Learning Outcomes: Anti-bullying Week I understand what bullying is I understand my rights and responsibilities as a member of the school community to report bullying

Is it bullying? Liam has a very quiet voice. The others in his class always shout ‘Speak up’ whenever he answers a question in class. A group of year 7 boys are playing football on the field. Tyrone misses an ‘easy’ goal, and two other boys call him ‘gay’. Ian’s bag is thrown down the stairs by a group of older boys. This happens at least three times a week. Emily receives a text every day which insults her mother. She doesn’t know who it is from. Every time Monisha walks past a group of older girls they shout a racist term and hold their nose, saying she smells of curry.

Is it bullying? Majid is called ‘spastic’ by a group of people in his year because he has a minor deformity of his foot. Majid says he thinks it’s funny. Tom and Leo get involved in a fight about the theft of Leo’s watch. Leo breaks Tom’s nose. Fiona is in Year 10. She has just ‘come out’ as a lesbian. Every PE lesson the rest of the girls refuse to get changed near her. The teacher tells Fiona to change in the toilets. John told his friend that he is a Christian and goes to Church regularly. His friend laughed at him and said he was wasting his time.

What is bullying? Adapted from; Preventing and Tackling Bullying Advice for Head Teachers, Staff and Governing Bodies, DfE, 2011 Bullying is behaviour by an individual or group, repeated over time, that intentionally hurts another individual or group either physically or emotionally. Bullying can take many forms (for instance, cyber- bullying via social media or the internet). It can involve verbal taunts, name calling, physical injury, and damage to property, rumour spreading, shunning or ridicule and is often motivated by prejudice against particular groups, for example on grounds of ethnicity, religion, belief, gender or gender identity, sexual orientation or disability, or because a child is in care, has caring responsibilities or mental health issues. It might be motivated by actual differences, perceived differences or as a result of association with someone else.