Jolie a winner for saying no to bullying

OCEAN Grove’s Jolie Kerr has taken a stand with more than 45,000 primary school students against bullying.

The Our Lady Star Of The Sea Catholic Primary School student was recognised at Government House in Sydney last week, as a Regional Finalist in a nationwide anti-bullying poster competition where she is in the running to be the overall winner.

More than 45,000 children registered for Interrelate’s “Say No To Bullying” poster competition in 2018, now in its fifth year.

The competition’s theme was “Bullieve in yourself” and focuses on self-belief, with ties to the 20th Century Fox movie Ferdinand.

The event for primary school students was run nationwide for the first time this year, with CEO Patricia Occelli uplifted by the willingness of children to be involved in the anti-bullying conversation.

“We see far too often in the media the devastating news of young people who have felt that suicide was the only option they had left after relentless bullying,” Ms Occelli said.

“What these figures show is that victims of bullying are not alone and that there is in fact an army of other young people willing to stand beside them.”

The 33 finalists were recognised at an Awards Ceremony at Government House in Sydney on May 11.

Interrelate’s competition aims to raise awareness of the issue of bullying and to assist schools to identify and address bullying behaviours in their school communities.

Interrelate runs early intervention and education programs it believes are essential to ensuring inappropriate behaviours are challenged and young people learn to think about the appropriateness and consequences of their own actions.

For more information about these programs, email [email protected].