Anti-Bullying Week begins - 16-20 November

Anti-Bullying Week (16-20 November) reminds us to address bullying behaviour, yet to do this successfully there needs to be a ‘whole club' approach that includes coaches, volunteers, officials, young people and parents to take on a ‘zero tolerance' attitude to any instances of it.

Anti-Bullying Week is a good opportunity for each of us to consider if we are doing enough to prevent bullying in all its forms within our sport. Clubs should encourage a positive environment which challenges bullying and abusive behaviour.

The impact of bullying in sport

The emotional and sometimes physical harm associated with bullying can have an impact on a person's enjoyment of sport and could prevent them from taking part. These include:

• Being unable to take part in activities due to physical injury as a result of bullying
• Feeling pressured to perform or over-train due to criticism of a previous performance
• Not wanting to take part for fear of hurtful comments or bullying behaviour surrounding body image
• Experience poor wellbeing due to the stress of bulling happening either in or outside of their sport

Statistics

In a report by the NSPCC (2011) about children's experiences of sport, children reported:

• that while 2/3 bullying behaviour occurred mainly between teammates and peers, 1/3 of those reporting it said that coaches were involved, either directly by participating or indirectly by creating an ethos where such behaviour was condoned or not effectively dealt with.

The Department for Education did a study of school-aged children (2016) and found that:

• 40% of young people were bullied in the last 12 months
• 6% of all young people had experience of bullying behaviour daily and 9% between once a week and once a month
• The most common form of bullying was name-calling (including via text and email) at 26%, followed by exclusion from social groups at 18%

Helping people who are being bullied

• Take all signs of bullying seriously
• Help the person experiencing bullying behaviour to speak out
• Create a culture that encourages people to speak out against bullying and share any concerns they may have
• If you're concerned that a young person may be at risk of self-harm, seek professional help immediately, as some young people have committed suicide as a result of bullying
• Reassure the person experiencing bullying behaviour that you can be trusted and will help them, although you can't promise to tell no one else
• Keep records of what is said (what happened, by whom, when)
• Report any concerns or allegations to the club's welfare or safeguarding officer or the school (wherever the bullying is occurring) as per the anti-bullying policy

Scotland's Anti-Bullying Service

NSPCC Scotland and respectme, Scotland's anti-bullying service, have launched ‘Thinkb4youtype', a toolkit to help schools in Scotland run campaigns to prevent online bullying. The toolkit was designed in collaboration with young people and it allows young people to design and lead their own campaign around the issue of online bullying and how best to prevent and respond to it.

https://tfn.scot/news/anti-bullying-toolkit-launched

https://respectme.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/TBYT-Toolkit-final.pdf

Scottish Anti-bullying Framework

Scottish Anti-bullying Summary

Cyber Bullying

Net Aware produced by the NSPCC and 02 has released content to help parents/carers support their child who has experienced cyberbullying net aware cyberbullying tips

Useful links:

Archery GB

Archery GB Code of Conduct and Anti Bullying policies

Archery GB Online Safety and Social Media Policy

NSPCC

Bullying and cyberbullying - NSPCC's comprehensive review of this topic

Protecting children from bullying and cyberbullying - bullying research and resources on NSPCC Learning

Childline

Childline - bullying - information and advice for young people

Further information for children and young people

Childline - advice on bullying - advice for young people who are experiencing bullying behaviour

National Deaf Children's Society (NDCS) - info and advice about bullying.  The members area gives access to current members or registration of new members.

Other useful resources and websites

Department for Education - School and college behaviour and attendance - the sections on bullying provide the necessary support for designing anti-bullying policies and strategies in your school

Welsh Government Bullying Posters - posters plus help and advice to young people who are worried about bullying

Stop bullying in sport Z-card - good-practice example from Sport Nottingham

Anti-Bullying Alliance (ABA) - the ABA have a suite of tools and information about bullying

Children's and young people's voices and experiences of bullying and harassment in schools (PDF) - Children Scotland's report to Scottish Parliament on an inquiry into bullying and harassment in schools

Ditch the label - UK bullying statistics (2017)