This activity was created to involve students in understanding

what bullying is and its effects on those around them, improve their

English language through writing and speaking activities and incorpo-

rate the use of 21st Century Skills.

By understanding the effects of bullying, students promoted an

anti-bullying environment and attitude within the school and will carry

it with them into the future. They also engaged in creative writing ac-

tivities to promote their language and expression in English as well as

used technology. They collaborated with their peers and in addition

acted as mentors to younger students, teaching them about appropri-

ate behaviour towards others.

These are the stories students wrote together to raise aware-

ness of the problem.

Inspiration for the Project

My Bullying Story pages 2-3 (Orange Group)

Dear Diary pages 4-5 (Green Group)

Freedom Day! pages 6-8 (Blue Group)

My Bullying Story page 9 (Pink Group)

My Bullying Story pages 10-11 (Red Group)

My Bullying Story By Class 2A

P A GE 2 M Y B ULLY IN G S TO RY

My Bullying Story

As I stepped off the bus and made my way towards the classroom,

I knew that today would be just as the other days…a nightmare! My

hands were shaking like dry leaves on the trees in autumn. When I fi-

nally arrived in my classroom, I faced the closed door. I could hear my

other classmates laughing at my name. My heart sank but I needed to

go inside.

”Guys, put your books on the desk,” the teacher said. I stepped

into the classroom. When I opened the door, they were all staring at

me and pointing at me.

“You are late, John,” the teacher said. I sat at my desk, trying to

follow the lesson which was going on. At some point the teacher shout-

ed, “Come here John. It’s your turn to present your project”. My heart

began beating quickly, so much so I could hear it thumping in my ears.

Everything seemed to slow down, it felt like a century but as if by mira-

cle, the bell rang.

I quickly got up and escaped the classroom. As I was walking near

the benches in the schoolyard, I saw all my classmates sitting next to

each other. They were all together, playing a game and laughing. At

some point, George stared at me, laughing and making fun of me with

my other classmates. . I heard them saying, “Look at his shoes, they

are old fashioned and they are ripped.” I was thinking in my mind “Why

are they judging me? Have I done something to them?” All these

thoughts were driving me crazy. Suddenly George appeared in front of

P A GE 3

me. He was looking at me with a threatening

face and without realizing it, I was on the

ground. George had punched me hard in the

face.

A teacher immediately came there and saw me

on the ground. She asked what happened and

when I told her the whole story, she looked so disappointed with George.

George remained speechless. He started thinking about what he did and

felt sorry. However, it was too late… The teacher looked at me and said,

“You are not alone John, we will help you. Bullying is wrong.” The next

day, George was punished. The teacher told George that was not correct

what he did, and that’s why he was punished. Judging people because of

their appearance, their personality or any other reason is wrong.

All in all George learned his lesson and he never bullied again. I was

not afraid of going to class. In addition, I was very happy because George

would never bully me again. While the memories will be in my mind for-

ever, I truly am a stronger person!

P A GE 4 M Y B ULLY IN G S TO RY

Dear Diary, Maria here!

I woke up January 12th, dreading my

return to school. Christmas break was such a

wondrous break from the living hell at

school. Oh my God! I have to face once again my rude classmates.

Their words hurt and cause me insufferable pain. I am not as pretty and

fit like the popular girls at school. I feel so alone. Everybody laughs at

me and I don’t have a friend to talk to or to spend time with during

breaks or even afterschool, except Tania. She is different and awesome.

She has stuck with me through all the pranks the "cool" kids at school

pulled on me. Now, Tania won't be there to support me- she went back

to her home country.

I cannot live another moment of embarrassment. People don’t

accept people who are different. They don't respect other people and

they cannot understand that we cannot all be the same. Each person is

unique and has the same rights.

As I think back to my years at school, I am haunted by the memo-

ries. It's like a monster, who comes in my dreams every night. I hear

voices calling me fat, nerd … I am so sick of never being beautiful

enough; never being stronger, or better. I am sick of going home every

day, and wishing I were someone else.

For once, I want to look in the mirror and be happy at what I see

in the reflection. They used to steal my food because they said that

"dino" doesn't need any more food. No one joined me in group pro-

P A GE 5

jects. No one spent time with me during break time. I remember sitting

alone at the bench and my tears were unstoppable. I am afraid to go

back. I don't want to go back. I don’t want to smile and I don’t have any

reason to.

How can I face them? Why it is acceptable for someone to make an-

other human being's life a misery! I live with bullying every day, I am

afraid, and I feel embarrassed to talk to anyone. I only trust you, my diary.

I remember all this and I feel angry. I don’t want to be a victim anymore. I

deserve respect and a life.

I have decided it. Today, I will change my whole life. I will talk to my

mom. Mom is always there for me and I am sure she will help me. As she

always says, God made everybody the same and He loves us all the same.

I believe Him. I will gain myself respect and I will not allow anyone to treat

me like this again. I will not allow other to say things about my appear-

ance or my personality.

If I talk to Tania, I am sure together we can make a site about anti-

bullying to help me and help the thousands of children who are in the

same situation as mine and suffer from bullying. I will not let this happen

to me again! I won’t come home and cry every day and I will finally be

happy to go to school because everything will change tomorrow. I have to

go now, as Mom is calling me – I’m late and it's a brand new, special day

tomorrow and I will have to take a deep breath and hope that everything

is finally going to be ….okay.

Bye diary, Maria

P A GE 6 M Y B ULLY IN G S TO RY

Freedom Day

"Monkey, go to the end of the queue! I think at the end of the

break there will be a lot of bananas left for you in the canteen.”

Everybody was laughing at him. As I watched that horrible scene,

I knew that I had to do something about that since I was the only per-

son in the class who knew what was going on with my classmate. This

happened almost every day .I felt so sorry for him because I could not

help him, as I was short and slim, the exact opposite in size as the bully.

Even though he was afraid that the bully was going to react and

try to get back at him; even though he was being threatened by him

that he was going to kill him; even though he was shy because everyone

would learn what was going on and make fun of him; he finally took the

brave decision to go and talk to his teacher about his problem. As he

spoke to her, he allowed the truth to float out of his mouth like a poem.

That was the only way he was going to turn his life around, for a better

future. What was happening, how long it was happening, who was at

fault and how it occurred – all these things needed to be told. I would

go with him for support because he was anxious.

At break, while we were walking towards the main offices where

our teachers were, he seemed stressed. His mind was flooded with bad

scenarios. He was constantly asking me, “What if she also laughs at

me? What if she cannot do anything either? What if the bully finds out

that I told on him? You know that he "promised" me that if I said any-

thing to anyone he would kill me?” I tried to encourage him and calm

P A GE 7

him down by reminding him of some examples of people that were in

the same situation as him who at the end "won" that battle fairly easy.

In addition, I reminded him of one phrase that we had learnt in English

lesson earlier, in the morning, that day. As Alexander the great, once

said, "What cannot be solved is cut ".That was the only case that I was

afraid of. We were going to speak to my friend's favourite teacher, our

English teacher – she would understand,

she would help.

When he had finally told her everything,

the teacher stared at him! I wasn't sur-

prised. I think that anyone, who had

heard the shocking news, would have done the same. Suddenly her

face turned blue and she lost her voice. She could not believe that she

did not realize what was happening for so long now and that if the boy

had not told her anything she was never going to know. Regaining her

senses, we tried to devise a plan to expose him in front of the head-

master. The next break we went back to the office to explain our plan.

At the end of the second break all three of us knew very well, what we

had to do and the most important now we were all sure that the next

day was going to be fateful for both the school and the bully but

most of all it was the "FREEDOM DAY" of my best friend.

The next day, in the morning my friend was being bullied as usual

in a physical and verbal way by the bully and his "gang". This time

though he had a completely different expression because he knew eve-

P A GE 8 M Y B ULLY IN G S TO RY

rything were predesigned. My teacher along with the headmaster of

the school were in the yard, behind a wall, watching with their own

eyes what was happening. The headmaster of course did not know why

he was there. The only thing that I was sure of was that he was going to

see something he could never imagine in our school. Suddenly he

"sprang out" and walked towards them. Our teacher told my friend

that they had seen everything and that the bully was going to be sus-

pended for it. My friend was pleased. They led the bully to the head-

master's office and as anyone would guess, he was suspended from

school for about one week. In addition, he was punished. He had to

clean the school's toilets for one month.

The next day my friend was happier

than ever. The bully was gone and no one

else dared to bully him again because they

knew what their punishment would be.

Hhhhhhhhhh...Toilets!

P A GE 9

My Bullying Story

As soon as the bell wailed for break time, the students flooded out of the

stifling classrooms eager to get fresh air. While I was ordering food, I heard some-

one crying. I walked out the door to see what was going on.

I could hardly believe my eyes .Five students; the bullies of the fifth class

were kicking my friend. I froze. My heart was beating so fast that I thought it

would jump out of my chest. I didn't know what to do, but the view was so horri-

ble that I had to do something…fast. I ran to the teacher’s staff room and ex-

plained what was happening. Then a few teachers came with me and took the

bullies to the office. Another teacher took my friend Jim to the nurse. The hall

became quite again and everything seemed to go back to normal.

My friend was so scared and was crying as I tried to calm him. Suddenly, a

boy from the fifth grade came and threatened me that I would be in big trouble. I

went to Jim's house after school and we both explained what happened at school.

The bullies learned from their own sources that we had betrayed them and we

were really in big trouble.

From the first moment, I knew the next day was going to be

a lot harder than any other day. And it was. I couldn't take

my eyes off my watch, worrying about my best friend and

myself. As the hours and minutes passed, we heard the bell

ring, increasing our heartbeats. Before we could get out of class, the group of

bullies were waiting for us to go outside. I could tell from their expressive faces

and with a blink of an eye, they took rocks out of their big baggy trousers and

aimed for us. Only god knows how we managed to get out of this situation, but a

group of people came at the last second to save us. I was so pleased to see them

I felt immediately so safe and relaxed. Someone called the police so they

came and took the bullies to their office. After that, we never heard of them

again. This was a beautiful ending to a bad story.

P A GE 1 0 M Y B ULLY IN G S TO RY

My Bullying Story

“Class, I would like to introduce you to the new student Ivy Chester.

She is starting now since she has passed the exams. She just moved here,

and this is a totally new world for her so I want you to treat her well. You

can sit here, next to Mary.”

Ivy sat next to her because Mary was one of the girls who was happy

about Ivy's presence. As Ivy stood up, she could see their faces and some of

them were not as pleasant as Mary’s was. Ivy knew that these girls didn't

seem pleased with her. However, that didn't stop her from being positive

about her new school.

Her first day at school passed quickly. Fortunately, she didn't have any

problems with the other girls, until the next day arrived. Ivy went to school

with a red t- shirt and jeans. Every the outfit she chose to wear, was cool,

but her school bag wasn't. She actually didn't buy a new bag at all. Ivy had

that same bag, for almost four years. It was grey and didn't suit her outfit at

all. As she was passing through the hallway, suddenly two girls blocked her

"Hey Ivy, Oh my gosh, I love with your bag!" one said sarcastically."

“And I love the colour of it … grey. The colour of dirt! By the way, the

cleaner said she wants you to help her with her work or something like

that.''

''What work?'' she questioned.

''I don't know. She said you took everything out of the bin and threw it

in the class''

''What? No, I didn’t.”

''Yes, you did. You were the last person that left the class, yesterday.

You are responsible for what happened and you know that". "Now, excuse

P A GE 1 1

me, but we have to go because the

bell is going to ring. Now, please

make way. You see, the hallway

doesn't fit us".

Those two girls were so mean.

Ivy had no idea what they were talking about. She hadn’t been the last to

leave the class. The next days, were hard for her. She got detention for

something she didn't do. She felt bad. Jane and Nicky took the bullying to

the next level. They even started making jokes about Ivy's body shape. You

see, she wasn't that slim. Every day, it was the same story. Ivy tried to fix

the problem by herself. She didn't make it. Until one day... Jane and Nicky

started bullying her in the cafeteria, in front of all the students. Mary, saw

that and talked to Ivy, and told her that they would face those two girls to-

gether!

And they did. Two days later, after what happened in the cafeteria, Ivy

and Mary talked to Jane and Nicky. They told them to stop, and that if they

wouldn't, they would tell everything to the Headmaster of the school. The

two girls accepted the deal and finally, stopped. Ivy and Mary became best

friends. Also, Ivy decided to make a few changes. She lost the appropriate

weight and felt better. Yes, she was black, but that didn't stop her from

making new friends and meeting new people.

Orange Group

Marina Antoniadou

Evelina Apostolou

Chara Georgiou

Andreas Partellas

Green Group

Christina Filippou

Christina Kokkinou

Agathi Xyda

Christos Zaphiris

Blue Group

Theodosis Charalambides Papapavlou

Dorotheos Charalampous

Christos Stylianou

Evanthis Vacanas

Sotiris Vacanas

Pink Group

Josephina Louisa Chatziiosif

Nadia Iacovou

Kristina Theodosiou

Red Group

Chrysa Ioannidou

Kyprianos Iacovou

Andreana Ioannidou

Teacher

Ms H. Savvidou

Class 2A