Everyone has the right to feel safe

Many parents will have seen on the news the latest story about bullying where a boy is continually hit by another boy until he finally flips and throws the boy down onto the ground. Whilst this is certainly extreme it did create quite a stir among the boys who had various opinons about what happened. As a school we decided to follow this up with the boys to talk about bullying.

Every school in New Zealand has some form of bullying and whilst it tends to be minor verbal bullying here it can develop if it isn't stopped quickly. We talked to the boys about how bullying is repeated verbal or physical intimidation of someone else. We used the Huntley value of Honesty as a way for boys to explore whether they were being honest with themselves when they thought about how they treat each other. At times all boys experience one off verbal exchanges and this is quite normal and part of social learning. However, when these one off remarks are repeated this becomes verbal bullying. Generally with children verbal bullying is more noticable around the 8-10 years of age. This is because they are learning what is socially acceptable and coming to terms with the fact that the world does not revolve around them. They will often say things to earn kudos from their peers, not realising that the opposite often happens and they end up isolating themselves.

We encouraged the boys to be proactive about any verbal exchanges by following the steps:

1, Tell them you don't appreciate them talking to you in that way in a firm but calm way. Walk away.
2, Tell a friend or your godfather.
3, Let your teacher know.
4, Let Mr Edwards or Mr Gay know.
5, Let your parents know and encourage them to talk to your teacher.

We have a number of very good programmes at the school to make sure every boy feels safe in our environment.