New Zealand has the second worst rate of schoolyard bullying in the OECD. The Ministry of Education needed to stop this growing problem. But unlike past (mostly unsuccessful) campaigns that aimed to make victims more resilient, we focused on the bystanders; because attention is like oxygen for bullies - ignore them, and they lose all power. To reach children with this vital message, we created ‘Oat the Goat’. An interactive tale – accompanied by an original, 78-piece orchestral score – that let children help Oat decide what to do when confronted with bullying. Should he join in the teasing? Do nothing? Or simply ask the victim if they’re okay? By giving children the freedom to make the wrong decisions in Oat’s world, they could learn to make the right decisions in the real one.

In 2018, bullying in NZ was at record levels, with 94% of teachers witnessing it happening in their schools. The Ministry of Education acknowledged that telling children to say “Stop it, I don’t like it,” wasn’t working, and they needed a different approach. They also wanted to stop bullying at the earliest stage of a child’s development.

So, during Bullying Free Week, May 2018, we launched ‘Oat the Goat’; an interactive bedtime story that called on 4 to 7 year-olds to help character Oat navigate right and wrong as he encountered bullying on his adventure to the top of a mountain. A journey only made possible by ignoring bullies and being kind to others…

The soundscape played a crucial role in keeping children engaged and guiding them to do the right thing. So, we worked with composer Tane Upjohn-Beatson and the NZ Symphony Orchestra to create an original, 78-piece orchestral score - for all 11 minutes of our tale. Individual musical passages were also written to reflect the emotional consequence of children’s decisions. These were then coded to transition seamlessly at each crossroad, no matter what path the children took or when they took it.

And, to make it an unmistakably Kiwi tale, we created a sound bed and music score bursting with native birdsong and Taonga Puoro; sacred Maori instruments indigenous to New Zealand.

To ensure we reached every child, regardless of socio-economic status, we developed the tale using WebGL, so both music and graphics could play across a broad spectrum of devices and connections without affecting the quality of the experience. So far, over 85% of all 4 to 7-year-olds in New Zealand have visited oatthegoat.co.nz, spending an average of 9 minutes immersed in the story. And it’s now an official part of the New Zealand school curriculum.