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Anti bullying

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Intro by Kieran and Thali – yr 8 students at Oxford Academy, Oxford.

We know 51% of children and young people are being bullied, that needs to be stopped not in the future but right now.

We can show that there are things happening that really do help. We want to tell each other of the good things happening. For example peer mentoring and older children helping younger ones to cope when it is happening.

Taking action to stop bullying is a priority in the Children and Young People’s Plan. Children and young people are very involved in the county council’s work on anti bullying. We asked BigVoice to include 10 things that work and 10 things that don’t work when facing bullying.

What is bullying?

"Bullying’s effective if it makes you go another way to school."

Bullying happens between one or more people: children, young people and adults. Sometimes it’s between children or young people, sometimes between children or young people and adults. Most people have, at sometime in their lives, been both bullied and bullied someone else.

Bullying can be physical, verbal or both, and includes things like name calling, hurting someone else, threatening or teasing someone, picking on someone, taking someone else’s stuff, leaving someone out, spreading rumours about someone, sending abusive texts or emails.

Bullying can take a lot of forms, but it usually happens more than once and can go on for a long time. It can be done by an individual or a group of people and usually happens when one person misuses their power and makes someone else feel powerless and unhappy. The person who’s been bullied will often try and avoid contact with the bully.

"Bullying can affect you throughout your life unless something is done about it".

Created the Children and Young People’s Anti-Bullying Group September 2006

10 things that work

  1. tell someone - that's halfway to solving the problem
  2. try to avoid the bully
  3. try to attract attention when you are being bullied
  4. stick with your friends
  5. try to look positive, confident and unafraid
  6. try to join a self-defence class (or any other activity you will enjoy) to meet new people and boost your confidence although remember that fighting should always be a last resort
  7. try to look happier and more confident in yourself as this will make it easier to make friends
  8. try to make friends with people who are also being bullied - it's good to have someone to talk to
  9. report abusive phonecalls/text messages to the police
  10. keep a diary of incidents as this will be useful when reporting what's happening to you

10 things that don’t work

  1. keep it to yourself
  2. hit back unless absolutely necessary as you'll get into trouble yourself
  3. blame yourself or think there's something wrong with you
  4. act like a victim because it can make you an easy target
  5. be tempted to respond to being bullied by behaving like a bully yourself
  6. give your phone number to people unless you are sure they can be trusted
  7. reply to disturbing text messages and/or phonecalls
  8. be tempted to take time off school as this will get you into trouble and won't solve the problem
  9. show that you are upset because this will encourage the bully
  10. believing bullying is a “fact of life” bullying is wrong and you don’t have to put up with it

With thanks to “Why Me – a guide to surviving bullying” created by pupils from Carterton Community College with support by Allandale Youth Centre.

Anything else?

Have you got anything to add to the "what works” and “what doesn’t work" pages? If you have something to say please get in touch with Jo Brown Anti Bullying Co-ordinator jo.brown@oxfordshire.gov.uk or 01865 815 639

Bullying…What’s New? – Oxfordshire’s First County Wide conference on bullying held in November 2007

 

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