Schools have a serious problem with bullying at the moment. 1 in 4 children are currently being bullied at school and 1 in 12  have their lives severely affected. Children are suffering from depression and some see suicide as their best or only way out. We need to figure out the most effective ways of bullying prevention and ways to stop bullying altogether.

A good anti bullying programme will have a wide menu of resources for the students. Peer mentoring solutions are particularly good because the victims of bullying can learn from older children who will have come up with many of their own strategies to prevent themselves from being bullied. Teachers need good training so that they know exactly how to help children who come to them for help. Most importantly, overall the school must create a culture where children are rewarded for good behaviour.

All too often in our schools we are good at punishing children when they are out of line and yet far less of the time we give praise for good behaviour. It can seem silly to compliment children for walking down a corridor (instead of running). It is such a perfectly normal thing to do that the compliment appears unnecessary but when children run in the corridors we shout and tell them off. If this approach is used in all aspects of the school then the children receive a lot of shouts, threats and punishments from their teachers but little praise by comparison. It is no wonder they shout at each other, ‘punish’ each other and issue threats from each other. Who says that our children are not learning well from our teachers?

This is similar to bullying at work in companies where manager use a ‘style’ which berates employees in order to make them work. Instead, a few words of positive encouragement would go a long way. If we want to stop bullying at school we must be more positive with our children and allow them to learn by example.