Last week was National Anti-Bullying Week 2023.

The Anti-Bullying Alliance (ABA) and its members have a shared definition of bullying based on research from across the world over the last 30 years. They define bullying as: "the repetitive, intentional hurting of one person or group by another person or group, where the relationship involves an imbalance of power. It can be physical, verbal or emotional and it can take place face to face or online”.

Bullying is a form of child-on-child abuse and is not tolerated.

Educating our community is essential because not all behaviours are classed as bullying and we recognise that people make mistakes, fall out, react in different ways. We are human! Speaking about bullying is vital and it was a fantastic opportunity to discuss in relation to Interfaith Week.

All pupils received a lesson on Monday 13th which was centered solely around what is bullying and what is ‘banter’ and how banter can in some cases, lead to bullying. Pupils also received an assembly in their year groups which was jointly delivered by our Anti-bullying pupil ambassadors.

Students are encouraged to talk to any member of staff if they are worried or concerned about bullying towards themselves or others.

We are extremely proud of our students and the work they produced, including this fantastic poster from one of our Year 9s!

I think we ‘made some noise’ about bullying!