Daphne project: 2004-1-068
Daphne Programme – Year 2004
Final Report
Project Nr. : 2004-1/o68/YC
Title: School Peace
Start Date: 7.4.2005
End Date: 6.4.2006
Co-ordinating Organisation’s name:
Mannerheimin Lastensuojeluliitto / The Mannerheim League for Child Welfare – MLL, http://www.mll.fi
Contact person:
Name: Georg-Henrik Wrede
Address: Toinen Linja 17
Postal code: FI-00530
City: Helsinki
Country: Finland
Tel. N°.: +358-75-3245 616
Fax Nr.: +358-75-3245 406
e-mail:
Partner Organisations’ names and countries:
Protasi, Ellas, http://www2.forthnet.gr/protasi/eng_intro.htm
Lastekaitseliit, Eesti, http://www.lastekaitseliit.ee/
Acciones Integradas de Desarrollo - AID, Spain, http://www.accindes.org/
ARR MPW, Poland, http://www.arrmpw.org.pl/index.php?id=26
1. Aims of the project
The School Peace -project aimed to address the problem of bullying at school. The aim was to prevent and deal with violence and bullying between children and adolescents in schools. Beneficiaries were pupils, teachers, parents, NGOs and educational authorities in project countries (Finland, Estonia, Greece, Spain and Poland). The expected result was a network of schools and NGOs committed to peer-education for non-violence. It was also planned to produce an Internet material package for tolerance with operational instructions for pupil-participation and partnership between the school staff, pupils and parents.
Aims of the project were fulfilled to a large extent. The main problem was addressed successfully in all project countries. The pupils and their teachers were the main beneficiaries. Also parents and authorities were involved in most of the project countries. The expected result was partly met. There was good national cooperation and partnership between participating NGOs and schools and in all countries there is now a foundation established for future projects. The planned Internet material package could not be fully produced due to the short duration of the project. However there are informational national reports to be used as a basis for a wider European School Peace -educational toolkit.
The Commission did not formulate conditions / recommendations as such in its selection letter. However the Commission mentioned that it would be appropriate to use the School Peace -project of 5 countries as a pilot project to test out the possibilities for a wider follow-up project involving all 25 EU-countries. The funding for the follow-up project would be then applied from the Commission.
The School Peace partners did follow the suggestions of the Commission and considered School Peace as a pilot for a wider future project. The concepts and methods for School Peace were explored and tested in schools. It was experienced that the appropriate methods vary from country to country due to cultural differences.
This is an inclusive project based on previous experience. Minorities are involved in the exercise. For instance, the Estonian event will take place in a border region where over 90% of the population is of Russian origin.
As requested by the Commission, the duration of the project was brought down from 24 to 12 months asking for a better focusing of objectives, a revised workplan and guarantees for sustainibility. It was thus considered as a pilot project. Full dissemination and a stronger European character will only be reached if the project is given the opportunity of an extension.
2. Implementation of the project
The project activities were implemented during April 2005 – April 2006. (The costs related to the activities happened during the financial support period agreed with the European Commission (April 7th, 2005 – April 7th, 2006.) There was a delay of the planned activities due to the delayed approval from the European Commission. The timetable was thus adjusted accordingly. Shifts had to be introduced in the original timetable due to the delay imposed on the launching of the project to take into account the summer holiday season when schools cannot be involved in any activities; however, the original structure was maintained, with changes made only in the central part of the project.
There were meetings with the project partners in Spain (Ciudad Real, May 19-20th, 2005), Finland/Estonia (Helsinki/Tallinn, August 17-20th, 2005) and Greece (Patras, March 1st-3rd, 2006).
Planned activities, what we did and what we didn’t do:
The pilot cities and schools were chosen in the beginning of the project. The network between schools in different partner countries did not work. It was tried through an internet discussion forum, which was developed for the network, but it was very difficult to get the teachers and pupils involved. This would have needed more time. As the project could be started later than planned in the application the issues around the timetable were much discussed in the beginning.. For example in Greece the timetable was tight with relevance to the terms of the schools. Teachers needed to be persuaded and pupils selected. In Estonia the timetable changed, which meant difficulties in getting the message and procedures through the system (school, authorities). However the network inside the partner countries worked fairly well.
Materials were developed in all of the partner countries. The pupils and the teachers of the pilot schools were very much involved in the development process. It will be for the future to see, if the work done in the pilot schools will motivate them for a long-term work against violence in schools.
The materials of the different partners were shared with other partners and developed further. There was not created one joint material package for the use of all partners, but five different materials which all got support and ideas from other materials of the different partners.
School Peace –events were organized in all partner countries. In all countries pupils had a big role as well in the planning of the event as in implementing the event itself. The events were planned and implemented differently in all countries, in a specific way of the country, region and organisatonal culture. However they all addressed the same issues, tolerance and non-violence. A specific theme was the prevention of bullying.
The development and guidance group was not formed of the representatives of the NGOs and the teachers of the pilot schools. The group of coordinators of the partner organisations met three times during the project. It worked as the development and guidance group. During the meetings the group heard experts from the hosting country. There was also an evaluation group in Finland that consisted of the representatives of National Board of Education, the Ministry of the Interior´s Police Department and The Mannerheim League for Child Welfare. The group had several meetings during the project.
Summary of the national activities:
FINLAND – The Mannerheim League for Child Welfare (coordinator)
The School Peace event took place the 18th of August in Helsinki. This was the first event of the project. The second meeting of the coordinators from the partner organisations was held around the event. The event was very succesful and gathered about 3000 pupils. The pupils had planned the event together with a co-operation group of teachers, youth workers, police official and other local authorities. In the event the declaration for School Peace was declared by the pupils who had also written it. The declaration was also read on national radio broadcast, YleX, which is the main radion channel for young people. The channel had lots pf programs that included information on bullying during the day. The event reached other mass media as well. It was noticed by the main news broadcast as well as many national newspapers the next day.
The pupils of the pilot school created material for the School Peace –programme. It was put on the website of the Mannerheim League for all the schools in Finland to use. The material handled mostly bullying. It can still be reached on the address: http://www.mll.fi/toiminta/koulurauha/ .
Survey on school-bullying in Finland has been implemented during the autumn of 2005. There were approximately 10 000 answers and as a result there have been reporting on experiences on bullying and possibilities for prevention of bullying.
There is a popular website for the youth / school pupils of Finland (www.nuortennetti.fi) for interactive community forum for peer students and pupils in general. Themes covered and discusssed include bullying & bullying -experiences, dating&sex, self-esteem, importance of sleep.
The Mannerheim League for Child Welfare has been developing the School Peace –project website (www.schoolpeace.net) and the aim is to built it up as a community platform and forum for collecting information as well as exchanging and sharing of experiences on school peace on the European level.
There has been a school-tour of a popular Finnish pop-rock band related to a school-campaign on anti-bullying. It was successful and received pupils’ excited welcoming.
A material for parental meetings has been created in Finland together with the Police and the National Board of Education. This will be translated into English
GREECE – Protasi (partner)
The School Peace -activities were organised between September 8th, 2005 – March 4th, 2006. The main events took place 20.11.2005 – 23.12.2005 and 29.1.- 4.3.2006. There were meetings with groups of students and their parents as well as close cooperation and partnership with the school principals and teachers as well as with local public authorities.
During the project the idea of School Peace was introduced to the authorities and the elements for strengthening of the school community spirit were discussed, explored, analysed and commented by participating students.
The project was a big succcess as far as dissemination and publicity is concerned. Local authorities and key persons in the community got interested and questions about follow-up have been received. A citizens’ advocat got interested in creating a School Peace–Day for the schools in Greece. Protasi has created a manual based on School Peace -activities, and use of methods and results has been documented. There is a genuine need for continuous projects to be introduced in all schools of Patras. Participation of ethnic minorities and migrants was important for the project.
SPAIN – Acciones Integradas de Desarrollo, AID (partner)
There has been a poster competition organised by AID and chosen art-pieces were made as posters. Pictures of the posters and leaflets were shown to partners present. AID has also made a web-page for the School Peace -project in Spain and general info on the Daphne II School Peace –project as a whole.
The national Day of Peace in Spain has been used to spread the idea of School Peace and this could be further developed in future projects. There was cooperation with the European information service office (Europe-Direct). There was also information in satellite TV-channels by the Europe-Direct.
The main event for School Peace in Spain took place in Ciudad Real on 18th of April 2006. It was organised in cooperation with a long-term partner secondary school and the police. All the activities were organised by the students: a peace circle around the school (human chain), perfomances, dancing and singing activities, balloons with written peace wishes inside etc.. About 1.000 students participated in the event, and the event was noticed in local and regional media.
AID has joined an application (Daphne II) for anti-bullying with an Italian partner organisation San Benedetto Don Calabria Institute.
ESTONIA – Estonian Union for Child Welfare (partner)
Estonian Union for Child Welfare developed a wider partnership for a long-term whole school year programme concerning School Peace activities with two schools in Estonia. The School Peace -activities have been mainly organised with one primary and one secondary school with the idea of piloting and developing a whole school year model of School Peace in Estonia.
In November (23.11.2005) there was a inter-generational human chain that gathered the attention of the national media (TV and press with interviews). The event was organised in conjunction with the UN Day for the Rights of the Child.
There have been theatre days with fairy tale with a modern version. There was be a campaign in March presenting the theatre piece in primary and secondary schools. The performance taught tolerance and understanding. The theatre performance was also presented during the School Peace week in March. There was a survey on how pleased or dissatisfied the school pupils are with the school learning environment, its safety and community spirit.
The core group has been a group of 15 students and they have taken the responsibility of organising the events. The students were very committed and worked very efficiently.
School Peace –campaigns have been connected to health promotional activitiers in the community regarding anti-smoking and inter-generational dialogue via student-driven video-documentaries with interviews of adolescents and elderly peoople on their reasons for quitting smoking.
Psychologists, pedagogues, social workers and supporters / instructors for peer support have been involved as a consortium for the expertise and coordination for the support of the School Peace –campaigns. This group of professionals was also very motivated and inspired by the School Peace –project and its possibilities.
There was a seminar March 15th organised by Estonian Union for Child Welfare, Ministry of Education and universities publishing a study on bullying and possibilities for the prevention of bullying at school. There was also a youth social theatre about the relationships between young people and adults aiming towards a culture of non-violence between peers and generations. This was also presented in the March 15th -event.
In the project a very positive thing was the cooperation of two different schools, a big one and a small one. They are still, even after the project, collaborating and having regular meetings with each other.
POLAND – ARR MPW (partner)
The Polish team consisted of coordinator Aleksandra Nowak and Wodzimierz Swiat, Karol Kakarenko. The Polish team divided the work between them, so that Mr Swiat came to the first meeting in Spain. Mr Kakarenko attended the second meeting in Finland/Estonia..
The Polish partner was not the original partner in the application and due to this Polish project was launched in the very end of September. ARRMPW was working with a group of children from 6 classes from Primary School No 2 in Ostrolêka /headmaster Wojciech Domañski and pedagogue Wioletta Mastalerz. They organized workshops about “School Peace” with them.
A logo was developed and disseminated in the community. And School Peace -bracelet was designed by the polish partner and handed out and given to thousands of pupils in the other project countries. In Poland ARRMPW delivered the bracelets like present to members of Polish government: Ministry of European Affairs Jaroslawowi Pietrasowi, his deputy Aleksandrze Wasilewskiej and Director of European Informations Department Agnieszce Kudliñskiej, her deputy Annie Tuz.