This week is Anti-Bullying Week, and new data released by the Anti-Bullying Alliance has revealed that one in five children reported frequently experiencing bullying, and nearly 25% of pupils reported being a victim of cyberbullying.
For this year’s Anti-Bullying Week, which runs from the 11th to 15th of November every year, the theme is ‘Choose Respect’. The theme, which was decided by teachers and young people across England intends to empower ‘them to do something positive to counter the harm and hurt that bullying causes.’
Alongside the latest findings, the Anti-Bullying Alliance has called for new policies to help protect young people in schools. The Alliance calls for new Anti-Bullying leads to be established across schools, alongside providing comprehensive anti-bullying training for all staff. Additionally, policy recommendations include introducing a duty to record bullying incidents.
Access Online Bullying Resources for Your School
At SWGfL, we provide plenty of educational resources and guidance pieces to support schools, teachers and young people with anti-bullying guidance and advice. Through anonymous reporting solutions to Helplines for teachers and professionals looking after young people, SWGfL can provide a comprehensive approach to addressing cyber bullying across your school community.
ProjectEVOLVE – Online Bullying Resources
To help develop school curriculums with online safety in mind, ProjectEVOLVE has a series of resources for children that focuses on online bullying. Developed with feedback from partner organisations and toolkit users, these free resources help students identify online bullying scenarios and ways to respond, including:
- Describing ways people can be unkind
- Recognising that online bullying differs from physical-world bullying and identifying those differences
- Explaining why people should consider how their content affects others’ feelings and reputations
- Describing helpline services like Childline for those experiencing bullying
- Identifying ways to report concerns and access support both in school and at home
Also included are questions, outcome criteria, and activities to engage classrooms, alongside a knowledge map to help understand classroom responses and awareness of online bullying.
Find out more about ProjectEVOLVE
Whisper – An Anonymous Reporting Tool
Our anonymous reporting tool, Whisper, supports members of school communities to speak out about concerns, whether the issue relates to bullying, troubles at home, or other well-being concerns, Whisper offers a way for these problems to be raised in a manner that feels safe and accessible to everyone.
Whisper can be used by students, parents, staff, or anyone in the community, and is a great way to enable safeguarding leads and other trusted adults to get a more detailed picture of the situation at hand and help to resolve bullying concerns effectively.
Find out more about how Whisper here.
Report Harmful Content
For anyone who has experienced online bullying, Report Harmful Content also provides support and advice for anyone over the age of 13 on what to do if they have been bullied on social media.
Cyberbullying is not tolerated on most social media sites and can often be reported directly to the platform that the bullying has occurred on. Anyone who needs additional support reporting online bullying or harassment can visit Report Harmful Content for information about community guidelines and reporting routes on partnered online platforms.
Additionally, Report Harmful Content provides an innovative button that can be added to any school or organisation's website, enabling users to access expert advice and support whenever they need.
Professionals Online Safety Helpline
Schools and professionals who work with children and young people can access support for online safety concerns through SWGfL’s Professionals Online Safety Helpline. Alongside general online safety advice, the service provides information about reporting content to social media platforms and what to do if your school has had a social media account impersonated.
