Students learn how to cope with COVID-19, fight bullying

As students settle back into classrooms across the country, some have begun receiving promised support to better cope with the challenges triggered by the COVID 19 pandemic.

Some schools are also about to see the launch of an international programme to fight bullying and peer pressure.

Students at the Parkinson Secondary School have been among the first to benefit from the Supreme Mental Health Matters programme rolled out by Supreme Counselling for Personal Development in partnership with the Ministry of Education.

“Last week we completed several sessions at Parkinson Memorial with their fifth years on location on the topic Managing Exam Stress and with their third years, online, addressing the topic Achieving and Maintaining Good Mental Health, Chief Executive Officer of Supreme Counselling Shawn Clarke revealed.

Five schools are soon to benefit: The Lester Vaughn School, St George Secondary, Frederick Smith Secondary, Grantley Adams Memorial and Princess Margaret Secondary.

Clarke said the sessions will also cover bullying and its impact on mental health, overcoming COVID-19 fears, managing depression and anxiety and the role of mindfulness in creating good mental health.

In another four months, Supreme Counselling is also to launch a study in all 21 public secondary schools probing student behaviour and attitudes.

Clarke said: “This research will provide us with some vital information about our children’s self-esteem levels, the level of confidence shown by our children, their attitudes towards their future, their ability to resolve conflict, and things of the like. It will assist us in the planning of programmes for our students.”

Supreme Counselling will also be stepping up the fight against bullying with the relaunch of the Olweus Bullying Prevention Programme at Frederick Smith, Grantley Adams and Lester Vaughan.  The programme will also be launched at the St. George Secondary School.

Considered the most researched and best-known bullying prevention programme in the world, the Olweus programme’s goals are to reduce and prevent bullying incidences and improve peer relations at school.

Researchers say the programme has been found to reduce bullying among students, improve the social climate of classrooms, and reduce vandalism and truancy, among other antisocial behaviours. It is targeted at all five forms of bullying: verbal, physical, indirect/relational, sexual and cyber/electronic bullying. (SD)