Education Business

According to recent research, 54 per cent of both primary and secondary school students feel that bullying is a problem in their school. Last year alone more than 31,000 children and young people called Child Line about the issue of bullying, making it one of their most commonly voiced issues.
    
The National Healthy Schools Programme, the joint Department of Health and Department for Children, Schools and Families initiative, which supports schools in helping their children and young people to be safe, healthy and to enjoy childhood, is supporting schools in finding creative some solutions.

Developing strategies
Throughout the country, schools are developing strategies to not only deal with bullying, but also the perceptions of bullying and the stigma attached to it. Recent research from the DCSF indicates that 30 per cent of children between the ages of 10-14 do not feel they can tell anyone if they have been bullied.
    
Every school has a unique environment which means methods and incentives used to address bullying will vary and Healthy Schools can help to facilitate this. At Dalton School JIN in Huddersfield for example, group work and drama have proved to be a great way to get across anti-bullying messages. As part of the school’s work towards National Healthy School Status, two members of staff attended Student Assistance Programme training and then set to work in starting up a series of student support groups to help improve the emotional health and wellbeing of their pupils across a range of issues.
    
A ‘Victims of Bullying’ group, which contained a number of Year 3 pupils with particularly low self-esteem, used drama to help address the problem. In many instances, children were experiencing bullying outside of the school environment and outside of the school day, but nonetheless the school felt it was an important problem to tackle as bullying of any kind can and does directly impact upon a pupil’s confidence, wellbeing and ability to learn.
    
Elaine Eastwood, learning mentor at the school says: “In these group sessions our children and young people were encouraged to discuss the maltreatment they faced inside or outside of school and to act out scenarios in role plays. This became very popular as role playing proved highly cathartic.
    
“So successful were the drama sessions, that our members went on to ask if they could perform some short plays in assembly in order to highlight anti-bullying messages, de-stigmatise the problem and encourage other people suffering from any form of bullying to tell someone and to get help. It was also hoped it would make bullies themselves reflect on how their actions hurt their victims both physically and mentally.”
    
Since introducing drama and support group sessions into the school, Dalton JIN reports a significant decline in the problem, as reported by their children, and the school was formally recognised by the ‘Health for Kids’ Awards 2007, in association with the National Healthy Schools Programme, for their successful approach.
    
Elaine adds: “As a result of all of this work, we witnessed group members confidence levels really grow, something which was apparent in their attitude, behaviour and improvement in school work and positive changes were noticed by parents and teachers alike. I also believe that our anti-bullying messages have now been widely accepted and taken on board by everyone in the school.”

Clear policies
As part of meeting the criteria for achieving National Healthy School Status, all schools must now also be able to demonstrate that they have a clear policy on bullying, which is owned, understood and implemented by the whole school community. Because bullying is such a widespread concern for young people, the National Healthy Schools Programme also encourages schools to constantly evaluate and re-evaluate their bullying policy.
    
At West Kirby Grammar School in Wirral, consultation with students was used to closely inform the updating of their bullying policy, and proved a great means for achieving widespread support for it from across the whole school community.
    
Kirsty Whiteley, assistant head at West Kirby Grammar explains: “An Implementation Group consisting of teachers, students, staff, parents and carers, and governors was set up to discuss key issues. It was here we made the decision to update and amend our bullying policy, and to set it out in to a new-style leaflet which could be understood easily by everyone.”
    
Updates were added into the policy and when the first draft was completed, Year 11 students were approached and asked to re-write the policy in ‘pupil speak’, and the final version was presented to the School Council for further comments before it was circulated across the school.
    
Staff also trained a number of volunteer Year 11’s to go into Year 7 classes and initiate discussions with them about bullying using fun quizzes and competitions, before more detailed work on it was covered by teachers as part of curriculum.
    
A successful system called ‘Jigsaw’, which allows Year 11’s and Sixth Formers to act as peer mentors, providing the first line of contact for younger students, was also established. A designated ‘base’ area was created for break-times, where students can approach mentors to talk to about bullying and/or other personal problems.
    
Kirsty adds: “Although we are fortunate to have never really encountered any serious problems with bullying as a school, these new incentives and the updated policy were very well received throughout the school. Our Ofsted Report commented that ‘the children and young people feel well cared for and their personal development and wellbeing are outstanding’.”

Cyber-bullying
At Bourne Community College in Emsworth, children, young people and staff have been working closely with the West Sussex Healthy Schools Team to address bullying and cyber-bullying as part of a big push to improve the emotional health, wellbeing and self-esteem of all their students, and have introduced some innovative ideas for beating cyber-bullies. Recent figures highlight the scale of this problem, suggesting that one in five of 11-19 year olds experience a form of cyber-bullying including threats via e-mail, internet chat rooms and text message.
    
Margaret Eva, head teacher at Bourne Community College explains: “We have been successfully running an Anti-Bullying Text Message system called ‘Bourne Beats Bullying’ which allows our children and young people to text in their problems, questions or to report an incident, including issues with bullying, in an anonymous way.
    
“We have also created a ‘buddy system’ and trained prefects to be peer mediators who the students can approach at any time if they are being bullied or need someone to talk to. As a result we have managed to foster a school culture where our students understand the importance of caring for each other, and very few incidents of bullying actually take place – something which is often commented upon by parents and visitors to the school alike.”
    
Across the country there are numerous more examples of how different schools have developed initiatives that really work for them in order to help tackle bullying and friendship problems. Your local Healthy Schools team can support you and your school with addressing a range of topics including bullying, friendships, and building the emotional resilience of children and young people.

For more information
For more information about the National Healthy Schools Programme and the contact details of your Local Healthy Schools Programme, please visit: www.healthyschools.gov.uk