Saint Mary Corowa and Rutherglen grade five and six students enjoyed a roadtrip to Yarrawonga to take part in the Backflips against Bullying workshop on the last day of term.
Acrobatics with an important and timely message about bullying were the last day of term activities for St Mary’s Corowa and Rutherglen senior students.
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Year five and six students made the roadtrip to Yarrawonga to take part in the Backflips against Bullying program, a presentation which uses performers incredible acrobatic skills to captivate and engage students; earning their respect and encouraging them to take control of their own lives and make changes on a social level within the school.
The Backflips Against Bullying program features three entertainers who perform and speak about varying aspects of bullying including exit strategies for the victim, deliberate social exclusion, the consequences of retaliation, resilience, cyber-bullying, physical, verbal and social harassment, the consequences of our actions, acknowledging our mistakes and making a change, consent, inclusion and team building.
There was plenty of crowd interaction with Backflips Against Bullying performer Luca performing a backflip over the students.
“Education is based on content and engagement. Great content isn’t enough
to educate students who don’t want to learn,” Backflips against Bullying performer Luca said.
“Engaging students in any topic is the hardest, but take discrimination or bullying for example.
“The students who need to hear it the most are the ones who are hardest to engage, because instinctively we resist things that aim to challenge us, or our ways.
“Parkour and Acrobatics is one of the fastest growing trends today. But it’s unreasonable to expect that teachers will learn how to do backflips,” performer Sarah added.
“And that’s what an incursion is for - bring in a specialist who can bring something new to the table. When students are engaged, they learn.
“So we engage them with backflips, and we teach them about bullying.”
Throughout the hour long performance there was an abundance of crowd interaction and involvement with the message of the day “not let anyone tell you, you can’t do anything” well received by students who appeared to be empowered in their new psychological skills.
At the end of the session students asked a great number of questions both about acrobatics and bullying with a spokesperson for St Mary’s School Corowa saying it was a rich learning experience for every student.
St Mary’s Rutherglen added that it was a great day learning about resilience and bullying.
After the primary school program year six from Sacred Heart Primary School in Yarrawonga also joined year 7 and 8 from Sacred Heart College for the high school program which looks into cyber-bullying, harassment, power dynamics, consent and relationships.
The program also gives each school resources to teach throughout the year so the message about bullying is not lost.
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