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Bullying and Harassment Advice

Anti-bullying – advice for parents and carers

What is bullying?

It is bullying if individuals or groups are:

• calling your child names;
• threatening him/her;
• pressuring your child to give someone money or possessions;
• hitting your child;
• damaging your child’s possessions;
• spreading rumours about your child or your family;
• using text, email or web space to write or say hurtful things about your child (cyberbullying)

It is also bullying if your child feels hurt because of things said about their ethnic background, religious faith, gender, sexuality, disability, special educational needs, appearance or specific issues in your family.

What should you do if your child is being bullied?

• Talk to school staff about the bullying. In the first instance this will probably be your child’s class or form teacher.
• Try to stay calm.  It will help to sort out what action to take if you can bear in mind that the teacher may have no idea that your child is being bullied or may have heard conflicting accounts of an incident.
• Be as specific as possible about what your child says has happened; give dates, places and names of other pupils involved.
• Make a note of what action the school intends to take.
• Ask if there is anything you can do to help your child.
• Stay in touch with the school; let them know if things improve as well as if problems continue.

If you feel that your concerns are not being addressed appropriately by the school you might like to consider the following steps:

• check with the school anti-bullying policy to see if agreed procedures are being followed;
• discuss your concerns with the parent governor or other parents;
• make an appointment to discuss the matter with the head teacher and keep a record of the meeting; and
• if this does not help, write to the chair of governors explaining your concerns and what you would like to see happening.

You can also contact Pupil services on 01685 724620 or at educationwelfare@merthyr.gov.uk  for help resolving the situation.

If you need further support and information at any stage or the problem remains unresolved, you can also contact local or national support groups such as:

Parentline Plus (0808 800 2222) or http://www.parentlineplus.org.uk/
Advisory Centre for Education (ACE) (0808 800 5793) or www.ace-ed.org.uk
SNAP Cymru (0845 1203730) or www.snapcymru.org
 

Anti-bullying – advice for children and young people
What is bullying?

It is bullying if individuals or groups are:

• calling you names;
• threatening you;
• pressuring you to give someone money or possessions;
• hitting you;
• damaging your possessions;
• spreading rumours about you or your family;
• using text, email or web space to write or say hurtful things about you (cyberbullying)
  It is also bullying if you feel hurt because of things said about their ethnic background, religious faith, gender, sexuality, disability, special educational needs, appearance or specific issues in your family.

What should you do?

Don’t blame yourself for what has happened.  Talk to someone you trust and get them to help you take the right steps to stop the bullying.

If you feel you are being bullied:

• try to stay calm and look as confident as you can;
• be firm and clear – look them in the eye and tell them to stop;
• get away from the situation as quickly as possible; and
• tell an adult what has happened straight away or, if you do not feel comfortable telling an adult, tell another pupil.

If you have been bullied:

• tell a teacher or another adult in your school (your head of year, form tutor, inclusion officer, education welfare officer will all be able to help);
• tell your family;
• if you are scared to tell a teacher or an adult on your own, ask a friend to go with you;
• keep on speaking until someone listens and does something to stop the bullying.

When you are talking to an adult about bullying be clear about:

• what has happened to you;
• how often it has happened;
• who was involved;
• who saw what was happening;
• where it happened; and
• what you have done about it already.

If you find it difficult to talk to anyone at school or at home, ring ChildLine on freephone 0800 1111. This is a confidential helpline. If you are hard of hearing you can use the textphone 0800 400 222. You can also write to Freepost 1111, London N1 0BR. The phone call or letter is free.