This project is designed to promote the knowledge, skills and attitudes that will help children and young people to resolve conflicts peacefully, to reduce the occurrences of conflict and to create the social conditions conducive to peace. Our approaches are creative, inclusive and dynamic, using circles as a forum for activities, games and discussion.
Our full safeguarding policy is available on request. The key points are:
• All our team hold current enhanced DBS to be shared with schools prior to starting the programmes.
• All our team are experienced and have appropriate training and references.
• Everyone on the team is familiar with our Code of Conduct, our processes and procedures and any specific safeguarding arrangements held within Bristol Area Meeting.
Peace education is a critical approach to personal and social development rooted in a commitment to ‘peace’: not only the absence of violence but also the presence of relationships that work well. Conscious of disaffection in the classroom, bullying in the playground, and a troubled society, peace education asks what better relationships mean and how students and staff can cultivate them – with themselves, each other, and their wider world.
We believe that every school can develop as a community committed to the healthy development of all their members, supporting students and staff alike to build the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that enable them to relate well. Even within the contested mix of approaches that frame education in Britain, peace education can offer children a unique, extended opportunity to develop effective ways of relating in every sphere of their lives.
Such a relational approach brings many evidenced benefits, including the fuller development of children and young people, a more effective learning environment in school, and emerging citizens who are more conscientiously involved in their society. We have seen young people grow in wellbeing and confidence, demonstrate leadership, and take critically conscious perspectives on their world. Young mediators have become community workers and peacebuilders, former gang members have become youth coaches, teachers have witnessed their relationships with students transformed.
Peace at the heart: A relational approach to education in British Schools.
Quakers in Britain 2022
Designed for Year 6 at the start of the School Year, or for Year 5 at the end of their school year.
This is a two day course, with an hour long introduction for each class in the year group at least a day prior to the start of the course. Following the introduction, the two day training programme is usually delivered to a group of 16 children who have been selected to be peer mediators. This can be by election, by choice or through selection by staff.
Designed for Years 2 and 3, and can also be adapted for Year 4.
This programme is delivered in six hour-long sessions over the course of six weeks. The class is split into two, with two facilitators for each group of about 15 children.
I will remember the magic carpet.
All the sessions were fun.
I enjoyed learning how to calm myself down.
I learned about empathy.
For further details about the sessions, please contact:
Jenni Harris, Peaceful Schools project co-facilitator
