What are the best ways of tackling bullying in school?

An important message to come out of a Scottish study is that if a school is to reduce bullying it must encourage openness and encourage children to tell if they are being bullied. This would involve letting children see that if they do speak up, it will be taken seriously and will make a difference. It is pointed out that if this is to work, the children must feel part of things, they should be asked about what is going on and this should feed into the school policy.
.........................................

Article details

A Mellor (1997) 'Finding Out About Bullying'. SCRE Spotlight, Number 43, Edinburgh: Scottish Council for Research in Education. This paper can be downloaded here.
.........................................

Author details

At the time of the study, Andrew Mellor was a practising teacher who had received funding from the Scottish Education Department to carry out this project. He has been actively involved in anti-bullying work in Scotland for almost 15 years, speaking at conferences, writing for academic and non-academic audiences and running in-service courses for teachers. He is now manager of the Anti-Bullying Network, which is funded by the Scottish Executive and based at The University of Edinburgh.
.........................................