Vladivostok schools

At the beginning of 2016, our professional mediator of the Association Lykova N.A. contacted the Department for working with Municipal Educational Institutions of the Administration of Vladivostok and offered her assistance in the implementation and development of School Mediation in Vladivostok. At that time, School mediation in Vladivostok did not exist nor was it developed, because the administration of Vladivostok did not have enough financial, material resources, specialists and experience in this area. School Mediation Services existed only on paper.

Keeping this in mind, our mediator Lykova N.A. in 2016, established and proposed a concept for the development of the “Volunteer Mediation Movement”, the “Children Teach Children” project, as well as the “Vladivostok, A City of Peace and Kindness” project and other related campaigns. For this purpose, psychologists of the Municipal Budgetary Organization “Psychological, Educational, Medical and Social Assistance Center of Vladivostok” were invited to implement the concept and projects. They developed a program to teach schoolchildren how to cope with aggression and conflicts in the general educational environment, as well as to prepare schoolchildren to work in the School Mediation Service.

To implement the concept of “Volunteer mediation movement in the period from 2016 to 2018 mediators of the Association Lykova N.A., Guseva Z.V., Chekhovskaya N.V., Shtitelman I.P. were invited along with students – Conflictologists of the FEFU School of Humanities, Specialists of the Municipal Budgetary Organization “Psychological, Educational, Medical and Social Assistance Center of Vladivostok”, as well as representatives of public children’s organizations and movements (Municipal State Institution “Youth Resource Center”, Municipal Autonomous Institution of Additional Education “Vladivostok city Center of Children’s Art” ), who were trained under the “Children Teach Children” program and taught schoolchildren on the program of how to cope with aggression and conflicts in the general educational environment.

In 2016, volunteers and psychologists of the Municipal Budgetary Organization “Psychological, Educational, Medical and Social Assistance Center of Vladivostok” trained students of grades 4, 7 & 8. Additionally, in 2016, 148 teachers from 78 schools of Vladivostok were trained under the program, “Mediation – Conflict Resolution Technology Program”.

In May 2016, a meeting of the methodological association of school mediators was held at school № 40, where a member of our Association – the President of the Association – N. Lykova made a presentation on the development and practice of mediation in Russia and Primorsky Krai.

In 2017, the education of students of grades 5-11 continued within the framework of the project “Children teach children”, as a result, 405 schoolchildren from 75 educational organizations of Vladivostok were trained. The project “Children teach children” began its work and was hugely successful and in a very short time, bore excellent results. Pretrained schoolchildren, volunteer children and volunteer students began independent training for schoolchildren who were yet to receive appropriate training in order to improve the socio-psychological competence of students and the basic skills necessary to organize a safe space in the educational environment.

In November 2017, the mediators of the Association, together with the Department of Education, began close cooperation with the city Centre of Children’s Art. The staff of the Central Discovery Centre “Strizhi”(“Swifts”), namely high school volunteers, began to take training sessions with mediators of the Association and psychologists of the Municipal Budgetary Organization “Psychological, Educational, Medical and Social Assistance Center of Vladivostok”. Participants learned how to effectively interact and take control of a volatile and aggressive situation.

As part of the training, meetings of the mediators of the Association with high school students of “Strizhi” (“Swifts”), took place. The mediators talked about their profession and answered many interesting and inquisitive questions of the students.  They also shared their own experiences with the psychologists.

As a result of the joint work of the psychologists and mediators, the students were able to understand, identify and gain knowledge such as:

– how to recognize and evaluate a situation with aggressive manifestations;

– what are the types and methods of response to aggression;

– what kind of behaviour is the most acceptable in society;

– how to choose an appropriate way to behave in specific conditions.

In December 2017 – January 2018, within the framework of the action “Vladivostok, A City of Peace and Kindness” at the MBEI (Municipal budgetary educational institution) Secondary School № 81, № 74, & № 40, 195 fifth-graders underwent training under the program “Be able to resist aggression- Effective communication skills”.

As part of the implementation of the concept of the “Volunteer Mediation Movement” in 2018, 192 volunteers (8 people from Municipal State Institution “Youth Resource Center”, 51 FEFU students, 92 students of grades 7-8 and 41 teachers) underwent training under the program.

In January 2018, the mediators of the Association, together with the deputy head of the Department of working with Municipal Education Institutions L.I. Chizhova, leading referent of the Department of working with Municipal Education Institutions I.V. Terekhova, and head of the Department of Additional Education of the Department of working with Municipal Education Institutions L.I. Suholentseva launched a competition “Symbols of school mediation services in Vladivostok.”

A competition for the best emblem of the school mediation services of Vladivostok was held within the framework of the implementation of the Federal Law “On Education in the Russian Federation”, the State Program “Development of Education” for 2013-2020, the State Program “Patriotic Education of Citizens of the Russian Federation for 2016-2020”, Strategies for the development of education in the Russian Federation for the period up to 2025, the Concept of spiritual and moral development and education of the personality of a citizen of Russia, Programs for the development of the educational component in educational institutions of the Russian Federation.

The purpose of the competition was to develop an emblem and slogan for their future use as a symbol of school mediation services of municipal educational institutions in Vladivostok, as well as to activate the cognitive interest of schoolchildren in school mediation and an in-depth understanding of this procedure.

On January 17, 2018, at MBEI (Municipal budgetary educational institution) Secondary School № 13 of Vladivostok, a meeting was held for the heads of all school mediation services in Vladivostok, at which our mediator N.A. Lykova introduced a report on the development of mediation in the Russian Federation and the countries of the Pacific region.

The following points were discussed at the meeting:

– clarified the role of the mediation service in the educational process of educational institutions;

– the importance of a conscious and voluntary inclusion of a restorative approach in the practice of preventive work;

– summed up the results of 2017-2018;

– Put forth the key events of 2018;

– got acquainted with the experience of training “Swifts” of the city Center of Children’s Art as trainers-mediators for playing lessons with fifth-graders;

– received recommendations on the selection of trainers-mediators in schools from students of grades 7-8;

– determined the possibility of not every school participating in the education of trainers-mediators;

– determined the time needed for educating trainers-mediators;

– determined the time of the game modules with the fifth-graders of the city’s schools;

– decided to invite FEFU students to assist in teaching the fifth-graders of the city to effectively resolve conflicts in educational institutions;

– discussed the possibilities of attracting social partners for the development of school mediation in Vladivostok;

– discussed various city competitions: “Vladivostok, A City of Peace, Smiles and Kindness” with the presentation of the Trophy Cup to the best school based on the results of the competition and the placement of plaques on the facade of the school. It is planned to hold competitions for the symbols of the School Mediation Service of Vladivostok – the best symbol will be posted on the website of the Vladivostok Administration, the best “School of Negotiators”, “The Best School Mediation Service”, “The Best Negotiator”, “The Best School Trainer-Mediator”, “Week of Peaceful Solutions”, competition for the best flash mob for school mediation “Vladivostok, A City of Peace, Smiles and Kindness”, etc.

In April 2018, schools of Vladivostok №13, №74, №6, №11, №17, №18, №65 invited professional mediators of the Association to conduct a role play. Members of our Association spoke to the fifth-graders about the mediation procedure, what skills and knowledge a specialist should have, drew attention to the basic principles of the procedure, talked about conflicts, and played games by means of role play and solved hypothetical case studies.

In 2018, within the framework of the city event “Vladivostok, A City of Peace and Kindness”, 55 schools, 121 classes, 3267 fifth grade students underwent training under the program “Be able to resist aggression- Effective communication skills”.

In the same year, within the framework of the project “Children teach children” under the program “Let’s Understand Each Other- Effective communication skills”, 78 students of 4th grade were trained.

With the assistance and initiative of the mediators of the Association Lykova N.A. and Zabelina O.B. (Head of the Regional Public Reception Office of the Chairman of the United Russia party D.A. Medvedev in Primorsky Krai), the staff of the Central Discovery Centre “Strizhi”(“Swifts”) in September 2018 was awarded with letters of gratitude by Pinskiy V.V., deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation.

In 2019, within the framework of the project “Vladivostok, A City of Peace and Kindness”, the first competition for School Mediation Services in the Far East was held, which the Association mediators had been trying to hold for several years. More details about the Competition and its results can be found on the website under the subsection Competition “The best school mediation service in Vladivostok – “Vladivostok, A City of Peace and Kindness”.

In addition, in 2019, psychologists of the Municipal Budgetary Organization “Psychological, Educational, Medical and Social Assistance Center of Vladivostok” continued training for schoolchildren of grades 4, 5, 7 and 8 within the framework of the projects “Volunteer mediation movement”, “Children teach children” and “Vladivostok, A City of Peace and Kindness”.

In February-March 2019, role plays were held for students of 7th and 8th grades under the program “Let’s Understand Each Other- Effective Communication Skills ”, in which 17 schools of Vladivostok took part.  94 senior students – volunteers of the School Mediation Services of Vladivostok were trained in the program.

In April 2019, trained volunteers from the School Mediation Services of Vladivostok conducted role play sessions with students of grade 4 and 5 in their schools.

In September-December 2019, the Vladivostok School Mediation Services worked independently using new skills.

In 2019, the “MEDIATOR’s Mailbox” was developed on the Association’s website. The main idea of the “MEDIATOR’s Mailbox” is an opportunity for a student, teacher, parent, and any citizen to write anonymously a letter about his dispute and get help of an independent person whose task is to promptly contact the author of the letter and assist in solving the problem.

On January 28, 2020 President of the Association Lykova N.A. made a presentation and took part at the seminar-meeting of the School Mediation Services of Vladivostok.

Due to the threat of the spread of the 2019-nCoV corona virus, in order to ensure the health and safety of participants in the educational process in 2020, trainings and education by psychologists at the Municipal Budgetary Organization “Psychological, Educational, Medical and Social Assistance Center of Vladivostok” were not conducted.

In spite of this, the schools on their own accord, continued the work of School Mediation Services together with volunteers. (They conducted educational trainings, class hours, game activities, resolved school conflicts upon requests, conducted educational work).

In December 2020, the competition for the Best School Mediation Service of Vladivostok, “Vladivostok, A City of Peace and Kindness” was held again. Due to the threat of the spread of corona virus infection COVID-19, the competition was held in a virtual format.

Thus, we can conclude that the passage of all cycles of training allowed the representatives of the School Mediation Service in schools of Vladivostok to form in the minds of teachers, the image and significance of mediation procedure, especially within the walls of educational institutions. The services received all the necessary documents required for going forward with their work. For several years, the mediators of the Association have been closely cooperating with the Department for working with Municipal Educational Institutions of the Administration of Vladivostok, to provide educational, expert and consulting assistance. At the same time, there is a tendency that the projects and programs previously developed by the mediators of the Association and psychologists of the Municipal Budgetary Organization “Psychological, Educational, Medical and Social Assistance Center of Vladivostok” began to take root and modernize the educational environment by volunteer mediation movements, School Mediation Service. Various public and educational institutions of Vladivostok and Primorsky Krai began to borrow and modernize the projects.

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