Over the past two weeks I have worked as a centre manager during the Brighton and Hove Easter Schools. At the end of the first week a long-standing feud came to the surface and six year 6 girls each felt so aggrieved they wanted to call parents, started bullying each other and wanted to leave the programme.
I set up a restorative circle and we spent the hour normally dedicated to craft dealing woth the issue at hand. I explained that in the space available I could not help them sort out years of fighting, but I could make Easter School safe.
By the end of the session they had agreed (and adhered ) to the following:
1. In the mornings group A would come in through the playground, group B would be collected from reception to keep both groups safe
2. During craft group A would sit on the stage facing one way, group B would sit in the main hall facing the other way
3. We swapped the girls around to separate them during tuition time
4 By the end of that morning they would come to me with their mobiles and delete each others’ numbers to stop/ avoid prank phone calls.
5. They would go home and block each other on facebook to stop cyberbullying
When I checked back after the Easter weekend, no further problems were reported and the rest of the programme was calm!
This was just a start, but it worked.
