Episode 3: The rabbit is being bullied. A video on prevention.

The film is intended to raise children's awareness of the topic. They should recognise when harmless pranks turn into bullying and how to react in such a situation. The children can be asked to observe a particular animal and think about why it is behaving in this way. They can then discuss the motives of the individual animals and how each could help to stop the bullying.

Instructions on video use for teachers:

Dear teacher
Bullying is a frequent and serious problem in schools. As a teacher, you want every child to be able to come to school without fear and feel comfortable in the classroom. However, achieving this is anything but easy! It is difficult...

• Recognising bullying
• Distinguish bullying from normal conflicts
• Responding to bullying in a way that actually changes the situation for the bullied child

For this reason, it would be helpful to tackle bullying preventively. In doing so, it is valuable if the pupils...

• Know the difference between conflict and bullying.
• Being able to empathise with bullied children, recognising how bad bullying is for the children concerned...
• ...therefore speak out against bullying or do not take part in such actions.
• Know how to react if they or other children are bullied.

The short film «Bullying at school: The rabbit is being bullied» is designed to help you work on these goals and discuss this sensitive topic with your class. The central element of prevention is not the film, but the discussions among the pupils that you can stimulate with the help of the film. And this is how you can proceed:

1. Before playing the film, hand out one of the role cards to all pupils, which you can download here as a PDF.
2. Give the students the following task: «I'm about to show you a short film. Please focus on the animal on your card and think about how this animal is feeling.» (Caution: If you know or suspect that a child in your class is being bullied, they should not receive the rabbit card).
3. After the film, the pupils work in groups, whereby the group allocation is based on the cards: All the rabbits, vixens, squirrels, beavers and bears form a group and discuss how their animal felt during the film.
4. For the next step, the groups are reshuffled. One vixen, one squirrel, one bear, one beaver and one fox go into each group. In this group, the pupils discuss what could be done to make the hare feel better again.

What are the learning objectives?

Pupils can learn the following from the film:

What is bullying?
Conflicts or even the occasional fight are part of everyday school life. Bullying differs from this in several ways:

• There is an imbalance of power: a group systematically attacks a single child who is unable to defend himself over a long period of time.
• Many actions seem harmless or even funny. However, it is bad for those affected because they take place regularly and signalise: We don't like you (anymore), you don't belong!
• No matter what the bullied child does, the group interprets it in such a way that the child cannot escape the situation: If it pretends nothing is wrong, it is considered a coward. If they fight back, the others take revenge. If he reports the incidents to the teacher, the others call him a snitch.

How does bullying develop?
Bullying can develop in very different ways. In the film, the situation arises from an initially harmless prank. It develops a momentum of its own that the animals cannot see through.

How should you react to bullying?
The film aims to show that there are not simply perpetrators and victims of bullying. Instead, the animals take on different roles.

• The vixen is a protagonist - she plans the activities and encourages the others to join in.
• The squirrel willingly joins in. Probably also to please the vixen.
• The bear is very uncomfortable. He would like to help, but doesn't dare.
• The beaver helps the hare by defending it and eventually getting help.
• The wolf does not actively participate, but laughs along with the pranks and thus encourages the vixen and the raccoon in their actions.
• The owl tries to stay out of it. Perhaps so as not to become a target himself.

The children should understand that the vixen can only act in this way because the other animals support her, laugh with her or look away. In finding a solution, they should also discover that every animal could help the rabbit if it took responsibility. What do I do if there is bullying in my class?

Important: Even if a child is currently being bullied in your class, stick to this approach when working with the animals. If you address the situation in class, it is very likely that the pupils will go on the defensive, justify their behaviour and are no longer willing to empathise with the child concerned and develop solutions. Trust that the class will transfer what they have learnt to their own situation and continue to monitor the situation. Use a different strategy if nothing changes in the next two weeks. In this case, we are happy to advise you to implement the «No Blame Approach» alone or together with the school social worker. We have described this HERE Link.