Anti-Bullying Week at Ferndene

Last week in Ferndene we raised awareness of Anti- Bullying week and we explored issues using the 'Votes for Schools' programme.

During our SMSC lesson we debated whether being part of a fandom could lead to incidences of bullying. The young people were given lots of scenarios to consider, for example, the treatment of Taylor Swift by some of her fans and how certain fans reacted to the last episode of a popular TV programme.

We found out that negative responses from fans have always been around; did you know that in 1927 fans of Sherlock Holmes were furious when the author killed the main character off? This situation caused rioting in London at the time, proving that there has always been people who want to express their strong opinions!

We were very impressed and proud of our pupils during the lesson as they read the scenarios and really thought hard about the impact of the fans’ behaviours on others. Our pupils also showed that they could analyse the language used in each scenario and concluded that each scenario did not give sufficient information to make an informed decision and they concluded that they required more evidence to be able to make up their minds whether each involved bullying or not.

We thought that this was a good life lesson; do not jump to conclusions until you have all of the facts and the evidence!

Well done, Ferndene pupils you really showed great maturity with this subject.