Anti-bullying work has been ongoing in the Tampere city region for a long time. The new “Towards a Safe School” project aims to strengthen both the well-being of children and young people and the competence of staff.
The project is developing a safer operational culture in pre-primary and basic education. Regional cooperation will produce more effective tools for bullying prevention, smoother collaboration in resolving conflicts, and ensure that more people working in primary education and schools have safety expertise.
In practice, this means, for example, classroom dialogues about how everyone can contribute to the sense of safety among classmates. Multidisciplinary expert groups are also creating service pathways and operating instructions to ensure that bullying situations can be addressed quickly and with clear responsibilities.
Mari Larikka, a principal from Nokia and a member of the project team, emphasizes the importance of the project:
– School safety is created together. It requires skills, practice, actions, and above all, a caring attitude towards others. When there is a good spirit in the school, people care about each other and act responsibly, making the community safer. Each of us – including children and young people – has a role in making schools in the Tampere region even safer. Parents also influence how bullying and safety are discussed at home.
Jukkamatti Hiltunen, principal of Toivio School in Pirkkala, summarizes the importance of shared training and guidelines:
– School safety is not measured by the skills and actions of individual people, but by whether every adult in pre-primary or basic education dares and knows how to act even in unexpected situations. Consistency and shared responsibility also increase students’ trust in adults.
The “Towards a Safe School” project will run until summer 2027 and is coordinated by Osake, Tampere City Region Competence and Collaboration Development Service for Education, Guidance and Care. The project, funded by the Finnish National Agency for Education, involves Kangasala, Lempäälä, Nokia, Orivesi, Pirkkala, Tampere, Vesilahti, and Ylöjärvi, as well as Tampere Steiner School, Anna Tapio’s Boarding School, The Tampere University Teacher Training School, and Svenska Samskolan.
Experts appointed by the project partners – such as principals, teachers, and school coaches – participate in the planning and implementation of the project. This ensures that the regional toolkit created in the project will be adopted in everyday school life.
