ABSTRACT
For the class teacher, part of the problem of bullying in school is the common dilemma of how to react in a realistic way to pupils’ complaints of being victimised. This means in a way which maintains the school’s intentions of minimising bullying, but which does not run the risk of maximising a minor complaint into a major incident. Most caretakers, parents as well as teachers, know that on occasions some children complain too much and some too little, and that often a change in behaviour by the complainant can go some way to avoiding victimisation. Indeed, the previous chapter has reviewed some of the evidence which describes how children get better at dealing with inappropriate or unreasonable aggression as they get older, as a normal part of child development. Consequently, a common response is non-committal advice to ‘stay out of their way, then’. On the other hand, most teachers know well that some vulnerable children find it impossible to avoid the bully’s attentions successfully, because they will be sought out to act as the butt of the aggression. These children very definitely need help. When responding to bullying, teachers face a number of dilemmas, such as:
• How can the teacher find the right way to respond on the instant, consistently and in a way that is a part of the normal disciplinary and supportive stance?
