Anti-bullying action: top tips for schools 

 

This winter we are shining a spotlight on anti-bullying.  

According to the Anti-Bullying Alliance, bullying can be defined as: 

The repetitive, intentional hurting of one person or group by another person or group, where the relationship involves an imbalance of power. Bullying can be physical, verbal or psychological. It can happen face-to-face or online.  

#BeeWell studies have shown that approximately 16% of young people report experiencing one or more forms of bullying, and higher rates of bullying at age 12/13 are associated with poorer mental wellbeing at age 13/14. 

For Anti-Bullying Week in November, we held a webinar where we heard from a number of speakers with expertise in the field, including Professor Louise Arseneault from King’s College London Professor Arseneault highlighted that we should support school-based interventions that aim to reduce bullying behaviours, to support young people’s mental wellbeing.  

Although the onus for preventing bullying shouldn’t rest on schools alone, they do have a key role to play in preventing bullying from taking place in the school environment. At our Anti-Bullying Week webinar, Jess Alborough from the Anti-Bullying Alliance emphasised the importance of each school developing an effective whole school approach to bullying prevention. This should include: 

• developing a shared understanding of what bullying is among the school community 

• promoting a respectful ethos within school – using school charters, display boards, curriculum content and events, for example, and ensuring all students and families feel they belong  

• celebrating all differences – including those that are less common – for instance through school culture, classroom displays, curriculum content and activities 

• challenging all forms of discrimination, including thinking about banter and bullying. 

There is also learning we can draw from the experiences of schools taking part in #BeeWell. 

Schools in Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Portsmouth and Southampton took part in their first peer learning session this month, focusing on anti-bullying and sharing best practice.  Positive initiatives to tackle bullying have included: 

• adjusting the layout of toilets, identified as a ‘hot spot’ for bullying 

• robust monitoring on an individual teacher basis to track escalation of consequences/actions when bullying behaviour is identified 

• prioritising restorative conversations to repair relationships 

• a ‘tier’ system that students understand and feel reassured is used consistently across the schools 

• the Diana Award anti-bullying ambassador training.  

More tips for schools developing an anti-bullying approach can be found in the Anti-Bullying Alliance’s Bullying prevention toolkit. 

To read more about what we’ve learned from our #BeeWell research about bullying, take a look at the earlier blogs from our anti-bullying spotlight: prevalence and inequalities and outcomes and interventions.