Warwickshire News Mine

The youngsters have all been invited to a prize giving event on Tuesday 29 July at The Gap Community Centre in Warwick where the winning entries will be showcased.

Warwickshire’s Anti-bullying Partnership launched the competitions during anti-bullying week in November 2009, tasking the county’s young people to get creative by designing a mousemat, creating a video storyboard, or recording a radio advert featuring messages about beating the bullies.

The mousemat competition was open to children aged 4-11 and Matty Heales from The Revel Primary School in Monks Kirby won 1st prize out of over fifty entries from schools around the county. Matty will see his design ‘breaking the bullying chain’, made up into mousemats for all his classmates. Matty and three runners up will also receive gift vouchers for a high street store.

Groups of older pupils entered a competition to come up with a storyboard for an anti-bullying video advert. The winning group of Alice Lake, Jessica Smith and Sabrina Ahmed from Year 7 at Alcester Grammar School have had their storyboard made into a short film soon to be available on the county council website.

In the third competition, children and young people aged 4 – 19 made an audio anti-bullying message for radio.  Three shortlisted finalists heard their advert played on air at Touch FM and Kirsty Leahy from the station’s breakfast show announced Harriet Riley and Anya Chilton-Hawkes
Stratford Grammar School Year 7s as the overall winners. The girls won a tour of the Touch FM studios and a goody bag.

As an extra reward, some young people aged 11-19 who entered the video competition took part in a Ministry of Defence activity day at their Kineton base on 8 June.  During the day they learned a lot about the work of the MOD’s bomb disposal team and had first hand experience of some of the training activities delivered at the base.  Other young people chose to enjoy a day out at the Ackers Outdoor Activity Centre in Birmingham.

Warwickshire County Councillor Heather Timms, Portfolio Holder for Children, Young People and Families said: “The Anti-bullying Partnership works extremely hard to stamp out bullying and these creative competitions offer innovative ways to get children thinking of new ways to express themselves and make their friends and families safer.”

Warwickshire County Council’s Anti-bullying Co-ordinator Rachel Evans said: “These competitions are another way for the partnership to promote anti-bullying messages and get children and young people engaged.

“We have been working with schools and youth and community groups to develop resources to support anti-bullying initiatives in Warwickshire for a number of years now. 

“Over this time schools have become more involved, school representation in the partnership has grown as a result and we have developed a close information sharing network between schools and partners. This enables us to be more effective in our approach to tackle bullying in the county.”

Warwickshire’s anti-bullying partnership is made up of Warwickshire County Council, schools, Warwickshire Police and a range of other agencies including Connexions, Victim Support and Barnardos who work together to influence positive behaviours and stamp out bullying.

For more information about the Anti-bullying Partnership and how to get involved with any of the projects log onto http://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/bullying

Link to WCC