Celebrating Diversity, Empathy and Self responsibility:
A training and education package for schools
How are your pupils communicating with each other?
Would you like them to be more emotionally aware and understand the impact of their behaviour?
If they better knew their triggers for anger and listened to one another, what impact would that have in the playground and classroom?
What are the biggest challenges with communication in the school?
Where does the school need more ease and flow in its daily life?
What is the hope and vision of the school for peaceful communication?
We offer workshops that:
· Introduce new models of communication, which embed empathy, compassion, understanding, non judgement as well as self-responsibility, self-regulation, emotional and spiritual development.
· Address the culture of blame within individuals and schools.
· Develop a support network for children through a system of peer mediation.
· Empower children, staff and parents with tools to understand why conflicts occur and to create greater ease, efficiency and
peace.
· Support your school to create change around behaviour especially anger, violence and aggression.
We use the principles of Nonviolence to design and deliver the training. Contact me for a free consultation to discuss your needs and create a package of workshops and support to move towards making your vision a reality: ceribuckmaster@gmail.com
Case Study:
Walk a mile in my shoes is a playground peer mediation training and education package aimed at year 5 and 6 primary school children.
Walk a mile in my shoes was delivered at Five Elms Primary school, Wood Lane, London from 25 to 28 March 2013 by Ceri Buckmaster and Satya Dunning. The school's challenges around communication were a culture of blame practiced by children and a lack of awareness around their behaviour. This impacted classroom learning where tensions and conflicts spilled over and concentration and focus were disrupted.
We delivered the training programme to 30 pupils selected as potential Playground mediators by the Personal Social and Health Education (PSHE) Co-ordinator.
The project had the following elements:
1. A whole school assembly on involving storytelling, active listening and celebrating diversity and we all need the same thing to
thrive.
2. class sessions focusing on needs, understanding behaviour and why we make the choices we do.
3. A session with the Midday Assistants.
4. 8 hours of Peer mediation Training Programme.
5. Ongoing support for PSHE coordinator who is managing the Playground mediation project.
The pupils learnt the following:
· step by step processes and tools to defuse challenging situation with calm and ease, to mediate and listen empathically in
order to resolve conflict on the-spot in the playground and in a meeting room.
· Leadership skills by discussing opinions about their environment and safety.
· Knowledge about their triggers for overwhelming emotions and practice of helpful listening.
· Learning to evaluate, assess and monitor the effects of mediation and conflict resolution.
“Students thoroughly enjoyed the training, which included role play and exploring feelings and needs through creative movement. They were challenged to consider their own actions in a conflict situation, such as assigning blame, making assumptions and
giving advice and how harmful these can be in finding a positive solution. Ceri and Satya provided practical support by breaking down challenging concepts into easy-to-remember acronyms which will be used throughout the year for continued development of the peer mediator role. By the end of the training many students were able to articulate how much they had learnt and were inspired and eager to
put their new skills into practice...The training has provided the first step towards achieving that goal by developing the necessary skills in a small group who now have the potential to pass on these skills to others by example.”
Natalie Yates, Peer Mediation Project Co-ordinator, Five Elms Primary School
Ceri Buckmaster on Satya Dunning:
"Satya is willing to spend time connecting in depth with participants, especially those who are experiencing some pain around their involvement in the workshop. Satya has a great resource of tenderness and care which goes deep and is a joy to be with."
Satya Dunning on Ceri Buckmaster:
"I see beauty in the way you draw on your resources of resilience and playfulness when facilitating the peer mediation sessions. These are really inspiring qualities in a leader. I see you as a resilient and playful leader."
This project was devised and delivered with Satya Dunning who is based in Glasgow. For more information about Satya’s work, please visit:
www.satyadunning.co.uk and contact her for similar projects in Scotland on: contact@satyadunning.org