Childnet’s award-winning [1] Cyberbullying film, Lets Fight it Together, is now available as a DVD for schools to order free*. This DVD, produced by Childnet for the Department for Children schools and Families in the UK (DCSF), is a practical resource to help schools, and the whole-school community, prevent and respond to cyberbullying. It is designed to challenge people to think about how they behave when using the internet and mobile technologies, the potential impact of cyberbullying, and ultimately to address and change unacceptable online activities thus helping to prevent young people and adults becoming victims or perpetrators of this behaviour.
“We have seen a clear reduction in bullying behaviour from the pupils who have seen the film. It seems to work where talking, explaining and mediation have failed in the past”. Teacher, Buckinghamshire
The interviews with the characters from the film also enables audiences to understand the impact that cyberbullying can have on different people, including the bully, but underlines the message that cyberbullying is not acceptable in any situation.
“The film was exceptionally well received (by year 7-11 pupils) – pins dropping comes to mind! The response from the students was amazing and sensitive even amongst somewhat disaffected yr 11s! It was very powerful and made quite an impact. Many students were overheard by staff commenting on it and some making apologetic comments about students they may not have been overly kind to.” Teacher, Norfolk
Just over 40,000 copies of the film have been duplicated and the resource comes with an accompanying teacher’s guide that includes links to the new secondary school curriculum, two lesson plans and key strategies and advice for young people and parents and carers on how to deal with cyberbullying.
Childnet’s Schools’ manager, Nicola Sanders, who oversaw production of the film and wrote the guidance notes for teachers says, “We’ve already heard from hundreds of teachers saying how powerful this film is in helping them tackle this issue. Its so important that teachers know how best to use this film in the classroom and or an assembly and the guide gives lots of very useful and valuable information about where this issue fits into the curriculum as well as what follow-up activities would be useful”.
You can see the film online at www.digizen.org/cyberbullying/film.aspx, and there is also an evaluation form to record the effectiveness and usefulness of the resource when working with different audiences: www.digizen.org/cyberbullying/film/feedback.aspx.
There are further accompanying resources for pupils, parents and teachers on the subject of cyberbullying, as well as the Guidance for Schools on preventing and responding to Cyberbullying, available on the Digizen site.
For details on how to order the Lets Fight it together DVD follow this link.
(*This DVD is now free for maintained schools in England. Other organisations wanting to order this resource should contact Childnet at [email protected] or 02076396967.)
1. Recently the Film won a Bronze medal in the Education category of the International Visual Communication Association Awards (IVCA) the film was also a finalist in the New York Film Festival.
