Looking for alarm bells for bullying behavior
Identifying and tackling bullying behavior of students appears to be difficult in secondary education. A VMBO in a disadvantaged neighborhood in Rotterdam does everything it can to create a safe school climate. "We have to get students into learning mode."
Image: Angeliek de Jonge
“Who wants to rate the atmosphere in the classroom? A 10 is fantastic, a 0 is dramatically bad. ” The question from anti-bullying coordinator Serge Klaassen has to land with the students of class 2d of the Protestant-Christian VMBO Melanchthon Mathenesse in Rotterdam. But after that the scores are flying around him: a 7, an 8, an 8,5 and even a 10.
Very nice, Klaassen thinks, but are there also students who give the atmosphere a fail? The class is silent. "Nobody?" Klaassen tries. “And what about safety? Who thinks that some students are bullied and therefore fails? " It remains quiet again.
“Yes, that was a shame”, Klaassen says after class. “I had hoped that more would come out, all the more because I knew from the anonymous questionnaires I had completed last month that there are a few students who give the atmosphere and safety a 5. Apparently they did not dare to speak out ”
Perhaps things would have turned out differently, Klaassen thinks if the mentor of this class, with whom he had prepared the lesson, had been there. Unfortunately he was ill. As soon as he has recovered, I will work with him to see whether we can find out what is going on in this class and whether students are being bullied. ”
Long road
In September, the Ministry of Education released figures that would show that bullying in primary and secondary education is decreasing. Cautious good news. Still, there seems to be a long way to go, especially in secondary education. According to the research report 'What works against bullying' there, bullying is more difficult to tackle due to the larger scale of schools, the many changes of teachers in the classroom and the fact that bullying takes place more often via social media.
At the same time, a study by the Landelijk Aktie Komitee Scholieren six months ago shows that almost half of the VMBO students (43 percent) feel unsafe at school (HAVO 28 percent, VWO 16 percent). All the more reason to take a look at a multicultural VMBO in the second city of the Netherlands, Rotterdam.
Social skills are just as important as the Pythagorean theorem
“Attention to social safety in general and bullying in particular is part of the learning,” says Hanna van Os, deputy director of Melanchthon Mathenesse. It is a school with about 385 students, almost all of them with a non-Western background. “In a disadvantaged neighborhood like Spangen, where many of our students live, you have a slightly different role as a school. Many children have been given other norms and values from home, which means that they often react very primarily. They also come to school with more problems. Our job is at such a time to get them into learning mode. That's why it's just as important for them to learn a social skill as it is for them to learn the thesis of
Knowing Pythagoras. ”
School climate
A positive school climate is important to Melanchthon Mathenesse, says Van Os. That is why alarm bells ring when there are signs of bullying. “Information is collected and a plan of action is drawn up. The actions and agreements are recorded in writing in, for example, an agreement contract and registered in the school's student tracking system. ”
The school also organizes the 'Week of growing up safely' for students every year. Serge Klaassen's lesson in class 2d, where he makes the students think about the different roles they have in bullying situations, is one of the tools of this theme week.
What makes the Rotterdam VMBO school special is the daily mentor start and stop, where students meet in the mentor class fifteen minutes before classes and fifteen minutes after classes.
Klaassen emphasizes that the attention should not be limited to such a theme week. “For example, here at school we regularly have student meetings in which the social safety and behavior of students are important topics. In case of problem cases, the care team is called in, consisting of a school social worker or anti-bullying coordinator, a psychologist, a school career coach and a care coordinator. ”
What makes the Rotterdam VMBO school special is the daily mentor start and stop, where pupils meet in the mentor class fifteen minutes before and fifteen minutes after lessons. Deputy director Van Os: “During the mentor start, a mentor sees how students come in. Spangen is a neighborhood in which it can happen that a student has witnessed a shooting and that parents have forgotten to report it to school. Such a traumatic experience can, of course, cause problem behavior and negatively affect safety in a classroom. The mentor stop is intended to monitor what happened to the students in the classroom that day. And whether there are things they dread or need help with. ”
Third grader Laila Chehlaoui sees that bullying situations are not always reported. "That is often seen as snitching." (Image: Angeliek de Jonge)
Prevention
According to Klaassen, the mentor start and stop is the best way to gauge the safety and atmosphere in classes throughout the year. Furthermore, the school is heavily committed to prevention. As an anti-bullying coordinator, Klaassen visits all first and second classes every year to talk about bullying and its consequences. “What I want to achieve is that students realize that they themselves are partly responsible for a good atmosphere in the classroom, but also for a bad atmosphere. They often know but you have to remind them. ”
The Rotterdam VMBO school sends pupils from the first grade to camp shortly after the start of the school year. Van Os: “The mentors then have 72 hours to see what happens in such a group, what the pecking order is like, which students show problem behavior and so on. We think that this will enable us to pick up signals more quickly and prevent problems. "
It is not possible to compare figures, because they were hardly kept up to three years ago. Van Os does know that Melanchton Mathenesse scores well in terms of safety in 'Schools on the map', a survey of the satisfaction of parents, students, school climate and safety.
Recovery call
A third grader has personally experienced that the school is on top of things when it comes to social safety. “In first grade, there was a girl in my class who lisped a lot. I teased her about that. When the school found out about this, I had to report to Mr Klaassen immediately and I had to have a conversation with that girl.” Because of that recovery conversation in which the girl told that she was bullied more often and what it did to her, the third grader has become more aware of his behavior. "I don't bully anymore and between me and that girl it's okay now."
I don't bully anymore and between me and that girl it's okay now
Van Os has the impression that students are more likely to raise the alarm when they are faced with bullying. "There are also regular students who report that they are being bullied via social media."
Still, she acknowledges that bullying situations will undoubtedly go unnoticed. Klaassen agrees. But if students do not report the bullying, then there are still signals - including in the student tracking system - that allow us to find out that something is going on. Think of school performance that is deteriorating sharply, conflicts with teachers or other students and absence. With these signals in hand, we enter into a conversation with this student. By the way, we never do that in a judgmental or accusatory way and we always hear both sides of the argument. ”
Alert
Third grader Laila Chehlaoui thinks the school is very alert to bullying. But she also sees that bullying situations are not always reported. “That is often seen as snitch. If I saw someone being bullied now, I would rather do something myself than bring someone in from school. ”
Yet she herself raised the alarm two years ago when she was bullied for a long time and all kinds of gossip was spread about her. Laila had a hard time reporting it at the time, but she's glad she did. “I felt very unhappy and didn't feel like going to school anymore. I had a good conversation with the perpetrator, a girl from another class. That helped. ”
I felt unhappy and didn't feel like going to school anymore
Klaassen has noticed in recent years that girl venin is very difficult to grasp. “In addition, it is especially difficult to clarify the different roles of bully, bullied, follower and silent bystander. Last year we had specialized in-school training to give teachers more insight into this. In this way we try to acquire more and more knowledge and expertise. ”
The anti-bullying policy at Melanchton will always be necessary, deputy director Van Os thinks. “There are still fights here and there is still online bullying, but I think we are seeing more and more. And I am sure that students are experiencing an increasingly lower threshold to ask for our help. ”
