Who are we?
SMILE is a project run by Mediation North
Staffs, set up with Children’s Fund money, to take the skills of mediation to
the younger generation. Research shows
that businesses etc are finding mediation to be a cost effective and useful
tool. Taking Mediation into schools helps empower and develop skills including
emotional literacy which will be of great use to all our future citizens. SMILE aims to empower everyone to take part in creating
a uniform approach to tackling bullying and disruptive behaviour.
Mediation
is a process where a neutral third party helps two people to resolve their
difficulties in a way which respects their individual rights and needs.
Our
Aims
P To increase the confidence
and ability of children, staff, parents and agencies to manage conflict
effectively
P To provide training
and education in methods of conflict resolution for individuals, schools and
communities
P To improve children’s and
staffs understanding of the nature and causes of disputes
P To change the culture from
looking for who to blame, to how we want things to be in the future
P To enable others to better manage conflict
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Working with Young People
The SMILE team has
worked hard to create an approach which not only gives young people important
skills but also involves them fully in the process. This enabled us to become one of the first
projects to gain the Quality Kite mark award, designed and awarded by the
children of Stoke-on-Trent, showing that SMILE recognises and
addresses every young persons needs.
We went
along to the assessment day with two mediators from Glebe Primary
school,
who agreed to help represent our service.
Both children have been
mediators
at their school since year 5 and told us that they still find it fun and feel
it is a
useful skill which will help them in high school.
There was
a panel of 4 young people and 2 adults and they asked us questions on
things
like,
Do we ask
young people their opinions?
Do we
involve them on interview panels?
Every time
we work with a new school we are impressed by the children’s
abilities,
especially as mediators.
Too often
now children are labelled as trouble starters rather than trouble
stoppers,
but the aptly named mediators from Queens, are
working to put that
right.
All of us on the SMILE team support this initiative and hope that it
goes from strength to strength.
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Achieving legitimacy
Mediation may be proven
as a valid way of resolving disputes, but we need to ensure that we become a
part of the mainstream thinking around emotional literacy and conflict
resolution.
We need to work
to ensure that individuals, schools and organisations value our work and acknowledge
the contribution mediation can make towards increasing effectiveness of
education.
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Thanks
Thank you to all the schools
below for taking on board the SMILE peer mediation project.
Belgrave C.E.(C) Primary
Blurton Primary
Blurton High
Brownhills High
Christchurch Primary
Edensor Technology College
Elworth Hall Primary
Glebe Primary
Grafton Infants
Heron Cross Primary
John Baskeyfield Primary
Newstead Primary
Our Lady’s C.E. Primary
Queens Primary
Trentham High
Whitfield Valley Primary
Thanks to everyone else who
has supported our project.
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