Peace Keepers

by K
(Brisbane, Australia)

A few years ago I was assigned a year 3 class that had a large group of identified "bullies" and targets and other identified playground behavioural problems.

During the first term I implemented our Peace Keeper Corp (some of the kids had army parents so they really liked this) and peace keeper training. Eg: what does a good friend look/sound/feel like, when to recognise that people needed help and how to help (we had a special rule "No one sitting without friends to play with") ,who to go to for help (not necessarily a teacher) and just simple things like the school rules and why we had them.

At the end of the term the class were awarded their Peace Keeper badges (smiley face badges) that they attached to their hats (no need to ever take them off). They also earned the letters P E A C E K E E P E R on a class chart. For indiscretions they lost a letter until they re-earned it.

Anyone who may have slipped back into old habits and lost the K E E P E R handed in their badge and completed a 'refresher' course and then had to do something spectacularly nice for the students they had hurt/upset and then they were re-awarded their badge with suitable pomp and ceremony. (This only happened once by the way and the student was devastated. He bounced back!)

These students took this very seriously and we saw a dramatic decrease in the number of incidents that the students were involved in. The class developed a sense of security and belonging and really looked after each other.

It was supplemented with lots of rewards for positive behaviours of course. Other teachers commented on how well it worked and how my students identified themselves as Peace Keepers whenever they intervened peacefully in other students 'battles'! It probably worked best though because it was just our class that were the PEACEKEEPERS.