AND the winner is….Nottingham school pupil Sharna Greath, whose important anti-bullying message is set to be seen by thousands of people as part of national Anti-Bullying Week.
Sharna was among 200 local school children who entered a competition to design posters which reflected the advice, ‘Bullying – See it, Get Help, Stop it', for Anti-Bullying Week, which takes place this week, November 20-24.
And this Friday, November 24, at The Wheldon School, Carlton, Sharna's achievement will be recognised in a presentation and prize-giving ceremony attended by Trent FM's Jo and Twiggy.
Sharna, whose colourful poster reads, ‘Help to Take Bullying to the End of the Road!' will be joined by 13 other pupils who each have either received commendations or were class winners for their own poster designs.
All the pupils are Year 7, 8 or 9 pupils from six local schools: The Wheldon School, Harry Carlton School , Nottingham Bluecoat School and Technology College , Fairham Community College , Farnborough School Technology College and William Sharp School .
On Friday, Sharna will receive a Six Month travel pass from Nottingham City Transport (NCT), a Safemark calculator, Safemark wallet, mouse mat plus a goody bag. Her poster will also be displayed on NCT buses and in the Travel Centre, Market Square. All the other winners (see below) will also receive either NCT month travel passes or NCT Dayrider tickets as well as various school items and goodies.
On top of all this, on Friday the children will enjoy a 20-minute walk with radio presenter Twiggy, who will be handcuffed to schools police officer PC Paul Kankikowski. The media are invited to attend for photographs and interviews.
The competition was organised by NCT and Nottinghamshire Police, a member of the national Anti-Bullying Alliance . Their officers work in schools, to re-enforce this message throughout the school year, so that pupils feel comfortable going to and from school safely.
Respect for Transport, which campaigns to prevent violence and anti-social disorder on Nottingham 's public transport network, has also supported the competition.
One of the competition judges, Nicola Tidy, who is Marketing & Communication Director for NCT, said: “NCT is delighted to work with the police and schools to raise awareness and stop bullying. The journey back home is often the prelude to a serious bullying incident once the children alight. But friends should not be scared to inform an adult so that action can be taken. This will make future journeys safer for all passengers.”
Of the competition poster entries, Ms Tidy added: “The standard of entries was extremely high, which is why we have also given additional commendation awards for some posters. All the students have obviously put in a lot of time and effort to support this important campaign.”
Although designing posters was obviously fun for all involved, the message in the posters is very serious – when children see or hear about bullying, they should inform an adult or teacher, and not stay silent. That message reflect this year's Anti-Bullying Week, which has a theme of ‘the bystander.'
Although bullying incidents are not recorded by Nottinghamshire police, national statistics from ChildLine confirm the extent to which bullying causes misery in young people's lives. Between April 2005 and March 2006, ChildLine counseled 37,032 children about bullying – around a quarter of all the calls taken in that period. Just over 4,000 other callers rang for other reasons but went on to talk about bullying.
All the winning anti-bullying posters can now be seen on a webpage set up by NCT - available here.
The winning pupils are:
Overall competition winner
Sharna Greath, of William Sharp School .
Class winners (runners up)
- Charlotte Greening (William Sharp)
- Rhiannon Twigg (William Sharp)
- Bethany Darbyshire (Bluecoat)
- Sarah Lewis (Fairham)
- Harriet Kaczmarczuk (Harry Carlton)
- Nadia Pulfrey ( Farnborough School )
Commendations
- Connor Wallace (William Sharp)
- Keiron Young (William Sharp)
- Alivia Francis (Bluecoat)
- James Saunders (Bluecoat)
- Kyle Sheffield (Fairham)
- Zoe Preist (Fairham)
- Alex Forry (Harry Carlton)
- Keiran Faulconbridge (Harry Carlton)
Due to late involvement in the competition The Wheldon School entries were not considered for the overall competition prize. However, runner up and commendation prizes will be awarded later in the week.
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