Anti-bullying strategies: online and in-person

Any good school acknowledges the reality that bullying can happen. What matters is that a good school has procedures in place to identify and minimise bullying as much as reasonably possible.

This workshop was designed to raise awareness of the kinds of bullying that can take place, as well as strategies that can be used at school and at home to minimise its effects. It also explored the relatively new phenomenon of cyber (online) bullying and discussed what can be done to prevent it.

What Participants Gained:

• Understanding what bullying is: including how it is described by the UK Department for Education, and specifically in the context of (inter-)national Anti-Bullying Week #powerforgood.
• Thinking about culture: bullying behaviour often exists within overlapping contexts—friendship groups, school classes, individual institutions, and within a national perception of what is acceptable.
• The online world: schools with strong adherence to healthy values educate pupils on what healthy online behaviour looks like, particularly in terms of relationships with others. A healthy school culture also teaches young people to share concerns, whether with parents, school staff, or even social media companies.
• Reporting mechanisms: schools like IBSB with strong anti-bullying policies offer a range of ways for pupils to share concerns, including anonymous reporting (post box or QR code), pupil surveys, and trained student mentors.
• Proactive parenting: good schools foster an open dialogue with parents on these matters, educating through workshops and regular kindness initiatives for pupils, such as charity work and form-time activities. Parents are similarly advised to engage in open dialogue with children about online activity and put reasonable limits and checks on their online behaviour.
• Anti-bullying and kindness within school culture: IBSB keeps anti-bullying approaches at the forefront, regularly revisiting key definitions and reporting mechanisms in form times, assemblies, and the taught PSHE curriculum. Anti-Bullying Week was marked this November as a whole-school event, alongside Kindness Week (May 2025), which began this year.

This parent workshop provided practical strategies to recognise and minimise the impact of bullying, whether in person or online.

You can view the presentation from the workshop here.