KiVa

EEB4 is a KiVa school. KiVa is an innovative school-based anti-bullying programme which has been developed by the University of Turku in Finland using cutting-edge research on bullying and its mechanisms, prevention, intervention, and monitoring. KiVa is an evidence-based programme to prevent bullying and to tackle the cases of bullying effectively.

The evidence-based programme KiVa was originally established in Finland in 2009 by the request of the Finnish Ministry of Education and developed by the Turku University, and it focuses on the prevention of bullying and how to tackle bullying cases efficiently.

The former is crucial but the latter is also important, as prevention will not make bullying totally disappear; tools need to be available for when a bullying case comes to light.

The third focus of KiVa is the constant monitoring of situations in a school and changes taking place over time; this is enabled by the online tools included in the KiVa programme. These tools provide annual feedback for each school regarding their implementation of the programme as well as the outcomes obtained.

This programme is being gradually introduced in our school. We would like it to become imbedded in the culture of the whole school with the purpose of improving the school’s social and learning climate.

What is bullying?

The definition we use is the following: bullying is a systematic aggressive behaviour against a person who finds it difficult to defend him/ herself against the perpetrator(s). Bulling has a repeated nature of attacks and has power differential as a central feature.

KiVa golden rules

We treat everyone with respect
Together we will make the class a group which everyone enjoys being a part of
We do not bully others
We will fight hidden bullying
We will not join in on bullying or reinforce the bully
We will support and defend the person being bullied
We will all tell someone about bullying

Measures in individual cases of bullying

The KiVa programme does not solely concentrate on preventing bullying, but also addresses individual bullying cases as effectively as possible. Each school implementing the programme has a task force – the KiVa team- consisting of four teachers and the Deputy Head in our Primary school. In their training team members are familiarized with measures to address individual bullying cases. These members of the KiVa team function as experts on bullying related matters in the school.

Material for teachers, pupils and parents

KiVa includes an extensive amount of material for teachers, pupils and parents including e.g. teachers’ manuals, videos, online games, KiVa pupils’ and staff surveys, posters, vests and parent’s guide. KiVa has several language versions available and in our school teachers can currently use the teachers’ books in English, Estonian, French and German.

The Components of KiVa

The KiVa program involves both universal and indicated actions to prevent bullying and to tackle cases of bullying coming to attention.

The universal actions are targeted at all students in a school. They refer to efforts made to influence the group norms and to build capacity in all children to behave in constructive ways, to take responsibility for not encouraging bullying, and to support the victims.