A whole school approach
- Make sure your values are front and centre, that all staff, children and young people, and their families know them and apply them. For example, in one primary school the values of “Look after yourself, look after each other and the place you’re in” featured in many discussions and was used in reflective work, by children with one another and by teachers and parents in deciding how the school was run. Secondary settings may wish to expand and add to these values, and discuss democracy, equality, respect, resilience, tolerance and understanding.
- Ensure you have strong and up to date, understandable policies around anti-bullying and behaviour with a clear definition that separates bullying from unkind behaviour or falling out, with a system of sanctions, as well as assessment of needs and appropriate support for both victims and perpetrators.
- All staff should be trained in the setting’s approach (from support staff to senior leaders) in order to model behaviour, identify concerns and take action. We can arrange bullying training with actors that really brings the training to life and keeps values to the fore. Click here to get in touch.
Prevention
Address prejudice and improve empathy and understanding through awareness raising activities and education. What work does your setting do around resilience, problem solving, attachment approaches and emotional regulation? How is positive behaviour or attitude recognised and rewarded, again linking to the staff knowledge and action? Pupils should choose not to engage in bullying behaviour because they understand that is not the right thing to do, rather than just because they are told not to. Where are the places in and around your setting that bullying happens? What is being done to make these areas safer?
Inclusion
Promote diversity and look for ways to help children and young people measure the difference they are making to inequality in the setting. Help young people develop goals for the setting, such as reducing measures of exclusion identified in student surveys, and individual goals such as making a difference for someone every day. Ensure there is celebration of difference and look for links to other cultures, settings and regions to ensure children and young people have the opportunity to experience the benefits of diversity.
Consider the power of words and ensure there is challenge of ‘banter’, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, biphobic, racist, and other discriminatory language (e.g. about disability) which in some settings is routine (such as saying “That’s gay” to indicate that something is negative) among children or young people. Work to help young people (and possibly some staff) understand why these kinds of comments, even though they are in wide use, are still unacceptable and damaging.
Anti-bullying environment
Raise the profile throughout the year, not just in anti-bullying week. Posters, pupil-friendly policies in every room, champions and mascots have all been used to good effect. Assemblies should cover anti-bullying themes regularly, and link to events through the year such as Pride and Black History month. The curriculum should engage with the topic of bullying, particularly in PSHE or ‘themed drop-down days’.
We have a team that delivers a strong anti-bullying message aligned to your school and approaches and uses actors with young people and staff groups over different sessions to dynamically explore the issues and develop a school action plan. Get in touch for more details.
Empowerment
All children should be able to see their role in reducing bullying in the setting and be encouraged to think how an effective anti-bullying system might be put in place, developed and monitored. Many settings have ambassadors, champions, prefects, monitors and other roles where young people have had some training, are visible to other children, provide peer to peer support and a link to staff. Some settings have developed a more focused buddying system to provide direct peer to peer support.
Rapid response
An immediate reaction reduces the chances of escalation and parental involvement at a very early stage gives children and young people confidence that bullying will be addressed and not tolerated.
Consider the range of ways in which children can raise worries including
- bully boxes
- an online reporting system (bullying@yoursetting.ac.uk or perhaps an icon on your settings computers and website)
- anonymous questionnaires
- peer support
- key staff champions
- parent communication options
Remember to make sure that, whatever system you use, it is accessible to all your pupils/students, regardless of, for example, whether or not they are fluent in English, can read or write well, use non-verbal communication etc.
Your setting’s policy should set out how you respond to situations (including when to follow safeguarding procedures and/or involve the police), and how you will learn from them. Some settings use restorative practices as an opportunity to develop and learn where appropriate.
Find out more…
There’s more on the challenges to developing effective anti-bullying practice and in depth case examples in Approaches to preventing and tackling bullying (Dept for Education, 2018).
