Do this

• If a young person in your family is being bullied at school it is vital that you work with his or her teachers to find a solution.
• If you are not happy with a teacher's response, do not give up. Speak to someone else - perhaps another teacher or the head teacher.
• Always discuss things with your child before you take action. If you don't do this you might damage your relationship with your child.

Don't do this

• Do not tell a child being bullied to "just ignore it". If that were possible, the child would not be asking you for help.
• Do not tell a bullied child to hit back. A very common and hurtful form of bullying is name-calling. If your daughter hits someone who is calling her names, there is a good chance that she will be the one who ends up being punished by the teachers. You should discuss other ways in which she could stand up for herself.

Read this

You may obtain from us some literature that will help you to understand more about bullying and the ways in which schools cope with it:

• Focus on Bullying - a document sent out to School Boards by the Scottish Office in 1994 [Call the InfoLine for a copy]
• Bullying at School - Advice for Families [Available here]
• Spotlight 43 - Finding out about Bullying [Available here]
• A leaflet about ParentLine Scotland.
• A leaflet about ChildLine.
• A leaflet about the Anti-Bullying Network
• The Scottish Executive produced 2 publications in 2005 as part of the Let's Stop Bullying resources pack, both available to download:
  Good to know - advice for parents and carers of teenagers on bullying
  Confident happy children - advice for parents and carers of primary school children on bullying

• 0800 44 1111 - the ChildLine Bullying Line is for young people who have a problem with bullying.
• 0808 800 2222 - ParentLine Scotland aims to help parents with any kind of worry or problem.

Short, clear summaries tell you what's been found out about various aspects of bullying, such as the different types/locations of bullying, or if some children are more likely to bully/be bullied than others. You can also find out what schools can do to prevent bullying, for example how they can raise awareness. This resource provides students and all interested adults with an easy and direct route to some important research findings. Pupils working on a class project wrote 'this section has really made us think about what it's like to be in the victim's position'.

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© March 2006, The Anti-Bullying Network, Simpson House, 52 Queen Street, Edinburgh EH2 3NS.

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