Dandenong High School Case Study

Dandenong High School

Students attended a forum with the Greater Dandenong Council that focused on leadership, creating positive relationships, anti-bullying and family. They also assisted in the creation of an idea for a social media campaign.

Tell us about Dandenong High School

Dandenong High School is a co-educational school from Years 7 to 12 with an enrolment of approximately 2,000 students. The school is highly multicultural with 77 nationalities and 83 different language groups represented. It has a team of 200 teaching and 55 non-teaching staff.

What is the project?

The project involved a Student Action Team made up of 8 students from Year 8 to Year 12 working to develop an anti-bullying program that can be delivered to Year 7 students at Dandenong High School. In addition, the Student Action Team, named the No Bull Committee, assisted in the creation and promotion of an anti-bullying social media campaign.

What were the key objectives?

The project aimed to create a peer to peer connection that teachers and elders might not be able to achieve. The overall aim of the program was to decrease peer to peer bullying at the school.

How was it implemented?

The Student Action Team was formed through a combination of self-election (through an application form) and teacher recommendations. The group of 8 students began meeting and discussing the potential of the program.

The students were sent to an all-day forum working with the Greater Dandenong Council that focused on leadership, creating positive relationships, anti-bullying and family. These were identified by the council as the areas of most concern to young people in the area. During this day, the No Bull Committee assisted in the creation of an idea for a social media campaign for the Greater Dandenong area to be run on Instagram throughout October. The social media campaign was promoted by the group back at school through posters, flyers and a lunchtime concert. The students were also photographed for the local paper (Dandenong Leader) in regards to this positive campaign.

The students have continued to have regular meetings at school where they have been working on the creation of an anti-bullying program to be run with the Year 7 students.

Has the project been a success?

The program has met its objectives in a number of ways. The No Bull Committee has increased in confidence and has been demonstrating what they have learnt about leadership. Their meetings are insightful and well thought through. They are interested in helping other students.

The wider school community has benefited as they have been exposed to a social media campaign promoting anti-bullying and have been made aware of who the anti-bullying committee are if they want someone to talk to. Posters, flyers and a lunchtime concert also helped to promote anti-bullying. The Year 7 anti-bullying program is being written and work is being done by the group to ensure it will be sustainable.

What is the future of the project?

The program will be sustainable in that each year new Year 8 students will be invited to join and the Year 10 students from the previous year will become the Year 11 leaders. The group will continue to work towards decreasing bullying at Dandenong High School.

Contact

Katie Yaghmoor -