DDSB Students Use Their Voices to Make a Difference

Posted On Thursday December 05, 2019
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L-R: Roheena and Dina from Sir William Stephenson PS discuss which three Character Traits to focus on in their school, at the Bullying Awareness and Prevention Conference.

DDSB Safe Schools Team Hosts the 2019 Bullying Awareness and Prevention Conference

“What does your inner voice say?” Georgette Davis, Superintendent of Education at the Durham District School Board (DDSB), asks a room full of eager students. “Listen to that voice, and know that everything in life is a lesson. Sometimes you win and sometimes you learn.”

Students in Grades 5 to 8 from five DDSB schools (Vimy Ridge PS, Sir William Stephenson PS, Uxbridge PS, Coronation PS, and Bayview Heights PS) joined forces at the Education Centre to talk about bullying awareness and prevention in their school communities. They were split into two to three groups per school, and each group was lead by an O’Neill CVI student leader. The O’Neill CVI student leaders participated in their own Bullying Awareness Conference at the school last year, and reached out to the Safe Schools Team to be a part of the 2019 conference.

The Bullying Awareness and Prevention Conference was hosted on November 20th, and is an annual event to mark Bullying Awareness and Prevention Week (November 17 – 23) in Ontario.

This year’s conference focused on Character Education, a Safe Schools initiative in the Board. Character Education promotes the following Character Traits to students: Teamwork, Responsibility, Respect, Perseverance, Optimism, Kindness, Integrity, Honesty, Empathy, and Courage.

The day consisted of idea-sharing, team-building, and plenty of fun. Each group of students wrote down three Character Traits they wanted to focus on in their schools. Homing in on those traits, they wrote down ideas on how to promote those traits at their schools. Then, students got up and rotated around the boardroom, taking notes on ideas from other groups.

Holly Richard, Safe Schools Program Facilitator at the DDSB, says the overall goal of the conference is to allow students the opportunity to use their voices to address how to tackle bullying in their schools.

“Students are here to show us, and each other, what they are already doing in their schools with the Character Traits. They’re also collaborating to come up with ideas on how to improve and build on their bullying awareness and prevention plans,” explains Richard.

She adds, “The overall goal of this conference is to have students use their voices to make a difference in their school communities, and in every day life.”