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Mediation as a way to prevent bullying in a School of Badalona

Hi everyone!

My boyfriend’s mum used to be the principal of a school in Badalona for many years. Her last year there was in 2019, as she’s now retired.

The other day, we were talking about school bullying programs, and I was curious to know if they had anything in place at her school back then. She told me she couldn’t remember if there was a specific antibullying program at the time, but she explained that the school did offer several tools and resources to deal with conflict.

One of them was an anonymous mailbox where students could leave notes about things they were going through or situations they had witnessed. It was a simple but effective way for people to speak up without having to reveal who they were.

But what I found most interesting was the school’s mediation system. There was a mediation team made up of both teachers and students. Students could choose an optional subject called “Mediation”, where they learned tools to manage and resolve conflicts. This subject also helped the mediation coordinator select student mediators for each class.

Each class had 2 or 3 student mediators. Their role was to stay alert for any conflicts, act as a reference point for classmates, and let the teacher team know if something serious came up. People in the class could talk to them about any situation they were experiencing or witnessing, and the mediators would then pass it on to the teacher team in charge of mediation.

The idea was to choose students who were “neutral” in the social dynamics of the class (not the most popular, but also not isolated) so that everyone would feel comfortable approaching them. Teachers also received mediation training, so they could support the process in a consistent and informed way.

In my opinion, that’s an effective way to prevent bullying, because it gives students several ways to ask for help and makes things a bit easier for them. What I also find really important is that both teachers and students were involved in this process.

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