School Program

The Goal

BRIDGE BUILDERS^® is a whole school approach to equipping children to be resilient, effective communicators and empowered to deal with everyday conflict and reduce bullying.

BRIDGE BUILDERS^® is embedded into the everyday life of schools and is valuable for:

• Year 1 to Year 12
• All staff
• Principal and leadership team
• Before and after school care
• Parents
• Early Years - Child Care and Kindergartens

BRIDGE BUILDERS^® has been independently reviewed and is listed in the Be You Programs Directory. It meets the minimum evidence requirements set by Be You and has been awarded a rating for evidence and implementation.

The Program

"A whole-school approach is vital for developing and implementing programs for the mental health of students. One of the problems in schools and in school systems is we tend often to do things in isolation when in fact, everything's connected"

Professor Brian Caldwell - Educational Transformations

The BRIDGE BUILDERS^® – Staff Training focuses on equipping teachers with the theory, science and tools to be powerful, positive influences in wellbeing and mental health. Strategies taught will help teachers build knowledge and professional practise in helping not only children be resilient and resolve conflict but also tools to work with other adults. The BRIDGE BUILDERS^® program also offers an individual resource program for principals, deputies and behavioural teachers who work with students who require individual emotional or behavioural support. It emphasises, reflection on choices, understanding of the science of behaviour, educating and practise of appropriate responses, goal setting and restoration.

The BRIDGE BUILDERS^® – U-Turn Table Intervention Program provides a framework for intensive individual support for the 1-5% of students who need it the most. The program provides an educative, rather than punitive, approach to the most serious behavioural issues, and is tailored to work in conjunction with the school's existing behaviour policies. The U-Table Table Intervention Program is an essential part of the overall BRIDGE BUILDERS® Program and provides supportive and educative language, skills and resources to reframe thinking and retrain behaviour based on the school values & rules and the BRIDGE BUILDERS^® explicit skills.

“I have used the U-Turn Table, Year 7-9 classroom Yellow Behavioural Card, as a framework to guide the conversation with students. A majority of students have reported that having and using these specific strategies has been beneficial to their classroom experience and they have felt better equipped to deal with incidents as they come up. Slowly but assuredly, we are seeing measurable progress in a number of our students with challenging behaviour.”

Dillon Simmons - Curriculum Support & Student Wellbeing Liaison

The BRIDGE BUILDERS^® – Conflict Resolution program provides students of all year levels, knowledge and practical activities to learn resilience, confidence, flexible thinking, problem solving and communication skills, and how to get help and let go of grudges. Class workshops focus on the dynamics that are unique to each group, providing data, professional development and support for the classroom teacher for follow up.

The BRIDGE BUILDERS^® – Peer Mediation program is a leadership program for 20-24 year 5 or 6 students who are responsible and respectful in social situations, care for others and can learn to follow the process of mediation to assist younger students in resolving conflict with each other in the playground. This program skills older students, not involved in the conflict, to help younger students to come to an agreement through a process of cooperative exploration to teach conflict resolution skills. The program helps in developing responsible learners who have ownership for their problem solving and focusses on positive mentoring relationships.

The BRIDGE BUILDERS^® – Online Programs are an amazing, interactive, skills based program for P-6 students, all staff and parents. The online programs use videos, short answer questions, clickable interactives, games and animations to teach skills in emotional awareness and management, seven strategies to solve conflict, how to let it go and how to get help.

The BRIDGE BUILDERS^® – Book Empowered for Life, playground signs and classroom posters – high quality and valuable resources to help reinforce and immerse the BRIDGE BUILDERS^® skills. We provide schools with large outdoors signs for reminders to children of how to respond to conflict or bullying in the playground, where they need it most. There are also posters for classrooms to reinforce and remind everyone of the skills to use. Jocelyne’s book Empowered for Life- Equipping children to deal with everyday conflict and bullying provides educators and parents with a hands-on resource for understanding how to help children and practical ideas for the classroom and home to reinforce them.

“BRIDGE BUILDERS was introduced to Mid North Christian College (Foundation to Yr 13) in 2018 at the Primary level and has continued its introduction through to the Secondary School levels in 2019.

All schools articulate their values, standards and rules, under the general heading of ethos. All schools experience student and adult behaviors that do not meet these standards. This gap causes considerable stress, especially in group settings like a school or college.

BRIDGE BUILDERS not only links this gap but provides a way to break the repeated behavior patterns that cause so much frustration. In this case, the power is in the detail of Bridge Builders, and it works. It is working for us at Mid North CC in Port Pirie, South Australia!”

Nigel Bennett - Principal, Mid North Christian College, SA

Evidence of Effectiveness

Parents found the workshop extremely helpful in gaining a clearer understanding of the differences between conflict and bullying. A range of parenting strategies were covered that will enable parents to better assist their children deal with everyday conflicts.  

100% positive feedback from all parents in attendance!

Mark J – Principal

St Helens invested two days into the BRIDGE BUILDERS® program. This program is outstanding on so many levels. Unlike other strategies we have previously used that are overgeneralized and open for error, this program gives students (and adults) specific, step by step strategies to resolve conflict.  It is achievable and successful.  Students were enthused during the training and are excited to launch the program in our school this year. Staff have embraced the program and are looking at ways to embed the strategies in their classroom. Parents raved about the training session and loved the practical nature of the information evening.  I would recommend this program with all my heart.

Amanda W - School Chaplain

Excellently presented and well supported by the additional materials. Students responded really well and some started using the language straight away in the playground. One of the best programs around and I can see our school using it, not just this year, but into the future.

Jocelyne tailored her presentation to support the Christian values of the school.

Allan C – Principal

The graph above shows the distance travelled in children's cognitive understanding of topics before and after the program.

One of the best conflict resolution programs around.

Teacher, Qld School

I think this program is very valuable for children as it shows us how to work problems out so we can have more friends and learn more about ourselves we can also help put a stop to bullying.

Year 6 girl, Qld School

I think the BRIDGE BUILDERS® program is good for students of all ages around the country and the globe.

Year 6 boy, Qld School

An example of one classes results of pre and post skills in conflict resolution.

BRIDGE BUILDERS^® could have incredible benefits at every level of your school and school community.

Contact us now to empower your school.