According to Ditch The Label, 1-in-2 have experienced bullying, this is a startling fact and highlights the essential need to educate children about the issues surrounding bullying. There’s an abundance of anti-bullying resources available to educators, but it’s no mean feat for teachers to have to find the most effective strategies and resources to put into practice with their pupils. For this reason, we’ve gathered together 10 of the best anti-bullying resources available to help you prevent, deal with and really make a noise about bullying in your school.
1) Best for KS2 debates — BullyingUK hosts an array of excellent free anti-bullying activities. There are posters, flashcards and a ready-made assembly. We especially like this brilliant debate activity asking ‘is it bullying or banter?
2) Best for teacher training — It’s important that your school has a shared understanding of what is bullying and what isn’t. The Anti-Bullying Alliance shares a free CPD online training module for school staff to help them understand bullying and the difference between relational conflict and bullying. There are also some awesome ideas for anti-bullying week.
3) Best for celebrity advice — The Anti-Bullying pro website offers videos of well-known celebrities sharing their bullying stories as well as advice and tips from familiar faces for anyone who is worried about bullying.
4) Best for Key Stage 1 — Our pals at Twinkl offer an abundance of brilliant bullying resources! You’ll find posters, worksheets, good friends certificates, discussion cards and much more! We especially like their Power for Good activity pack.
5) Best for parents and carers — If it’s advice to offer family members that you’re looking for, then Kidscape offers some super useful resources aimed at parents, carers, grandparents and even school bus drivers! There’s also a brilliant booklet with advice for primary aged children.
6) Best for teaching kindness — One of the best books for exploring the themes of bullying and friendship is Wonder by R.J. Palacio. The lovely folk at Puffin Schools have created a set of read-along resources to accompany the book. They include lesson plans, extracts, Literacy and PSHE learning objectives, guided reading cards and activity sheets. We think they’re WONDERful!
7) Best for inclusivity — Stonewall offer educational resources to tackle homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying in education. There’s a toolkit for both primary and secondary schools to help you get started as well as posters and easy to read guides to help explore gender stereotypes.
8) Best for video clips — CBBC’s anti-bullying clips, guides and advice are super child-friendly and allow children to learn about bullying issues in an engaging way. There’s a selection of short videos as well as celebrity interviews and a cyber-bullying quiz.
9) Best for social media advice — If it’s bullying on social networks you’re looking to discuss in school then Childline has a comprehensive guide to dealing with bullying on each of the networking sites. Especially useful for educating upper key stage 2 and secondary pupils.
10) Best for cyberbullying — With online platforms being increasingly accessible for children, cyber-bullying is becoming more and more of an issue. Internet Matters offers a variety of cyber-bullying tips and tools dependent on the age group you’re teaching. They cover everything from explanations of cyber-bullying, videos and statistics, to real-life stories.