Peacemakers in primary schools
New initiative set up by West Midlands Quaker Peace Education Project
A new initiative to promote peace work in primary schools was introduced to Friends at an interest group on Sunday at Britain Yearly Meeting.
Peacemakers is run by the West Midlands Quaker Peace Education Project (WMQPEP), a charity with over twenty-five years’ experience educating young people for peace, and is in its early stages.
The charity has already established a reputation in the West Midlands for its work on conflict resolution and peer mediation and has just launched a new project that uses techniques of restorative justice in a primary school setting.
The project is one set up by Central England Area Meeting.
Sara Hagel, of Peacemakers, said: ‘In a restorative justice approach you have to try and build a relationship. It is important to look at a situation from the position of the “other” – from the other point of view – and it is also about asking questions.’
The project is being piloted in three primary schools. ‘It is not a one-day visit, with a CD or DVD left behind’, Sara added. ‘It is a journey. It is about doing something over a long period. In this case it will be over two years.’
‘Alongside the pilot we are developing teacher-training modules and are trying to produce a resource that includes the ethos and philosophy behind what we do’.
The project ispart of the nation-wide peaceful schools movement.
