ABSTRACT
In order to help a young person with bullying, there are a number of steps you can follow:
Check the school’s anti-bullying policy. If there is not one in existence, ask why.
Make sure you liaise with staff. The more people who are aware of the situation (with the young person’s permission), the less places the bully has to bully.
Involve parents (again with the young person’s permission). The more support an individual receives, the more able they will feel to deal with the situation.
Set up an anti-bullying council. This is a good method of creating a caring school ethos. There is plenty of advice on the internet about establishing anti-bullying rooms in schools and anti-bullying counsellors.
Cover self-esteem work (see Chapter 5). Bullying can be very damaging to a person’s self-esteem, so it is important to develop young people’s self-esteem as well as resolve the bullying.
Document everything. As with all the work you do with a young person, when dealing with bullying it is important to get precise details of the bullying, who it involves, where it happens and what has been tried. This will be invaluable when talking to year heads and parents. The knowledge of what does and does not work is invaluable when forming future plans.
Set up a solution circle (see p194). You could try getting those being bullied and the bullies themselves in a room to discuss the issue through in a non-judgmental and non-accusatory way. This has proved to be a more effective way than punishing the bully in the first instance. However, it is essential that the appropriate year head is aware of what you plan to do and that you feed back to them.
