Parents across Coventry are being urged to speak to their children about bullying
The NSPCC say between April 2021 and March last year, they held over 8000 counselling sessions over children being bullied at school
Last updated 6th Sep 2023
As children are heading back to the classroom, parents are being urged to get talking to their kids about bullying.
From April 2021 to March 2022 Childline say they delivered 8,006 counselling sessions to children and young people about bullying. Nearly 7000 of those sessions were about bullying in person, which is a 67 percent increase compared to the year before when there was the national Covid lockdown.
Parents are being told to keep an eye out for key signs that their children may be being bullied at school.
Dr Rachel Molitor is a behavioural psychologist and lecturer at Coventry University - she has this advice for parents:
" I think it's really important to open up and give them a safe space to talk. Not to just directly say to them 'what's going on at school?' or 'do you have any issues?' not yes or no questions"
"Really open up with more open-ended questions like.. 'can you tell me about your day, or can you tell me about your class?' Maybe just take them to the side and giving them somewhere comfortable to be able to talk, not in front of the whole family unit."
"Let them gather their own thoughts and let them share when they're ready to. If you push too hard and get people to share things that they're not ready to talk about, then it can make them closedown and go inside on themselves."
"Listen actively, nod, give them the attention they deserve, talk to them, have that eye contact, listen and nod along with them and show that you are listening. You can use things like relatable stories."
There are a number of support services available if you are worried about your child being bullied, including the National Bullying Helpline and Stamp Out Bullying.