Sticks and Stones Anti-bullying Programme™ offers a number of solutions and workshops for children and young people. Each session is tailored to the specifics of the group, whether it’s primary, or secondary, single sex or mixed gender.

Be The Solution – Anti-bullying Drama Workshop

Do U Tattoo? Cybersafety and Cyber Bullying Workshop for senior cycle  students

ABC Anti Bullying Champions – Peer Mentoring Training

Our programme aims to heighten awareness of bullying in all its guises, reveal the misery it inflicts and help break the silence that ensures its continuance. Drama is again proving to be a key element in getting young people to participate and engage with the issues. Using a combination of in-depth discussion, communication exercises, role-play and Forum Theatre our facilitators encourage them to explore and articulate their feelings and attitudes towards bullying. Our approach is not to attribute blame to individuals, but to look at the class holistically and to examine the group dynamics at play. It is intensive and participative – your students will never again be able to say: “It was only a joke”.

Our format encourages pupils to take personal responsibility for their actions, and equips them with the skills to address bullying in their environment. We do this by giving them the knowledge and skills to problem solve for themselves. We work to ensure that your students have;

•  the ability to recognise bullying
•  the confidence to challenge it
•  and the skills to handle it.

Drama can have a transformational effect on children, it boosts their confidence, and it empowers them to raise sensitive issues. Storytelling is at the heart of our culture, children respond positively to the opportunity to tell their own stories. They don’t always have the vocabulary to describe what is happening to them or indeed a fellow student, through drama they can show what’s happening, they don’t have to find the “right” words.

“A wide variety of active learning strategies should be used in implementing SPHE. These strategies could include play, discussion and drama activities.” Dept of Education & Skills.

Access to our on-line handbook written by Professor Mona O’Moore, Head of The Education and Child Psychology Department in Trinity College Dublin, will be provided as added support for each school. This contains valuable advice for teachers: how to identify and deal with bullying in the classroom, along with useful post-workshop exercises for the class to participate in. It also contains advice for parents, which we recommend you circulate prior to, or following, the workshop.

Each facilitator is experienced in facilitating groups to develop positive interventions and awareness raising strategies. Meeting standards of best practice for the Protection and Welfare of Children, all members of our team are fully Garda Vetted in line with the statutory requirements of schools.

What are your rights as a child? Check out this leaflet from UNICEF, which outlines your rights and responsibilities under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child