Unfortunately, research by The Diana Award in 2019 found that over half (57%) of young people have experienced bullying behaviour at some point in their school lives, with nearly three quarters (74%) having witnessed bullying behaviour in their schools.

At Greenfield we have a zero-tolerance approach to bullying and we place huge emphasis on developing kind and responsible members of our community. It is our aim to ensure children are valued, championed and challenged, both by staff and by their peers.

As well as engaging with the Big Anti-Bullying Assembly this week, Greenfield pupils often explore the behaviours associated with bullying and the impact bullying has on the lives of others in their timetabled PSHE lessons, as well as regular form times and assemblies. We want to ensure that the children are able to identify bullying so that if they, or someone they know, were to experience bullying, they would know how to seek help.

All Greenfield pupils in Years 1-6 took part in the virtual Big Anti-Bullying Assembly, which they accessed in their classrooms via YouTube. During the assembly, the children were reminded about how to identify bullying and what sort of behaviours may be classified as bullying. They were also able to hear from some well-known celebrities about their own experiences of bullying at school and what they did to overcome these things.

After the assembly, the children completed an activity to remind themselves about the support network of trusted people they can go to with any problems such as parents, grandparents or teachers. They used a hand template to add names of those people close to them on each finger as a visual reminder of who they can rely on. The children were then encouraged to hold up their “hands” and make a pledge to help put an end to bullying.

The children come away from the assembly and related activities feeling empowered by the stories they heard, and feeling able to call out bullying when they see it to help keep our community a happy and compassionate place. Hopefully with the help of initiatives like these, we can help to stamp out bullying in schools across the UK.