Bullying remains a global issue of great concern in schools and beyond, as highlighted at the recent World Anti-Bullying Forum 2023, where Scotland was represented by respectme, Scotland’s anti-bullying service.
Scotland’s progressive approach to anti-bullying is leading the way we recognise the impact of bullying behaviours in a relational context, by putting youth voice and lived experience at the core of our understanding.
Young people who have experienced bullying told us they need to be listened to and truly heard to help them recover their sense of agency and become activists in their own lives. Bullying is a violation of children’s human rights and can cause lasting harmful impacts.
The experiences and voices of young people from across Scotland are at the heart of our “Listen Up! (Respect our Rights)” campaign for Anti-Bullying Week 2023, which starts today.
The campaign aims to help children understand and claim their rights when it comes to bullying. It also asks adults to step up, listen up and take five practical steps to respect the rights of children and young people to stop bullying from taking hold.
The five steps are:
- Register for respectme’s anti-bullying e-learning modules.
- Review and update anti-bullying policies.
- Create a pupil forum or anti-bullying committee to inform anti-bullying policy and practice.
- Create simple, safe pathways for reporting bullying that protect children’s rights.
- Involve pupils in Listen Up! (Respect Our Rights) activities and messages for Anti-Bullying Week 2023, including the hashtags #AntiBullyingWeek and #ImListening.
When bullying does take place, there isn’t one single solution to resolving it. We do know, however, that trusted adults can and do make a huge difference in children’s lives by helping them regain their voice and supporting them to make choices and decisions for themselves on how they want to respond to bullying behaviour.
Adults can help children and young people to recover their feelings of being in control, know that there are options available and work with them to restore confidence, friendships and hopefulness - all of which can be lost when bullying seems overwhelming.
As an adult, your response to a bullying situation presents a vital opportunity to show the young people in your life that you are listening, you are there to support them and to tell them that bullying is never acceptable. It is not a “normal” part of growing up and it is not something they need to put up with.
Schools ‘listening up’
There is no doubt that the heavy workloads of teaching professionals, coupled with the increasing expectation that all social ills can be resolved within the classroom, can have an impact on the time and attention needed to respond in a relational way to bullying behaviour.
However, respectme is seeing clear evidence from across Scotland where schools are indeed “listening up” and investing heavily in the creation of safe, secure environments where children and young people can flourish.
Together with the members of the respectme youth action group, we are calling on all adults involved in the lives of children and young people to take action for Anti-Bullying Week 2023 by pledging to our five-step action plan.
Our pledge card, toolkits, learning resources, lesson plans and youth-led activity sheets for schools and youth groups are all free to download.
Lorraine Glass is interim director of respectme, Scotland’s anti-bullying service
