The 1st to 7th November was Anti-Bullying Week in Lisnagry NS and the children participated in a range of activities school-wide to raise awareness.

We are trying to encourage students to come forward about bullying, highlight the effects of bullying and asking what we can do to stop it.

Anti-Bullying Advice for Parents

Children are encouraged to be nice to others at all times and to include all children in their games.
Bullying is not tolerated in Lisnagry National School. Lisnagry is a Telling School and children are asked to tell a teacher (or another adult) if they feel they are being bullied, or if they witness others being bullied. All allegations of bullying are taken seriously and during Anti-Bullying Week, the issue was highlighted and children were taught strategies to deal with bullying behaviour. The topic is discussed on a regular basis to maintain awareness.
If you suspect that your child is being bullied, please let your child’s teacher, or the Principal know as soon as possible. All allegations will be dealt with in a sensitive, discreet manner.


Read our Anti-Bullying Policy and Procedures here.

The key Principles behind the Anti-Bullying Campaign Approach that we adopt:

Pupils

If someone is deliberately, repeatedly doing or saying things to you that you find hurtful, upsetting, annoying, worrying, frustrating, embarrassing or humiliating or even frightening you are being bullied. If you are being bullied in school, or if you know of someone else who is being bullied, please take the vital first step of telling a teacher you trust or asking a parent or a school friend to do so for you. Bullying can be brought to an end without making matters worse for you or anyone being bullied if the bullying situation is dealt with properly. For this to happen, you need to take that vital first step.

Parents


If you are concerned about a change in your child’s general mood or behaviour, for example if s/he becomes uncharacteristically withdrawn, touchy, angry, demands more attention than usual or has a serious decline in school workrate, it may not be “just hormones.” Your child may be experiencing bullying. To put your mind at ease, please contact the school and make teachers aware of your concerns. They can then investigate and if there is bullying taking place they can bring the bullying to an end without making matters worse for your child or anyone else.

Teachers

The awareness-raising classroom activities we present via the anti-bullying campaign website are planned and arranged so that teachers, with minimum effort, can present them to class groups throughout the school year, increasing pupils’ awareness about the nature and impact of bullying and reinforcing the message for observers that it is unacceptable and should be reported to adults. Such an ongoing awareness-raising programme is necessary so as to develop in our school a culture of the three “R”s – where bullying is Recognised, Rejected and Reported to teachers. One-off interventions or events, while valuable, cannot achieve this on their own. Some pupils (who, after all, are only children) may still bully others, perhaps without realising the link between their own behaviour and the bullying that, in principle, they reject. Conscious of this, we offer a method of discovering whether or not there is bullying taking place and, if there is, a humane way to make perpetrators aware of the harm they may be doing, inviting them to promise to stop this behaviour and encouraging them to keep that promise. Central to this is a “Reform, not Blame” approach, which, possibly for the first time, enables pupils to report bullying knowing that in doing so they are not “getting someone in trouble.” This two-strand approach enables teachers to address the issue of bullying in schools in an appropriate manner and to resolve any bullying situations that arise by offering a “win-win” outcome to all those involved, whether perpetrator, targeted pupil or observer.