The Cyprus Pedagogical Institute of the Ministry of Education, Sports and Youth organized a Workshop on: "School violence and bullying: positive school climate as a protective factor". The Workshop was held on Friday, 25 November 2022, from 8:00 am to 1:00 pm, with the participation of teachers from pre-primary, primary and secondary education. The objective of the Workshop was to educate teachers on the forms and extent of school violence and bullying and risk and protection factors, with a focus on positive school climate. Also, practical suggestions and the opportunity for discussion and reflection, through experiential workshops, were provided for the prevention and effective management of incidents of violence and bullying in the school context.
At the beginning of the Workshop, the Deputy Director of the Pedagogical Institute, Dr. Elena Hadjikakou, welcomed the participants and addressed the participants on behalf of the Minister of Education, Sports and Youth, Mr.
The programme of the Workshop included a presentation by Dr. Kostas Fanti, Director of the Laboratory of Developmental Psychopathology and Associate Professor of Developmental Psychology at the Department of Psychology, University of Cyprus, on the topic: "Risk and protective factors of school violence: The importance of school climate". Through the scientifically documented presentation of Dr. Fanti, individual and social risk and protection factors were presented, as well as suggestions for interventions at the school unit level.
In the second part of the workshop, six workshops were held in parallel. The workshop, moderated by Dr. Hara Demetriou, entitled "Creating a culture of zero tolerance of violence in the classroom", discussed the phenomenon of normalisation of violent behaviour and ways of developing a safe environment in the classroom. Dr. Maria Petridou, in the workshop entitled "Developing Communication Skills for managing difficult incidents in the school context", through the use of case studies and scenarios, discussed communication skills and conflict resolution skills. In the workshop, moderated by Ms. Christiana Diplo, entitled "Teacher empowerment techniques on bullying: Effective communication between teachers and parents of child perpetrators and victims", the aim was to develop communication and relationships between teachers and parents/guardians through a variety of skills. Ms. Giota Panagiotou and Ms. Nasia Stefanou coordinated the workshop entitled "Non-violent communication", where teachers practiced identifying forms of aggressive communication, recognizing and verbalizing emotions and expressing requests using non-violent language. The workshop by Ms. Margarita Kyriakou entitled "Today's School: Inclusion and support by and for all and for all" focused on the principle of human rights-based education and a positive approach to challenging issues. The workshop moderated by Mr. Konstantinos Papageorgiou, entitled "Mental empowerment of teachers" presented techniques and tools to promote mental resilience for application in teachers' personal and professional lives.
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