Anti-Bullying Week 2024 – which takes place from November 11 to 15 – brings a powerful theme to the fore: Choose Respect.
This year, the Anti-Bullying Alliance, in collaboration with young people, aims to empower everyone to respect others, even during disagreements.
From playgrounds to Parliament, homes to our phones, the Choose Respect campaign addresses head-on the bullying that affects millions of young people.
By encouraging children and young people to avoid bullying, even when they disagree, and urging adults to set positive examples both online and offline, we can envision a world where respect and kindness flourish.
Helping young people navigate life’s challenges is not easy and bullying can seem like another minefield that school staff are expected to be experts in, often with minimal training.
Bullying is a multifaceted issue, ranging from simple fall-outs between friends that have spiralled out of control, to more serious prejudice-based bullying.
The Anti-Bullying Alliance seeks to support you in supporting your pupils through these challenges and we have developed numerous resources and CPD training sessions.
One notable initiative is the collaboration between the Anti-Bullying Alliance and Nottingham Trent University to create a new school toolkit and CPD online training course entitled Banter or bullying: Navigating the line of acceptability.
This interactive training course will help schools to adopt a comprehensive anti-bullying approach. It focuses on preventing the misuse of banter, identifying bullying behaviours disguised as banter, and equipping children and young people with the skills to distinguish between acceptable banter and intentional unkind behaviour.
It is a topic Anti-Bullying Alliance director Martha Evans wrote about in Headteacher Update recently, offering eight signs for school staff to look out for when deciding if something is “banter or bullying”.
It is important that we take the opportunity during Anti-Bullying Week 2024 to think about how we can promote a respectful culture for children and young people, and this is particularly important in a school environment.
A message we encourage you to promote within your school is “we may not be best friends with everyone, but we must choose respect” – emphasising that it is entirely possible to disagree with someone while still respecting them.
Below are some helpful tips for teaching children and young people how to engage respectfully and constructively in conversations, especially when there are disagreements:
- Try to understand and listen: Listen to what the other person is saying without interrupting, even if you don’t agree with them. Letting people speak and trying to understand their viewpoint makes people feel respected.
- Keep an open mind: Remember that not everyone is the same or thinks the same and we are all entitled to our own opinion.
- Don’t get personal: Address the issue at hand without making it about the person.
- Choose respect: Disagreeing with someone is never an excuse for bullying. We don't have to agree with someone to treat them with respect. Use a non-accusatory and respectful language and tone.
- Know when to agree to disagree: Understand that it is okay to have differing opinions, and that disagreement does not mean we cannot get along.
- Think positively: Focus on the good in the situation – such as the things you agree on.
By encouraging pupils to practise these strategies, we can create a respectful environment where differing opinions are seen as opportunities for growth and learning, rather than as sources of conflict.
This Anti-Bullying Week let’s all commit to “choose respect”. Encourage your students to embody respect in their daily interactions, and as educators, lead by example. Adults play a crucial role in setting positive examples and modelling respectful behaviour for young people. With the right tools and mindset, we can transform our schools into environments where respect and kindness prevail, and students feel safe, valued, and respected.
Join us in making this vision a reality. What will you choose?
- Aoife Nic Colaim is programme manager at the Anti-Bullying Alliance, the organisers of Anti-Bullying Week.
Further information & resources
- Anti-Bullying Week takes place from Monday, November 11 to Friday, November 15, 2024. To find out about how your school can take part and to access free resources, visit https://anti-bullyingalliance.org.uk/