Pupil Voice Week 2017 aims to celebrate the diversity and individuality of the pupil voice, encouraging pupils to use their voice be themselves and create positivity for those around them. We are lucky to have some fantastic partners supporting the week this year. eAWARE provide digital safeguarding in schools, in this blog their Lead Content Developer Joe Brewer explores the role pupil voice plays when tackling cyberbullying.

“No one should suffer in silence.” How many times have you heard that saying? Plenty I’m sure. Now ask yourself “How many times have I worried or been silenced, not knowing who to talk to and in turn suffered alone?”. If you’re like me then probably more times than you’re proud to admit.

Whilst my time at school was mostly happy there were occasions where bullying, both online and offline, got the better of me. I’d go home worrying about the next school day, feel isolated from my peers and worst of all, keep my worries to myself. Bullies had stripped me of my voice, I couldn’t speak up, challenge or report their behaviour.

I was lucky enough to break this cycle by gaining a small yet strong friendship circle who picked me up, reminded me I was liked and help me accept that the real issue lay with the bully and not me. A large part of this luck came from attending a school where the teachers were switched-on to the importance of empowering their students to know the awful effects bullying can have, and the importance of speaking up and refusing to be silenced.

The fact is that within the past year alone an estimated 1.5 million children and young people have experienced bullying either online or offline. As far as I’m concerned that’s 1.5 million too many. As teachers & child protection professionals we must recognise that there has never been a more important time to empower young people with the knowledge that diversity and individuality are to be celebrated allowing them to speak up and say no to bullying.

eAWARE was created with this ethos in mind. Much of my work focuses on creating classroom materials which empower students with the skills they need to identify online risks related to cyberbullying, sexting, grooming & social media.

I have experienced first-hand that when a young person is empowered their voice is instrumental in ensuring they can effectively mitigate risks. A strong student voice allows them to seek help and discuss their concerns freeing them from the isolation bullying & grooming forces upon them.

It is for this reason that eAWARE have proudly teamed up with tootoot for this year’s Pupil Voice Week, contributing our Cyberbullying Learning Pathway, including a lesson plan and classroom materials.

Pupils Voice Week seeks to help young people understand that their differences are to be celebrated and not ridiculed or silenced. So go ahead, say proudly that no one should suffer in silence and stand by your words by joining hundreds of schools, teachers, eAWARE, tootoot and others in this year’s Pupil Voice Week.

Joe Brewer

Lead Content Developer

To find out more about eAWARE click here

For more information you can also follow @tootootofficial or #PupilVoiceWeek on Twitter and Instagram, or search tootoot on Facebook.