DESPITE bullying still being a serious problem across high schools, many students find that the approach of anti-bullying drama presentations, or "bully buster" performances, aren't effective.
Now, a group of year 9 drama students at Northholm Grammar School are seeking to change how anti-bullying presentations are shown in their own unique way.
Dubbed the Every Voice Counts project, the group of 20 students devised their own performance about bullying, but doing so from their own experiences, both in the playground and online.
"[Other anti-bullying performances] sort of show how to fix it and what we're supposed to do, but they didn't show what it really looked"
"It's straight from the students' mouths," Northholm drama co-ordinator Brad Turbott said.
"It's not going to solve the problem in half an hour, but it gets people to talk about it."
As well as being performed before other year 9 students, it was also performed for year 12 students and prefects as well as the principal.
"When people come to school to show stuff, it's kind of what the adults think of what bullying is," year 9 drama student Annabelle Leonard said.
"[Other anti-bullying performances] sort of show how to fix it and what we're supposed to do, but they didn't show what it really looked," fellow drama student Daniel Yin said.
Along with showing bullying from the students' perspective, the performance also allows for the audience members to write down their own experiences as a bully and being bullied, with students performing it as part of the show.
"They read them under spotlight and it shows that they are not all alone in this," Mr Turbott said.
A key part of the student performances was an emphasis on cyber bullying, with it becoming more prevalent in bullying with the rise of social media sites.
"The thing that I've noticed is that [bullying] keeps changing"
"It's a lot more hidden," drama student Sarah Walker said.
"It's not as open, not everyone knows about it."
"The thing that I've noticed is that [bullying] keeps changing," Mr Turbott said.
Now in its fifth year, the success of the group performances as part of the curricular drama program has prompted Northholm to change some of its approaches to bullying.
"They've stopped doing [other] anti-bullying presentations and the school is doing a lot more cyber safety stuff with parents," Mr Turbott said.
