc. Wanting to reduce and alleviate the problem of bullying by starting prevention from an early age and contributing to the reduction of bullying incidents, the partnership worked on the creation of new educational anti-bullying games and a database with analysis of games and resources for three age groups (4-5, 6-7, 8-10 years). The main aim of the project was to provide pre-school and primary teachers with the knowledge and skills to use the games methodology. The direct target group of the project were pre-school and primary teachers, and the indirect target group: children aged 4-10, their families, and community members. The overall impact of the project could be noticed in better trained teachers and support staff to address bullying in all its forms and also better informed communities, children and their parents´ networks on how to address bullying and take preventive measures.
Bullying at school is one of the few words that triggers concern in students, parents, teachers and school leaders too. UNESCO's report "Behind the Numbers: ending school violence and bullying", published in 2019 by the World Education Forum, reveals that almost one in three children have been bullied at least once at school in the last month, and a similar percentage have been affected by physical violence. The report said that overall physical bullying was the biggest problem in most regions, but in North America and Europe psychological bullying was the most common, followed by sexual bullying. Bullying must be addressed as it has a significant impact on children's mental health, quality of life and academic achievements. Safety at school is the right of all students and it is up to educators to put bullying prevention actions in place to ensure that students feel safe, comfortable and confident. Creating comprehensive bullying prevention actions seems like an impossible task, which is why the main goal of T-GAMES project was to provide easy to implement and user-friendly tools that teachers can use to tackle the growing problem of bullying in schools using the game methodology in self-designed games.