TEI: Bullying Prevention Programme
TEI: Bullying prevention programme from Spain to High Wycombe!
“Meet me in A an E at the hospital” said the head of primary. “I’ll explain when we get there”
That was the first time we found out that our son had been bullied relentlessly for almost a year at his school. It was targeted, deliberate, personal and fully intended to make a vulnerable young 9 year old suffer after starting at a new school in a new town and in his case a new country. He had tried for so long to handle it himself that in the end the mental anguish became physical and his body gave his secret away. He couldn’t hide the trauma of what was going on any longer. Thankfully he came through it but recovery was slow and hard and he’s still work in progress to be honest 10 years on. Once someone is affected by bullying, no matter what anyone says, they are scarred for life.
As all parents do when they discover their child has a problem, I went straight into action mode and set about finding the top bullying specialist in the country to get advice on how we should handle the situation. What I found was a man and programme designed to prevent bullying from happening in the first place. Whilst it was too late for my own son, I knew I had to be part of the TEI mission: Building social and emotional competencies to create a supportive and inclusive school community through respect, solidarity and empathy.
Andres Gonzalez Bellido is a modern day hero in my book. He’s a humble and yet passionate psychologist from Salamanca who has dedicated the last 15 years exclusively to the prevention of bullying in school and the work place. Research results from the University of Alicante confirm that his methodology works; improving absenteeism levels, verbal abuse and self esteem amongst many other things. (The results were published earlier this year in MDPI International Journal of Environment Research and Public Health. https://www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph/special_issues/bullying_cyberbullying)
Inevitably when behaviour improves, academic results also improve. The whole school and work community benefits when the programme is implemented correctly and when all parties take an active role. It needs buy in from the top down and from the bottom up. And that’s not always easy.
“It is easier to build a strong child than to fix a broken man” a great quote by Frederick Douglass, Afro American slavery abolition crusader back in the 1870s. It could very well be the strap line for TEI, a programme designed and developed by Andres Gonzalez Bellido and his ever expanding team of phycologists and behavioural scientists, now some 83 strong across Spain. Once a child or an adult has been besieged by bullying low or high level over an extended period of time, it is much harder and in some cases impossible to ever fully recover. TEI holds everyone accountable and I have witnessed at first hand the positive impact the programme has had on all parties.
“There were tears and cheers and so many staff offering to be part of the TEI programme” said Jeni Folkard, mental health leader at High Crest Academy, High Wycombe after the staff induction. At the schools inset day the TEI programme was finally unveiled and unanimously embraced. It has taken several years to get the Spanish programme fully adapted for the English speaking world to ensure that the essence of the programme was maintained despite major rewriting of large chunks of the programme in order to make it culturally acceptable. In the end the decision was made to test pilot the programme in just one school this academic year and to then roll out to more next year. It was essential that teachers and pupils could fully engage with the content and that it constantly passed the British “cringe police”. This takes time, persistence and an openness to constant feedback. It has also taken a lot of input from a lot of people. (Rebecca, Natalia, Lisa, Paola, Clare, Jeni, Griselda – thank you from the Spanish TEI team!) Thanks to Clare To, deputy head; Glen Burke, the head and the Senior leadership team, High Crest Academy have agreed to be the first school in Great Britain to test pilot the Spanish TEI programme, currently successfully active in over 1300 schools across Spain.
Photo 1 from left to right: At Oak House school Barcelona 2018; Griselda Wentt, Monica Evason, Jill Eckert, Paola Benito, Rebecca Mann, Jeni Folkard, Clare To, Andres Bellido
We care about TEI as if it were our baby. It’s a funny thing when a program gets under your skin to the point where you almost see it as a person! With zero budget and almost no infrastructure, the TEI program, until now, has heavily relied on people’s innate altruism. People instinctively want to be part of something that is clearly having a positive impact on so many lives. It’s been humbling to see how many individuals have been willing to put in countless hours for the cause. The annual conference is truly remarkable. Everyone attending knows they’ve made a difference, yet there are no heroes, no chest-beating, and no egos.
TEI works because there is no finger-pointing. At all levels, everyone is responsible for creating what they call “Convivencia” in Spanish—an environment where everyone respects each other and the ground rules, not because they have to, but because they want to. No one is obliged to behave “the TEI way,” but in the end, when surrounded by positive role models, people naturally follow suit.
Why don’t we see litter on the streets of Geneva, Switzerland? Because the streets are so clean that no one would even think about throwing rubbish on them. It’s just not done. No one questions it anymore because it’s just the way it is. That’s how TEI works. Font Maritim in Barcelona was the first school to adopt the TEI program, and you can see and sense its power the minute you walk in the door. The program is based on sound, evidence-based neuroscience and psychological principles. It’s almost belittling to call it a program because it’s more of a philosophy, and when it’s embedded in a school’s ethos, it takes care of itself.
Many young people and parents of children who have been bullied, some with tragic consequences, constantly write to Andres and his TEI team to say that this should be an obligatory program in all schools because, like me, they want others to be spared the pain and long-term impact of bullying. Thank you, Highcrest, for taking the lead and spearheading TEI’s transition to the UK.
I can’t wait to see TEI evolve over the next year, and for the model to be replicated across other schools in the UK.