Making a noise for anti-bullying week

This week the Anti-Bullying Alliance’s anti-bullying week campaign is taking place, encouraging people to ‘make a noise about bullying’. With 30% of six to 15 year olds having experienced bullying in the past year, the anti-bullying week campaign is important for students to engage with and students and staff will be participating in discussions about how we, as a school, behave towards each other.

During the week each form group will spend time learning about ways to identify bullying, and how to deal with bullying if individuals come across it themselves, either as victims or witnesses. The anti-bullying alliance defines bullying as “the repetitive, intentional hurting of one person or group by another person or group, where the relationship involves an imbalance of power” and notes that bullying can be physical, verbal or psychological. One of the exercises the girls will be involved in is to consider different case studies, using this definition of bullying, and identify whether bullying is taking place. In an Immediate Media survey of six to 15 year olds, 56% said they were unsure of how to get help if they, or someone they know, experienced bullying.

Our Junior School pupils have also been learning about different types of bullying in fun and interactive ways. Through the ‘Power of One’ workshop, the girls learnt that it is vital to report bullying whenever it happens, and were reminded of the kind and caring culture of our school.

Dedicating time each year to the anti-bullying week campaign (as well as efforts throughout the academic year as part of our pastoral care programme), we intend our girls to be comfortable with the process for reporting bullying, and students are invited to share their own suggestions on how we could make this process as effective as possible. The campaign is also beneficial to members of staff as it provides an opportunity to reflect on effective ways to help children who may be being bullied and deal with those who may be bullying other young people.

We are committed to ensuring our school is free from bullying, so that all students are able to feel safe and happy in school. We know that our girls truly embrace the important messages they hear through supporting anti-bullying week.