Anti Bullying Week 2020

Every November schools throughout the United Kingdom take part in Anti-Bullying Week.  This is an opportunity to shine a spotlight on bullying and consider the steps we can take together to stop it.

Anti-Bullying Week 2020 is taking place from Monday 16th to Friday 20th November this year and it has the theme ‘United Against Bullying’. 

We kicked off the week with our Odd Socks day, where all children in school were invited to wear odd socks in recognition of the fact that we are all different and unique, and that our differences should be respected and celebrated.

We defined bullying as being the repetitive, intentional hurting of one person or group by another person or group, and we discussed how bullying could be physical, verbal or psychological.  It can also happen face-to-face or online.

We also spent some time discussing how bullying can often be group behaviour, with a ringleader who initiates and leads the bullying, without always being the person who is "doing" the bullying themselves.   The target, meanwhile is the person or people at whom the bullying is aimed.  The bullying group could also contain reinforcers (people who support the bullying, and who might laugh and encourage other people to join in) and assistants (who are actively involved in the bullying too). 

We discussed how we could help to stop bullying by acting as defenders for the targets (people who stand up for the person who is being bullied; this might also involve talking to an adult in school about something that they have seen or heard).

Following on from this, we completed individual tasks related to Odd Socks Day and Anti-Bullying week to show our own knowledge and understanding.