Primary invites parents to help tackle bullying
A PRIMARY school in Yorkshire invited parents to take part in an anti-bullying day as part of a major crackdown on the issue in the hope it can help set a precedent for others.
St Matthew’s CE Primary in Bradford held sessions for pupils, staff, parents and governors, as well as adults from the wider community, to inform them about bullying and how to tackle it.
It is part of work the school is carrying out to achieve The Anti-Bullying Quality Mark, which has seen a steering group, led by parents from the school, work all year to improve practices around anti-bullying.
As a result, policies were updated, ‘anti-bullying ambassadors’ have been introduced to support children in the playground and a number of workshop activities are being held across the school.
James Whitehead, the assistant headteacher and anti-bullying lead, said: “We involved parents and governors because tackling bullying is something pupils and adults should be involved in.”
The 45-minute virtual reality sessions saw participants learn how to identify acts of bullying, respond to it and safely intervene on behalf of others experiencing it.
They were asked to wear goggles linking them to a virtual world, where they were able to ask questions of the characters in bullying scenarios.
Acting headteacher Kay Remmer said: “The anti-bullying day is a new approach to dealing with bullying issues in school. We expect the outcome will be that more people will become involved in identifying, responding to and effectively dealing with any bullying which might take place at St Matthew’s.”
The NSPCC says bullying has been one of the top five concerns of children contacting Childline since 1989.
Last year there were there were more than 25,700 Childline counselling sessions with children about bullying. It is the most common reason for children aged 11 and under to contact the helpline, according to the charity.