Harrogate students learning about the impact of bullying
It's as new research shows on average one child in every class is experiencing bullying every day
Last updated 19th Nov 2021
Students at a Harrogate school have been learning about how their words or actions could impact other people.
It's to raise awareness of how bullying could negatively affect someone's mental health and lead them to become isolated.
It's as figures from the Anti Bullying Alliance found 17% of children have experienced abuse online and around 30% have been bullied in the last year alone.
Students at Harrogate Grammar School have been taking part in assemblies to find out how to spot the signs of bullying, how to support someone if they think they're being bullied and the different forms of bullying.
Holly Featherstone, Year 9, said: "Sometimes bullying can happen because they're experiencing something in their lives themselves that they're struggling to deal with, but that doesn't mean they should take it out on someone else."
Fletcher Mills, Year 7, said: "I think when a bully goes into depth and they look into what their actions have done it can really have an impact on them after they've been a bully."
Suri Mirtaheri, Year 8, said: "If someone is being bullied it can make them feel not good about themselves and make them feel like they have to change themselves to be like how the bully wants them to be."
Elodie Parker, Year 9, said: "If a situation didn't look too serious I would speak up and say that the person should stop but if it started to escalate I would report it to someone in the school."
Darcy Chamberlain-Shaw, Year 8, said: "Nobody should have to come into school if they're scared; you should be able to come into a good environment."
Claudia Marshall, Year 7, said: "Our generation is using social media and devices more and more so it's more common for someone to face bullying online than face to face."
Students at Harrogate Grammar have an online portal where they can report instances of bullying anonymously if they do not feel comfortable to report it directly to a teacher. This way a student accused of bullying can be approached can be dealt with. It also gives a sense of reassurance to the one reporting the bullying that they won't face any repercussions.
Tim Milburn, Assistant Head, said: "It's important for the children to be able to distinguish what is banter and what isn't banter. Banter isn't a great word in the first place but it is one that students use. We've been talking about where the line is drawn and more importantly when a young person feels unsafe or uncomfortable how they can feel supported.
"We want to give students the confidence to be able to report any instances of bullying or harassment that they're faced with or witness and if they feel they can't tell that directly to a member of staff for whatever reason they can do it through the iPads and our school technology."
Anti-Bullying Week is an annual UK event, held in the third week in November (15 - 19 November 2021) which aims to raise awareness of bullying of children and young people, in schools and elsewhere, and to highlight ways of preventing and responding to it.
It started in 2002 and has since grown to become a significant event in the calendars of children, families and schools with an estimated 80% of schools in the UK taking part reaching over 7.5 million children and young people.
Anti-Bullying Week is coordinated by the Anti-Bullying Alliance (ABA) in England and Wales and the Northern Ireland Anti-Bullying Forum (ABA’s sister organisation) in Northern Ireland.