Welcome to our summer safeguarding newsletter! At MITSkills.com, we believe that creating a safe and supportive environment for all learners is paramount. Bullying is a critical safeguarding issue with far-reaching consequences for children and young people. It is essential for everyone in an educational setting to understand what bullying is, its various forms, its impact, and how to effectively prevent and respond to it.
Bullying is defined as “the repetitive, intentional hurting of one person or group by another person or group, where the relationship involves an imbalance of power”. This behaviour can be physical, verbal, or psychological, and can occur face-to-face or online. The core element of bullying is intent to harm.
Bullying can manifest in various ways:
Physical Bullying
This includes actions like hitting, kicking, tripping, or destroying a person’s property.
Verbal Bullying
This involves insults, teasing, name-calling, sexual harassment, or prejudice-based/discriminatory language, including threats.
Alienation
This type of bullying involves treating someone like an outcast, ignoring them, not including them in activities, and encouraging others to do the same.
Prejudice-Based/Discriminatory Bullying
This occurs when any of the above bullying types are motivated by hostility towards individuals or groups based on their disability, race, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, or other perceived differences. This form often reinforces established patterns of discrimination and prejudice.
Online Bullying (Cyberbullying)
This involves the use of technology to bully, such as via text messages, social media, or gaming. It can include the use of images and video and can increase the reach and frequency of incidents. Hurtful or private images and untrue/unkind comments can be easily shared with a wide audience.
Covert Bullying
This form of bullying often occurs behind the victim’s back and aims to damage their reputation. Examples include spreading rumours, mimicking, encouraging others to have a poor opinion of someone, or anonymously sharing personal information without consent.
Children can experience more than one form of bullying simultaneously, and the form may change depending on the context, such as in person or online, or across different settings like school and home.
A common misconception is that “banter” can excuse rude behaviour. However, there is a clear distinction:
Bullying
Involves a power imbalance, causes hurt and harm and is repetitive and intentional.
Banter
Involves a playful and friendly exchange of teasing remarks between people with equal power, with no intent to cause harm or hurt.
If someone feels hurt or upset, it is not banter.
Children may engage in bullying behaviours for various reasons, often to gain a sense of power, purpose, and control. Some common reasons include:
Difficult home life: Experiencing neglect, abuse, or exposure to abusive adult relationships.
Stress and trauma: Having experienced a traumatic event.
Poor guidance: Lack of education and guidance can normalise bullying, hate speech, and violence.
Low self-esteem: Bullying others can be a way to mask their own insecurities or make themselves feel better by comparison.
Being bullied themselves: Some children in a cycle of negative behaviour may become bullies.
Poor relationships: Unsecure relationships may lead to bullying to feel accepted.
Desire for admiration and attention: Seeking approval from peers.
Fear of being left out: Joining in with bullying to avoid being targeted themselves.
Not understanding how someone else is feeling: A lack of empathy.
Taking out angry feelings on others: Displacing their own emotions.
Culture of aggression and bullying: Being in an environment where such behaviours are normalised.
Addressing bullying not only supports the victim but also provides an opportunity for intervention and support for the bully.
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