Tackling bullying head on

Abstract

Bullying is a significant issue for those who experience it and can be extremely difficult for both the families of children being bullied and the families of children who are bullying others. The primary school teacher and their classroom assistants have a pivotal role to play in identifying bullying and nipping it in the bud before it escalates. Research shows that many victims are reluctant to report their bullying ordeal to their teacher. This could be for any number of reasons, but in many cases the victim stays silent because they are scared that telling someone will make the bullying worse, embarrassed about being picked on, or think the adults in his or her life can’t do anything to stop it. It is a difficult cycle to break, but it is not impossible. BullyingUK works with schools, pupils and their families to manage and change a child’s behaviour. Our family support workers work within a school setting to provide a focus on reducing the impact of bullying by working with families and pupils to build emotional intelligence and resilience in their children, enabling them to resist and cope with bullying behaviour in others and prevent them from treating others in a way they do not wish to be treated. Feedback from the families of those children who were on the point of exclusion because of their bullying and challenging behaviour has shown that learning some new parenting skills and different approaches to communicating with and disciplining their child has helped a number of families to turn their child’s behaviour around. In some cases, this change in their child’s behaviour has brought them to a point where they do not have a negative impact on their fellow pupils, and has ultimately prevented them from being excluded.