Approaches to Reduce Bullying

Preventative Strategies

Coupled with whole school approaches to encourage co-operative behaviour, there are also strategies aimed much more specifically at reducing the opportunities for bullying which schools can adopt. Not all of these will be appropriate to all schools. Strategies chosen will very much depend upon a school’s initial audit of bullying and areas of vulnerability.

The Environment

The Playground and the outside areas of the school are the places where a great deal of bullying takes place. Research has found a relationship between the levels of supervision and bullying; bullying is less likely to occur where there are high levels of supervision.

outside school

Schools could consider the following ways to improve supervision in outside areas:

• Increase the ratio of staff to pupils, where finance and resources permit.
• Remove access to some out of the way areas of the school, for example behind shed or between mobiles.
• Make sure that supervisors do cover all areas and have clear guidance on how to deal with situations which may arise.
• Stagger break times so that there are fewer children to supervise at any given time.
• Ensure that there are sufficient highly visible safe areas for pupils who may feel vulnerable at any given time. (Areas close to the head teacher's window or the staff room window may be reassuring places to be).

In most schools much of the supervision at lunchtimes is undertaken by staff employed specifically for that purpose but who have no particular training in the management of pupils. The difficulty of the task expected of them needs to be recognised and appropriate support provided. This should involve training, guidance on how to deal with incidents and being accorded status by other members of staff. Lunchtime staff can have a very important role in promoting a friendly atmosphere and encouraging play or other constructive or relaxing activity.

Inside School

Bullying may occur in corridors between lessons, in classrooms and when pupils are queuing, for example at lunch times.

Organisational change can reduce the possibilities for bullying significantly:

• One way traffic in corridors reduces the opportunities for students or pupils to bump into one another or for pupils to feel intimidated by walking against the flow.
• Staggering lunch breaks may reduce the bustle of queuing.
• Time-tabling arrangements which ensure that teachers are able to arrive at lessons on time.

Recreational Opportunities

Many school grounds offer very little in the way of recreational opportunities leaving break times, and particularly lunch times as periods of aimless unstructured activity for many children and students. Whilst some youngsters can organise themselves into games or social activities, others find this difficult without help and support. Groups or individuals without more constructive things to do may find time to bully others and youngsters who tend to be socially isolated at break times and without a particular friendship group can become easy targets.

Schools may consider the following to encourage sociable leisure time:

• Clubs and activities.
• Social sitting areas, inside or outside.
• Play/sports facilities such as adventure playgrounds, basketball or netball nets, football areas.
• Play equipment such as skipping ropes, chess sets, draught sets etc (according to the age range of the school). Careful thought needs to be given to how these are to be used and distributed. Without preplanning they may introduce argument and the potential for bullying over their use.

Children and young people sometimes wish to be quiet and may wish to be alone. Others welcome the space to study or to read at school. Schools could therefore consider staffed quiet areas, such as the library, where pupils can complete homework, read or use a computer.

('Guidance File on Behaviour Issues, Good Practice Guide' Leicestershire County Council, Education Department, pp.107-109).

Strategies for Encouraging Co-operative Behaviour

There are a number of things which schools can do, through their approach to behaviour in general, to create a co-operative school ethos in which bullying is less likely to occur. Schools which are successful in promoting a co-operative working environment, where everyone in the school community is respected and where everyone’s voice is heard, are those which are successful at keeping bullying to a minimum.
Approaches to encouraging the co-operative environment can include the following:

Curriculum Content

A number of areas of the curriculum lend themselves to direct discussion of how people do, and should, relate to one another:
Humanities

• Repression and victimisation of various groups e.g. Jews in the second world war.
• Racial or sexual discrimination.
• Stereotyping and the roots of prejudice.

English

• Exploration through literature and discussion of feelings and of different points of view.
• Some texts deal specifically with the issue of bullying, for example the Heartstone Odyssey, poems such as 'Back in the Playground Blues' by Adrian Mitchell.

Drama

• Drama and role play can provide a useful means for feelings to be explored and made explicit. Caution is needed, however, when bullying incidents are the subject of role play, not to either stereotype the role of the bully or allow it to be glamorised in any way.

Personal, Social and Health Education

• This is an obvious area for the discussion of bullying within the context of relationships with others.

Religious Education

• As in P.S.H.E. bullying can be dealt with in the context of relationships as well as through moral values.

Physical Education

• This is a critical subject in which, if not carefully handled, pupils who are not well co-ordinated or physically competent may be made to feel inadequate or vulnerable to ridicule.

All areas of the curriculum will need to be differentiated according to the needs of individual pupils. Particular care will need to be taken to make sure that special needs pupils, who research shows are at high risk of becoming either victims or bullies, are included in this work.

Teaching Style

Teaching approaches which actively support co-operative behaviour include the following:

• Good lesson planning and preparation.
• Greeting students as they come into the lesson and making accepting personal comments to them whenever possible.
• Leading by example and behaving towards students politely and with respect.
• Involving pupils in setting explicit rules for appropriate behaviour.
• Setting tasks which involve collaborative problem-solving.
• Adopting a teaching manner which displays respect for all points of view and contributions, and which generates an atmosphere of trust.
• Ensuring acceptance of all contributions to a lesson, incorporating these into the lesson wherever possible.
• Providing opportunities for pupils to discuss their work with one another.
• Being aware of and sensitive to the dynamics within and between groups in the classroom.
• Circle Time. Many schools now use circle time in some form to involve pupils in solving problems which affect them. This approach provides an ideal forum for discussing issues of bullying and allowing pupils to propose solutions to which they will be committed.
• Teachers adopting a collaborative approach to the resolution of any form of conflict between pupils in the classroom.
• Avoiding colluding with teasing or apparently light hearted comments about students which may be offensive to them.
• Using peer mentoring, particularly cross age mentoring . (This needs careful introduction and sensitive monitoring).

School Structure, Organisation and Culture

A school organisation with encourages participation in all aspects of the school community and empowers everyone, students and adults alike, to have a voice in decisions which affect them will engender a healthy co-operative atmosphere. It is also essential that the organisation and culture of the school does not encourage adults to use their power or authority to bully others.

('Guidance File on Behaviour Issues, Good Practice Guide' Leicestershire County Council, Education Department, pp.105-107).