Buddy Program 2020

On Thursday, 10^th December 2020, Sekolah Harapan Bangsa Modernhill Secondary held a Buddy Program event. This event is meant to introduce buddy systems in school to strengthen the school community and challenge stereotypes, misconceptions, or fears that students hold about younger or older age groups. This event enables younger students to feel safe and cared for while older students feel valued and respected. The students can create connectedness that enables both older and younger buddies to bond more closely with their school, thereby increasing the likelihood of more positive social behavior.

The event was conducted online through 3 Google meet main room, start with the opening speech from principal Ms. Melany K Gigir. Then the students watch a video, “The Buddy – Everyone Saw This Autistic Boy As A Misfit, One Classmate Saw A Friend.” This video shows students that positive friendships are essential and needed by anyone. Ms. Dora, as the school counselor, continued the activity with an explanation of the Buddy Program and how students should respect and give value to each other so that later they have an awareness of the importance of preventing bullying in the school environment.

After getting the explanation from Ms. Dora, the students are divided into several “breakout rooms.” Grade 11 will join their juniors in Grades 7 and 9, while Grade 12 will join their juniors in grades 8 and 10. In the breakout room, the students are given space to share and tell stories because there is limited interaction between classes like in the school at the regular time during online home learning. The students were asked to make a “Fun Fact about Our Friends” quiz and a video with the theme “caring.” The quizzes that the students have made will then be played together when they rejoin the google meet “main room” in the next session. The activity was continued by watching together the videos they had made. From these videos, the students understood the importance of caring, a sense of caring, and the positive friendships they had to grow in the school environment. The event was then closed with the announcement of the favorite video.