White Ribbon School

BREAKING THE SILENCEBECOMING A WHITE RIBBON SCHOOL

The White Ribbon Campaign

is the largest global maleled movement to stop men’s violence against women. Holly Langridge and Tyson Wood, Head of Year 10 and Co-Head of Year 11 respectively, have been taking part in ‘Breaking the Silence’, a two year program specifically for teachers, aimed at creating White Ribbon Schools across Australia. The program provides foundational knowledge, tools and strategies to implement respectful relationships and domestic violence education in schools.

‘Breaking the Silence’ supports schools to bring about a commitment to stop violence against women. It builds on existing initiatives to strengthen a culture of respect and equality at all levels of the school community – through curriculum, role modelling

from staff, policies and procedures, domestic violence education programs and strengthened family and community partnerships.

Young people form behaviours, social skills and relationships during their time at school. During these formative years, ideas about men, women and their relationships are being learned. Exposure to harmful messaging and gender stereotyping can lead to attitudes that support inequality and disrespect towards women.

Schools play a pivotal role in breaking the cycle of violence by teaching young people how to recognise and challenge violence against women and build respectful relationships. ‘Breaking the Silence’ engages the wider school community to promote and role model gender equality and

create a safe, inclusive school culture to stop violence against women.

The conclusion of the 2018/2019 program by Holly and Tyson means we are now part of a local, regional, and national White Ribbon community of over 500 schools committed to strengthening respectful relationships. Whilst the White Ribbon Campaign specifically moves to end men’s violence against women, the values and ethos behind it transcends ALL relationships.

We look forward to working alongside our whole college community driving generational change for a future where every child can live free from violence and enjoy respectful and equal relationships.

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WHAT DOES BEINGA WHITE RIBBONSCHOOL MEAN FOREYNESBURY SENIORCOLLEGE?

Tyson Wood tells us more.

What has been the focus of this program so far?

Our focus has been to improve the way our students interact with each other and to take the lessons learned into their relationships beyond school. We have dedicated our program to education and discussions about positive relationships and about respect. We have driven to provide hard facts explaining why the issue of domestic violence is such an epidemic in Australia and why we need to have conversations about it. We made the decision to focus on healthy respectful

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relationships in general (beyond romantic) as we felt this was warranted due to increased numbers of relationships that defy traditional labelling and go beyond the physical world.

What have students been doing?

As a part of our wellbeing and engagement program we decided to implement a series of 2 hour sessions dedicated to respectful relationships and to tackling domestic violence.

For Years 10 and 11, staff members educated by Shine SA conducted two 30-minute sessions per year level about respectful sexual relationships and the importance of consent.

For Years 11 and 12 we established three 2-hour sessions for each year level. For the boys in each year

level they had sessions focusing on respect, consent and not being a bystander to violence. These sessions were shaped around group discussions, activities and reflections. This was driven by the Power to End Violence program presented by Port Adelaide Football Club.

The girls of each year level had sessions focusing on domestic violence, on behaviours to be aware of and strategies to implement should they or someone they know be involved in a domestic abuse relationship. These sessions were shaped around group discussions, the presentation of videos and statistics and the analysis and discussion of case studies. These presentations were given by social worker, Paula May.

These sessions culminated in the coming together of both the boys and girls for the two separate cohorts and engaging in open and honest conversations about everything they have been presented with. It gave them a chance to discuss their different experiences and to reflect on the opinions of others.

We have dedicated our program to education and discussions about positive relationships and about respect.

In addition, Stage 1 Design students participated in a letterform workshop with Tristan Kerr during Semester 2, 2018. They collaborated with the local artist to create a typography urban artwork which will be installed as a mural on the side of the Eynesbury building. The mural will explore key words developed through a student focus-group. Students found that the following words resonated the most with them: Respect, Resilience and Reflection, reinforcing our goal of integrating the values of White Ribbon into our school community.

What have we learned?

We have learned that the endemic of domestic violence is rooted in a fundamental lack of respect when

it comes to relationships. It has been quite revealing to see that education and early intervention is the best way to shift cultural attitudes and to make a difference going forward. We also learned that young people are extremely willing to talk about this issue, to express their concerns and their understandings, and to have developed insightful opinions about the types of relationships they want to forge now and in adulthood. We also learned that this was a great forum for students to get some base facts and to develop solid and useful strategies should they ever need them. Finally, we learned that the issue of domestic violence and unhealthy relationships is far more prevalent amongst young people than we realised.

What have we seen as a result of this implementation?

We have seen the implementation of positive relationship sessions into our wellbeing program become a staple. All teachers have come to recognise the importance of this education and have gotten behind it. The sessions also inspired the school’s Social Justice Group to put together an activityto commemorate White Ribbon Day whereby students were invited to write positive notes about the relationships they’ve forged in their lives and then create a paper chain to hang in the hall.

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Where to in 2019?

We will continue more of the same this year. We have included in our Wellbeing program two additional sessions about positive relationships, with one focusing on the cyber sphere. We have also invited back the guest speakers from last year to speak again providing custom year-level presentations to Years 10, 11 and 12. The Social Justice Group has already indicated a desire to host a more substantial event and they will begin to take shape during Term 2. Installation of the Typography Mural will also commence.

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