Comments Made During Peace Conference
The following is a transcription of the ideas written on flip charts (for which we have tried to group similar ideas together) and young people’s Speech Bubbles during Coventry Young People’s Peace and Reconciliation Conference 2019.
We plan to use the ideas raised in order to create Coventry Young People’s Peace Programme 2020.
Table of Contents
1) What does a peaceful community/school look and feel like to you?
2) What is already happening in your community/school that is helping to develop peace?
People/Organisations Outside School
3) What is missing? What else would you like to see to make peace even stronger?
1) What does a peaceful community/school look and feel like to you?
Being Alone
Get away from classroom environment.
Escapism.
Freedom.
Alone.
Being alone – escape from reality!
Bed.
Quiet time.
Reading books
Reading/library.
Gymnastics – freedom/body.
Gymnastics-free.
Outdoor environment.
Different sounds on walks.
“Me” time.
Time with God.
Prayer time.
Being yourself.
Emotions
Feeling secure.
Feeling at home.
Expressing emotions.
Feeling comfortable and relaxed. Comfortable furniture.
Calming sights and sounds – water.
Reassurance.
Calmness.
No disruption.
Soothing.
Feeling welcomed!
Enjoying Oneself
Doing something we enjoy.
Distractions.
Holiday.
Films.
Music.
Art.
Singing/choir competitions.
Singing.
Fishing.
Interacting with Others
Interacting with other people (talk/draw pictures).
Socialising.
Spending time with family.
Spending time with people I care about.
Sport – cricket/rugby.
Cricket and football team.
Sport.
Team sport – competition.
Team activities.
Cooperation.
Caring.
Caring for animals.
Being listened to.
Clubs at lunch.
Community between schools.
Sharing differences.
Family.
Involvement.
Friends.
Activities
Professional footballers from our school who can come in.
Allowed to travel out of Coventry for football matches.
Football club after school.
Peace and justice at park.
Litter pickers.
ChildLine.
Peace and reconciliation.
Flour babies.
Plants – treeplanting projects.
After-school activities.
Other
Focused.
Authentic perspectives.
Faith.
Well-being.
Open space.
Connection.
2) What is already happening in your community/school that is helping to develop peace?
Activities inside School
Reflecting in whole school assemblies.
Variety of activities to suit everyone.
School charities (c.r.e.w).
Mentoring.
Quiet time.
Prayer – chapel.
Pastoral care.
Listening.
Restorative justice.
Systems, policies, commitment, training.
PSHE taught in primary schools.
Learning mentor – social skills.
Playground powers/peer mediation/friendships.
Sports – relieves me more of the time.
Music – calms me down and makes me feel happy.
Having fun with friends.
Time with God.
Spending time with the family.
We do silent reading.
We do art sometimes.
Eco-committee.
Prefects.
Contributing to charity.
Sports.
Peace Orchard.
Mental health awareness.
Library.
Assemblies.
Concerts and music.
PSHE.
Remembrance areas.
Thrive.
Share food.
Quiet area.
Care and nurture promoted by schools.
Safe spaces for children.
Peace Centre.
Whole school ethos.
School council – charity work.
Curriculum.
Religious education.
PSHE.
Activities outside school
Dol-y-Moch, Wales.
Different school trips.
Raising money for charity.
Alton Towers.
Knife angel.
Links to other cities.
People/Organisations Outside School
Homeless
Councillor
ChildLine
Princes trust – Mentos, re-engage with education, social education, managing emotions. Age 11 to 30.
ICON schools – each department has peace and reconciliation plan – included in PSHE.
Peace light
TRUST.
Links with Hiroshima.
Coventry diversity – brings minorities cultures together e.g. Somalian women – promoting unity – adults and families.
Schools for peace project – links abroad e.g. Bosnia, South Africa, Dresden.
Coventry Cathedral – community cross of nails – builds peace in local community and abroad – rewards and recognition.
Sport – Coventry UK city of sport.
RISING global peace Forum.
Youth violence reduction board and police panels.
Positive youth foundation.
Lord Mayor’s peace committee.
Peace speakers.
City of peace and reconciliation.
Godiva Festival.
Schools remembrance service in Memorial Park.
Godiva sisters.
Staff who can be approached.
Sports code.
ICONS.
Cross of nails.
City of culture.
People In School
Knowing who to talk to with problems: learning mentors, friends, playground buddies.
Friends
Headteacher.
Knowing children.
Buddies.
We have anti–bullying ambassadors.
Pupil peace ambassadors.
We have chaplaincy’s team, but I don’t think it’s as popular as it was before so it would be necessary for the chaplaincy team to be known again so that people have time for ourselves.
3) What is missing? What else would you like to see to make peace even stronger?
Inside School
Contents of this page
What is missing?
Being genuinely happy.
Putting others before yourself.
Question yourself – do the right thing.
Coaching for what being sorry actually means. Actions not words. Adults need to lead by example.
Telling kids the dangers of bad things.
Include the word peace more in vocabulary.
Values champions – recognised in assemblies.
Random positivity checks day.
If people want to stay in at break time, their head teacher could let them do what they want.
Time is valuable. You can’t earn it/buy it. Use it well. We waste time and miss opportunities. Use time to get together and produce more ideas.
Longer break times.
5 to 10 minute break between two-hour lessons.
Kids have joke lessons every Friday.
Give time and space to explore imagination and creativity leading to more independence.
Every program needs an exit strategy.
Whole school approach to respect and resilience.
Research!! Don’t duplicate the spending.
Share good practice.
Area mapping.
Listen!
Promote existing services.
Year six – seven transition: bring year nine children back and share experiences.
Consistency in schools.
More extracurricular activities.
Different methods of learning (practical’s experiments Socratic Method et cetera) is a fun and easy way of learning, not one specific method that makes children dislike learning.
Secondary schools can have more nonuniform days.
Working in partnership with health et cetera to deliver cohesive approach to education.
Build mindfulness into the curriculum or end of lunchtime. Teachers need to know how to deliver.
Mood charts.
First aid lessons.
Common rooms for all years.
More mixed lessons.
Focus on young adults. Learning about consequences.
Different ages at schools.
Learning ethnicity.
Group projects.
Learning about history.
Religious lessons.
Life choices/PSHE.
Faith Centre.
Peace and reconciliation time/day.
Peace in whole school – decisions – language – involvement.
Diversity – exploring – we’re not all the same!
More joined up thinking for young people to work together.
Coaching for Head Teachers and everyone else.
Discreet PSHE.
Less homework because it brings more stress to the children.
We need more art.
Stress toys in school like blue tack/squid/fidget toys.
Teach schools about peace and unity in assembly.
Time to sit and reflect.
Eco teams to help the environment and be more peaceful.
Bring in people from our school who play professionally like Jonathan Nganda (builds relationships).
Make own school/clothing brand.
Baking.
School car park.
Lessons about peace and reconciliation.
Better education regarding social media.
People that teach well-being in every school.
Certain days to learn about different things.
Self-worth – we are all special in their own way and we should learn to accept ourselves.
Transition from primary to secondary is a very difficult time.
Security
Mentors in Violence Prevention (MVP)
MVP program (mentoring, secondary student support).
Safe room.
Educate young people in how to stay safe.
Learn how to stop violence.
Less bullying inside and out of schools.
Children need support with relationships and bullying.
Bullying inside and outside school.
Bullying on social media.
Focus on cyber bullying.
Positive engagement with police.
Anti-bullying ambassadors.
Resources
Money, responsible people, resources, events where adults listen to children.
Different resources: laptops and iPads as well as educational resources for the specific subject textbooks.
Positive youth foundation.
Coventry youth partnership.
28 youth organisations.
Saint Giles, Street doctors, Street aware.
Mentoring/embodying program.
PCS0s
Knife Angel.
More peace activist visitors in school.
Police coming into schools regularly.
Police come into schools to help children understand how to be peaceful.
Flour babies – Book by Anne Fine.
British values.
“Rainbow room” – safe space to discuss feelings, friendships, families. Supports child and family.
RE (compulsory, secondary) learning about each other, citizenship.
PiXL Club https://www.pixl.org.uk/
Play-leaders.
Joint working violence reduction unit and faith groups and outreach groups going into schools.
Communication about what is happening across the city.
Peace volunteer to talk about peace.
Sport/Activities
Add a lot more sports so people can express themselves and be recognised.
Sports lessons.
Sport events.
Sports day.
Football team, netball team.
More after-school sports.
Outdoor areas for specific activities including less active activities.
Astroturf – safety from injury.
Charity football match.
Football club, rugby club and basketball club.
Mud run to raise money for charity.
More extracurricular activities.
More opportunities to compete and win.
Creativity/Emotion
Have specialist come into schools to help with artistic subjects – music/art – give resources.
Different subjects to express creativity and emotions: art, music, PE et cetera.
More group talks so more children are able to share their thoughts and feelings.
More after-school art.
Being creative (art).
Learning about feelings.
Music.
Reading and art.
Dance.
Calming
Chill out activities – school day is so busy.
Being left to do what makes us happy.
Meditation lessons that keep you calm and relaxed.
A minute of fresh air: going outside.
Golden time on Friday that helps you relieve the stress gained during the week.
More calming activities
Paintings everywhere.
Designated quiet area.
Quiet and safe places.
Space to talk/reflect.
Make quiet rooms for angry people to calm down.
A peaceful place for lunchtime.
We should make more rooms for people with disabilities so they can just sit and calm down when they are angry.
Stress releasing art at key stage 2.
Chaplaincy – somewhere to talk and feel peaceful.
Prayer garden.
Calm room.
Peaceful library.
30 seconds of silence.
A room full of things that can calm people down.
Sharing/Relationships
Sharing ideas.
Circle time.
Circle time – discussion based.
Helping others.
Respecting other people’s opinions.
Listening to others.
Listen to other people’s ideas.
Bonding with people.
Getting along with other people.
Teamwork.
Explore and expose different cultures – racial harmony days.
Buddy system for fun (year 6 to lower years).
Making more friends.
Opportunities to talk between year groups to build friendships – get out of standard classroom setting.
Children need support in dealing with relationships especially falling out.
More opportunities for schools/children to come together.
Everyone needs help to support each other – older children can help younger ones.
Respect ambassadors at school.
Playground panels and equipment.
Be able to sit with friends at lunch.
More activities at school lunch break to unite people to become friends.
More friends.
Peer to peer encouragement.
Stronger relationships.
Playground buddies.
TOOTOOT.co.uk website – give a voice to young people
Chocolate and chat.
Communication is key.
Tolerance and sense of community.
Do more work with other schools get to know more children out of school.
School linking to get to know other children.
School links.
More opportunities for older students to teach younger ones.
Friends.
Friends.
Understanding differences.
Feeling listened to.
Sharing thoughts.
Someplace where you will be listened to.
More opportunities to listen to young people.
Community that helps to manage conflict.
Mixed school days.
Support
Support victims of bullying.
Anti-bullying ambassadors.
More anti-bullying ambassadors.
Peer mediation training for children.
Peer mediation.
Peer supporters.
Staff mentors.
Playground buddies.
Conflict resolution.
Restorative justice.
Teach how to manage conflicts/anger.
Learn how to contain the will of violence.
Helping people get along.
Peace ambassadors.
Refugees – how received?
Guidance in home languages.
Tackle social isolation – intergenerational projects.
Signposting for support (harassment).
Firm but fair!
Clubs
After-school clubs to meet and communicate.
More clubs.
School clubs – breakfast.
More after-school games.
After school activities.
Drama club – help people get creative.
Social clubs.
A quality group – parents.
Student-Led
Kids taking action/persevering.
School council to talk through issues.
Assemblies for school values and address issues.
Children to help come up with the fundraising ideas.
School newspaper with positive news – not negative but positive written by children.
More children champions.
Prefects assembly.
Secondary – opportunities to demonstrate leadership abilities in community like The Hague.
Peace and justice group.
Nature
Gardening in school – fruit/veg, – trees/plants. School food uses food produced by children. Other children can introduce different types of fruit/veg introduced new coaches into food allowing children to try new and existing food that they know they might learn to love.
Peace garden for reflection.
Using local park – tree planting, peace and reconciliation garden.
More outside space.
Water.
Peace garden.
Growing space.
Peace garden.
Gardening.
Space for all.
Litter pickers.
Make a peaceful garden.
Outside School
Activities
More out-of-school activities.
Outside of schools there are not many specific areas to do sport.
Security
More police stations.
Stop selling guns.
Stop gangs.
More police.
Making everywhere safe including shops and other public places.
Street pastors – safety at night.
Neighbourhood watch.
Safer city centre – promote this message.
Cycle lanes.
Community activities
Sports club.
Leisure centres.
Barbecue.
Cooking classes.
Art.
Music lessons.
Build a community centre.
More opportunities for volunteering and work in community gatherings.
Giving back to the community.
More youth clubs!
Brownies, guides, Scouts clubs.
Brownies et cetera
Community clubs.
Good relationship in the neighbourhood: sense of community, neighbourhood watch, look out for each other.
Weekend/after-school activities – helping to build relationships/avoid crime.
Work with community to build relationships and peace.
Church and community working with schools.
More youth clubs
Fishing.
Fishing club.
Family gatherings and different cultures interacting.
More social/cultural events.
Homelessness
More homeless shelters.
Homeless shelters.
Homes for all.
Homeless charities.
Nature
Forest School.
More open space in city.
Access to animals – city farm
Peace Orchard.
More campsites for peace.
Stop fly tipping.
Plant more trees.
The green space in Coventry.
More green space.
Environmental peace.
Animals.
Families
Support for whole families – especially those in areas of highest deprivation.
Parents and peer mediation support network (community).
Stop neglecting children.
Central hub for information sharing – e.g. website, family hubs.
Technology
Wi-Fi for all.
Travel
Trips.
Project about walking to school.
Long journey – make friends whilst travelling.
More school trips for the little kids.
Get more educational trips that encourage the change of scenery by giving the schools a bigger budget.
Walking bus.
Events
Bigger Young People’s conference before RISING.
More events happening in town centre for fun/educational/non-educational work.
Children’s Speech Bubbles
I enjoyed staying here because everyone is unique and all our ideas are supportive in different ways!!!
I like the idea of all schools linking together.
Really really fun. Full of activities and really good idea.
I like the environmental idea because I too think people need to stop polluting and help.
Also, there should be a thing where young children and adults pick up litter to raise money.
I like the idea of a quiet room.
I like the idea of the Coventry clean up because it will make our city clean and we can come together as a school and be inspired by cleaning up our city.
The whole day was really fun. The best idea from the flip-charts was probably linking schools together and letting them work together more often.
I liked the idea to like and respect people’s thoughts and to listen.
I think we should have a club for children who have problems in life, but I really like everyone’s ideas.
I like that they want to link secondary schools and primary schools.
I think that the national peace week is a good idea and it should be done over the country as well as in Coventry.
The idea of having a youth forum would be very beneficial to our city as young people are the future and their well-being is vital.
The idea of having well-being in school is great because it lets out stress and gives angry people a chance to reflect with themselves and calm down.
All together I had a wonderful time discussing opportunities of how to make Coventry safer. I think that event should be more often and be spread around more.
A great day and very enjoyable. Thoughts I liked: calm room, mood charts, Coventry farm and also the peace week.
Ideas I really like: random positivity checks and mood chart, sharing ideas with school, learning about anger management, safe room, being able to change mood throughout day, city farm (voluntarily, sponsored by business, free entry), bringing schools together to reach goals and work as a team (feel more like a city).
Ideas I like: workshops or forums to work on young people’s leadership skills and discuss important issues; mood charts and random positivity checks; big city farm where all organisations and societies can combine, sponsored by businesses, with the presence of animals; safe room where people, pupils and teachers can go to decompress, for all ages; peace and reconciliation week – connecting different schools within Coventry.
I think we need a teacher, parent, pupil and community to meet at Morrisons to discuss how to make Holbrooks a better place. We have a Rainbow Room in our school. I agree with the mood plan because it gives people a great opportunity to express their feelings.
I believe the idea of the Peace and Reconciliation week was very good and it should be city-wide.
I think that the whole day today was very good and we should do it very frequently to raise awareness.
Police came to school.
All ideas were very good. It was an enjoyable morning. Thank you for asking about our ideas.
I liked the day because we got to know people who we didn’t know before.
I think that this was a very good idea and everyone should show more peace.
Very informative day! Calm room. Mood chart. Random positivity checks. Peace week.
I love this day and I had a lot of fun.
Creative mini-projects with a common purpose so teamwork is increased and the common purpose will give a big impact because there will be a decrease in disputes in what to do and will therefore be more peaceful.
More trips for little kids because little kids like the outdoors and love to explore.
Make a Coventry schools communications and activity groups to improve the city and try to let children communicate with others.
Stress-free times where you can just sit and read a book so that no violence breaks out during school time and refresh your memory.
More meetings and interaction with secondary schools because when people start secondary you will be quite scared.
The idea I most liked was of having school join up together to make a newspaper report about safety around the school itself. Also there could be two other things included in it, such as projects that are worth working for fund-raising ideas to gain money to give to the poor or to give to people who have serious injuries that would cost a lot of money. Also we could use it to give it to people who don’t even have money.
My favourite idea was that we should younger children and teach them about conflict so they grow up and don’t make crimes stop also if we teach them to tell other children not to commit crimes.
I like the idea of people taking breaks during long lessons because it’s always good to take a mental break from learning.
My favourite idea was the one about gardening in school because I love the idea of having something to do at break time instead of needing around.
Peace should not be forced but the used if it is necessary.
More clubs after school and make them last longer so after a long busy day you can have a bit of fun. You can make more friends and meet new people.
More gardening and forest school clubs especially for people who find it hard or boring in the classroom. Playground power.
Different types of resources and practical activities such as experiments, and resources like iPad computers as well as text books and strategic board games stop this gives them a chance to learn in an easier way.
My idea to strengthen peace is for people to accept themselves for who they are because especially in modern day, so many children are so self conscious about their appearance and other people’s opinion of them we just need to understand that we are all special in our own way. I believe that so many girls wear make up as a mask as they are so insecure about themselves.
Different ways of learning. More practical learning and more fun and easy lessons. Making fun and enjoyable lessons for kids so we are not bored. Also having a half minute break outside chatting in the middle of the lesson.
Different methods of practical learning and letting people do what makes them happy (but still to do with education). Taking a minute of fresh air: having time to erase bad and creating peace.
Letting people do what makes them happy. Having time to relax and create peace in their environment.
Our idea is that pupils can learn more about technology and engineering and how to use it.
In my opinion, the idea about increasing the amount of trips is the best because children can get more change of scenery and will also be more excited towards learning.
To have more quiet time with people with disabilities so they find it easier to learn 121.
Training young people to help other young people i.e. playground panels to help people with no one to play with and peer mediators to help other children who have fallen out with their friends.
At Friday afternoon do some relaxing with relaxing music and share how you feel to other people.
I think that the idea about growing fruit and veg in schools and people from different countries coming. They can try our country’s fruit and vegetables and also plant their own countries fruit and H. When all of the goods grown fully, the students can eat it for breakfast and lunch then plant them again.
Children need support throughout school and the best way to achieve that is going outside in a different environment to the classroom and to be doing their chosen subject.
I think that the idea of children need support with relationships and morning is important because then children will share ideas and not be quiet.
I think that the most important idea was that we should increase the number of trips and make them fun and educational at the same time.
I think the most important idea is to give the little kids more chances to go on school trips.