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In her award-winning project, Glasgow School of Art graduate Fiona Clark worked collectively with pupils in a central belt school to highlight the issue of bullying. In a mapping exercise pupils identified areas where bullying takes place (including staircases, corridors, toilets and changing rooms). Fiona's photos of these areas provide striking visual prompts for classroom discussion. The complete photographic collection has been reproduced in a book alongside the pupils' maps. Fiona, who is now a PGDE student, welcomes any queries about this project which she believes 'could be repeated by schools as a cross-curricular approach to tackle bullying'. Email her here.

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Understanding 'Additional Support for Learning'

A parents' guide has been published by Enquire, the Scottish Advice Service for Additional Support for Learning. It is 105 pages long, but very readable. Bullying is one of many possible reasons why a child needs additional support. Download the guide here, or telephone 0131 222 2425 for a free copy.

Anti-Bullying and Scotland's Children - What's Going On?

Integrated community schools - or integrated children's services? One example

The Scottish Executive recently announced that the Integrated Community Schools Initiative has been overtaken by the wider integration agenda. It no longer makes sense to think of schools separately from other agencies (1).

How can this help Anti-Bullying? Any approach to bullying that is restricted to the narrow confines of the school is bound to fail. It is good to see a more integrated approach to children's services being developed in places like Renfrewshire.

'In one of our secondary schools, the Home Link worker is involved in facilitating mediation sessions between pupils who have issues with bullying. Both 'perpetrator' and 'victim' meet together to work out a solution to the problem and agree a behaviour contract which both sign. This has proved to be a very successful intervention'.
Elaine Robertson

In Renfrewshire the Home Link Service (formerly the Family Support Service) is a major part of the Integrated Community Schools Initiative. It supports integrated approaches to meeting the outcomes of: improved attendance/ reduced exclusions/increased attainment/greater parental involvement and understanding/ increased involvement in out-of-school, cultural and sporting activities and the development of health-promoting schools.

Four area home link teams (broadly corresponding to social work area teams) are made up of an area co-ordinator, home link workers, home link assistants, an attendance support worker, a health development worker, a clerical worker and sessional workers. 21.6 FTE home link workers serve the whole authority, once management and professional development time has been deducted.

The FSS offers: home visiting; group work; support for out-of-school activities; individual support to pupils; support to parents; support at times of change and support for health promotion. In 2005 an evaluation by researchers from the University of Strathclyde was extremely positive.

'It is rare to find a part of local authority support services which is so universally held in high esteem by secondary school senior management and staff'.
(p.26, evaluation report)

For more information contact Elaine Robertson, Home Link Services Manager, telephone 0141 840 3801.

(1) 'Improving Outcomes for Children and Young People: the role of schools in delivering integrated children's services' published on 7 February 2006. Extract from this paper:

'By 2007 every school in Scotland will participate in delivering Integrated Children's Services. Funding will continue to be made through the National Priorities Action Fund (NPAF)'.
Scottish Executive

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Bullying highlighted by young people as a major issue

In late 2005, the Scottish Commissioner for Children and Young People consulted nationally with children and young people to find out what they felt should be her priorities over the next two years. 15,822 votes were cast. The top three results were:

For more information, see the Scottish Commissioner for Children and Young People's website, telephone 0131 556 3378 or email.

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Promising Rights - introducing children's rights in school

'The book explores the experience of one primary school in trying to make the promises of rights a reality. …the general outcome is a positive one, with significant impacts on practical issues such as bullying' said Kathleen Marshall, Scottish Commissioner for Children and Young People, in the foreword.

'It doesn't matter what hair colour you have, what eye colour you have, what origin you have, what colour your skin is. It doesn't matter if a bit of your body doesn't work - you have the right to come to this school'
Pupil, 11 years old

Written by Julie Allan and John I'Anson, the University of Stirling, and by Susan Fisher and Andrea Priestly, Save the Children, it costs £7.50. Contact Joyce Sperber, Save the Children, 2nd floor Haymarket House, 8 Clifton Terrace, Edinburgh EH12 5DR or email.

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Childline

On 1 February 2006 Childline and the NSPCC joined forces. Childline's name and the helpline number (0800 1111) will remain unchanged.

In Scotland negotiations are taking place that will see the Childline service in Scotland being provided by CHILDREN 1st, who already run the national helpline PARENTLINE SCOTLAND.

Childline Scotland's bullying line is 0800 44 1111