The complete guide to Anti-bullying

Last Updated October 2024

Children and young people have the right to a safe school environment, yet 40% of young people were bullied in the last 12 months (Anti-Bullying Alliance). 

Bullying can have harmful and long-lasting effects on children. Those involved typically have a bad school experience, poor relationships with their teachers, and dislike attending school. Additionally, individuals who frequently bully others tend to have lower wellbeing whether they engage in bullying online or face-to-face.

Awareness and intervention are important tools in addressing bullying and furthering anti-bullying awareness, ensuring a safer and more supportive environment for all children.

Read on to learn more about how you can create a safe and supportive learning environment for your children and young people. 

• What is bullying

• The definition of bullying

• The types of bullying (+ statistics)

• How can schools prevent bullying?

• How to help pupils speak up against bullying

What is bullying?

Bullying involves unwanted, aggressive behaviour that includes a real or perceived power imbalance. The behaviour has to be repetitive or has the potential to be repeated over time and can happen online or in person. 

Bullying includes:

• Making threats

• Spreading rumours

• Verbally or physically attacking someone

• Excluding someone from a group on purpose

The definition of bullying

The Anti-Bullying Alliance define bullying as:

“The repetitive, intentional hurting of one person or group by another person or group, where the relationship involved an imbalance of power. Bullying can be physical, verbal, or psychological. It can happen face-to-face or online.”

The types of bullying (+ bullying statistics)

Bullying takes many forms that can affect those involved right through to adulthood. The most common types of bullying are:

Physical Bullying

Physical bullying centres around hurting someone or damaging their possessions. For example, hitting, kicking, pushing, tripping, or breaking into someone’s belongings. 

“29% of English secondary school head teachers received reports of physical and non-physical bullying behaviour amongst pupils. England has the second highest percentage of reports out of all the OECD countries (the OECD average is 14%).” (source)

Verbal Bullying

Verbal bullying is when the bullying involves saying or writing mean or nasty things. For example, teasing, name-calling, or taunting.

1 in 10 (11%) 8-11-year olds say they have personally experienced some form of bullying behaviour. (source) 

Social Bullying

Social bullying typically involves damaging someone’s reputation or relationships. This includes creating and spreading rumours, not including someone on purpose, and causing embarrassment to someone in public. Social bullying aims to isolate the individual from others, meaning they will feel as though they have no one to turn to for support.

Cyberbullying

Cyberbullying is when bullying takes place through digital devices like computers, smartphones, and tablets. 

Nine out of ten individuals who experience cyberbullying behaviour also experience face-to-face bullying behaviour (source). 

There are other types of bullying too including emotional, sexual, prejudicial and disability bullying. Making sure that you and your pupils recognise all forms of bullying is important for creating a well-rounded anti-bullying policy for your school, helping all individuals feel protected and supported. 

How can schools prevent bullying?

Preventing bullying in school involves a multi-faceted approach that’s regularly reviewed and reinforced. Here are six steps you can take to improve your school’s anti-bullying strategy:

36% of young people aged 8 to 22 are worried about experiencing bullying behaviour at school, college or university (source). 

1.Establish a school-wide understanding of bullying

Learning to understand and manage conflict such as bullying is an important part of growing up. Speaking with your pupils regularly about what bullying is/isn’t, how to identify bullying, and what to do if they witness it will be an important part of your anti-bullying strategy. 

2. Celebrate everyone’s differences

Often, children who are bullied are picked out due to perceived differences. It’s important to consistently celebrate what makes us all unique - helping your pupils to understand our differences is a positive thing and helps to prevent this from happening.

3. Engage students in building a positive anti-bullying culture

Promote the idea that creating a safe and respectful environment is everyone’s responsibility. Regularly communicate your school’s values and emphasise respect and kindness. Remember to speak to pupils about what bullying is and how and where to speak up if they do witness it. 

4. Develop and implement supportive anti-bullying policies

Build a detailed anti-bullying policy that defines bullying, gives clear steps for staff to follow, and outlines specific consequences if bullying occurs. To make sure your school and pupils benefit, you need to consistently enforce the policy and make sure that all incidents are taken seriously. 

5. Encourage everyone to challenge poor behaviour when they see it

Make it easy for pupils to speak up in confidence or anonymously so that they can report bullying and poor behaviour when they see it. Set up systems such as tootoot’s pupil voice tool to enhance your anti-bullying tools and ensure that students and staff feel safe to speak up. 

80% of bus drivers have witnessed bullying behaviour on the school bus (source). 

6. Promote a respectful anti-bullying culture

Schools with a strong and respectful culture, that’s role-modelled by school staff, see the best results when working to prevent bullying. Providing training for staff on effective communication and conflict resolution can help achieve this. Encouraging students to promote respect and inclusivity through peer mentoring or student council positions is a great way to bring the wider student body into your anti-bullying culture.

How to help pupils speak up about bullying

Research shows that 35% of children who have been bullied don’t tell anyone about it (Ditch the Label). Children who are going through bullying can feel very alone and it’s important that everyone who experiences or witnesses bullying feels safe and comfortable to speak up about it. 

1.Make sure pupils know how to reach out for help

It is vital that we give all pupils the skills and confidence to speak up when they see something they are worried about. This includes giving them tools and routes to speak-up that are easy to use, and trusted.

2. Make the reporting system accessible to them

Give pupils multiple ways to speak up confidentially by using methods such as digital messaging tools such as tootoot, suggestion boxes, and direct communication with trusted staff. Remember - don’t just rely on one system to support your approach to anti-bullying. 

3. Make sure pupils understand the processes if they do speak up

Regularly explain and review your reporting procedures, and make sure pupils know what to expect and how their concerns will be handled if they do need to speak up.

4. Educate your pupils

Teach pupils about how to recognise signs of bullying, the impact of bullying, and the importance of standing up for themselves and others through anti-bullying assemblies, lessons, and activities.

5. Talk openly and frequently to your pupils

Engage in regular conversations with your pupils about their day, friendships, and any concerns. This creates trust and fosters open communication, giving them opportunities to speak up if they need to. 

6. Build your pupils’ self-confidence

Help your pupils develop a strong sense of self-worth and resilience by encouraging their interests and achievements. Use our teaching resources to celebrate their uniqueness in assemblies and class.

7. Support pupils to be safe online

Continue to educate children about online safety, privacy settings, and being respectful online. Share resources with parents so this extends to their home life too. You could use tootoot’s parent voice feature to give them a way to reach you with questions or questions.

Using digital tools to enhance your anti-bullying strategy

Children and young people are more likely to speak up using digital tools such as phone apps.

Tootoot’s pupil voice messenger makes it easy for young people in schools, colleges, and universities who experience bullying to speak up, creating more effective processes to support pupils and reduces cyberbullying and bullying in schools by 50%.

Speak to the tootoot team today to hear about how we can enhance your anti-bullying policies and procedures.