#ncab

27%of students are being bullied ‘every few weeks or more often’

1 in 7children are cyber bullied often

National Centre Against Bullying Conference

I was lucky enough last week to attend the annual NCAB conference as one of our past leadership students was asked to be a part of the youth panel. The day was fantastic, and it was especially great to hear so many passionate people talk about bullying solutions- both the experts presenting and the people I came across in each workshop. 

I picked up lots of great tips of things I can be doing in my own practice, as well as things to consider that I hadn’t thought about in regards to cyber bullying and schools. I went to a great session on Reach Out’s Orb game, which comes along with teacher resources and is about working on your mental fitness and social skills. I’d really recommend any teachers check it out and have a go yourself to see if it’s something you’d like to implement with your students.

The youth panel was wonderful to listen to, for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it was super lovely to see a young person I know present her opinions to a huge room of adults and I hope she is proud of the way she represented herself and her school. Secondly, it was great to hear from the young people themselves and hear their personal views- it’s great listening to academics and researchers but sometimes it doesn’t quite get the point across as hearing first hand experiences from students themselves.

Four Kinds of Bullying

Bullying can take a number of different forms. The Department of Education and Early Childhood Development’s Building Respectful and Safe Schools (2010) identifies four types of bullying.

1. Physical bullying: Physical bullying includes hitting, kicking, tripping, pinching and pushing or damaging property.

2. Verbal bullying: Verbal bullying includes name calling, insults, teasing, intimidation, homophobic or racist remarks, or verbal abuse.

3. Covert bullying: Covert bullying is often harder to recognise and can be carried out behind the bullied person's back. It is designed to harm someone's social reputation and/or cause humiliation. Covert bullying includes:

lying and spreading rumours

negative facial or physical gestures, menacing or contemptuous looks

playing nasty jokes to embarrass and humiliate

mimicking unkindly

encouraging others to socially exclude someone

damaging someone's social reputation or social acceptance.