By REBECCA BILLS
STUDENT leaders from Mount Evelyn schools gathered last week to tackle all things bullying.
Leaders from Mount Evelyn Primary School, Birmingham Primary School, St Marys Primary School and Yarra Hills Secondary School gathered as a team under the major community project aimed at empowering all to become Bully Stoppers.
The purpose of the forum was to give a voice to the school captains, vice captains and school ambassadors in their local community and to network with each other to develop leadership skills to enable them to take a positive action in the community.
Guest speakers at the event were local policewoman Lisa Brookes, Rotary Club of Lilydale president Margi Sank, Yarra Ranges Council Mayor Jim Child, CEO of Morrisions Jan Simmons, Yarra Hills acting principal Robyn Dew and councillor Maria McCarthy who all shared their thoughts on the importance of confronting bullying.
Mrs Sank said Rotary Club members were excited to be involved with the project and consider it something they will continue to be a part of in the future as it works in well with their 2013 theme of peace and harmony.
“We are delighted to be involved and really happy to be working with the schools,” she said.
“It’s been really lovely to see the leaders of the schools getting together and interacting and seeing the Yarra Hills students being the mentors.
“I think that’s a really good outcome and the fact we’ve got so many students here is just fantastic.”
The forum was a continuation of the Mount Evelyn Township Planning Night which was held earlier this year where students in attendance identified a need for a collaborative student voice to approach the bullying issues and further their involvement in the local community.
St Mary’s Primary School captain Annabelle said she enjoyed the experience and learnt a lot from working with other schools in the area to tackle bullying.
“I didn’t really expect it but I actually liked being mixed together with the other schools because we have never done anything like this with just the Mount Evelyn community schools,” she said.
“I think that it has been really good to spend the day discussing ideas and our own personal experiences.
“We, as the captains, are going to take everything that we’ve learnt back to school and tell them all about how there are always people to help and something you can do to tackle bullying.”
