Meath Partnership would like to thank Principal Mark Carey of Gilson National School in Oldcastle, Co. Meath, for inviting us to deliver thematic workshops to his students in 4th, 5th and 6th class in March. As part of these thematic workshops, students were introduced to the different types of bullying the effects which bullying can have on the victim and on others, the different roles involved in bullying and how to stay safe online and to report cyberbullying. In addition to these interactive workshops, students also completed a t-shirt activity in class. For this activity, students were asked to think about the way a victim of bullying must feel; to practice empathy and to put themselves in the shoes of a victim of all types of bullying.

Then, they each volunteered to talk about these feelings with others in their class group and then to write these feelings on a white t-shirt. This t-shirt will be put on display in the school hallway as a reminder to students to respect one another and to remember how victims of bullying feel. Gilson National School has a very positive whole-school approach to tacking instances of bullying, and so they were the perfect school to support the implementation of the ComBuS Toolkit in Meath. We look forward to continuing our work with this school community.”