Thomas Riedmuller is working with schools and clubs to deal with conflicts and bullying. You can contact him on 023 8847001.
His training helps school teachers, sports coaches and others who work with young people to deal with allegations and incidents of bullying.
This training is effective as a proactive means
– to prevent bullying from happening.
– to address bullying when it is occurring.
It is tailored to the needs of clients and consists of an initial 2 hour session to assess the situation.
During this consultation a plan of action and/or training is agreed. It can involve working for a number of sessions with individuals, staff teams, or parents. Each situation will be dealt with in a sensitive and confidential way which benefits all parties involved.
All allegations should be taken seriously and followed up. Some allegations of bullying turn out to be conflicts that can be dealt with by active listening and other mediation skills.
In case of serious misbehaviour, victims need to be protected. Inappropriate behaviour needs to stop. It is equally important to avoid ‘bullying the bully’. Thomas can help by
– engaging with all sides of the conflict
– practising clear and respectful communication
– bringing alleged ‘victims’ and ‘perpetrators’ together in a safe environment to help them break the cycle of bullying behaviour (Restorative Circle) – if appropriate and mutually agreed.
In schools the SALT – Programme offers an effective way of helping students cope with conflicts and to learn skills that will protect them from bullying. It also helps to create and maintain a caring environment in the school.
Restorative Circles are an effective method of bringing victims and perpetrators of inappropriate behaviour together in order to guide people towards better ways of communicating.
Thomas has taught numerous teacher trainings and is planning to teach another summer course for teachers based on this programme at the Cork Education Support Centre in July 2015 (to be confirmed).