“Tootoot has been a great addition to our school’s anti-bullying practices. It has given a voice to pupils that find it hard to speak up because of the stigma that is sometimes attached to reporting bullying.”

Why did you choose to launch tootoot in your school?

We have a bully ballot in our school, this is a way for pupils to anonymously report their concerns. The ballot works well, although uptake is low among year six pupils - this is when children get to an age where they think there is a stigma attached to reporting and don’t want to be seen as “telling”.

This is where the value of tootoot really shines, pupils can report in confidence, in their own time and from their own device. Pupil’s reports come through as messages to school staff who can respond with advice and also help to fix any problems.

“This is where the value of tootoot really shines, pupils can report in confidence, in their own time and from their own device.”

Do you have any recent messages from pupils that demonstrate tootoot’s impact?

One recent case involved an anonymous year six pupil, she had seen instances of bullying towards other pupils by a girl in her class, this involved name calling and unkind comments, eventually it started happening to her.

She began her tootoot message with “Hey, I have a voice and I’m going to use it. Just because I’m a kid doesn’t mean I just have to sit around seeing people get bullied.” The messages went on to describe what had happened, revealing that the pupil responsible had been saying mean things to a few pupils and that the bullying had started happening to her.

“If it wasn’t for tootoot we would have been very unlikely to identify this pupil as someone who would be responsible for thoughtless comments towards classmates.”

From this anonymous report we were able to speak to the pupil responsible, if it wasn’t for tootoot we would have been very unlikely to identify this pupil as someone who would be responsible for thoughtless comments towards classmates. We resolved the case and were also able to message the pupil who came forward, who confirmed that the bullying had stopped.

It was good to see that this pupil had been given the confidence to come forward through tootoot and make her voice heard, she even said in her messages that in the past pupils were “afraid to be in a position they don’t want to be in” and were concerned about being labelled a “snitch”.

“It was good to see that this pupil had been given the confidence to come forward through tootoot and make her voice heard.”

With tootoot not only do pupils now have the ability to report in confidence but the app changes the whole perception of reporting and shows pupils that sharing their concerns is a positive thing.