This cultural exchange used the Cooling Conflicts program to address bullying. The two schools used their connected classrooms to communicate and participate in enhanced forum theatre activities which culminated in a school visit.
Bringelly Public School is a semi-rural school in south west Sydney with 31% of its students from a background where English is not spoken at home. Lurnea High School is a comprehensive, co-educational secondary school located in Liverpool with 67% of students from language backgrounds other than English. It houses an Intensive English Centre (IEC) for newly arrived migrants and refugees.
The aim of the program was to build cultural understandings and provide students with the skills to manage conflict.
Participant feedback
One high point was to see the new arrival high school students, often so vulnerable to bullying and racism themselves, empowered to become the conflict management experts and to see them accepted as peer teachers and mentors for the day.
Kate Clarkson, teacher Lurnea IEC
