Opinions and ideas were generated at the conference when delegates compared the anti-bullying policies and procedures in their own schools with a case study. Delegates then commented on the strengths and weaknesses of current anti-bullying policies, and were asked to make recommendations for the future.
 

Here is some of what was said at the conference. What do you think?

Strengths
Some of the strengths of anti-bullying policies in some Scottish secondary schools were identified as:
- schools are now recognising bullying problems
- there is more communication than there used to be

Weaknesses
Some of the weaknesses of anti-bullying policies in some Scottish secondary schools were identified as:
- most schools tend to concentrate on 1st year pupils. What happens to 2nd, 3rd, 4th year pupils?
- weak, out-of-date policies, not distributed or discussed comprehensively

Recommendations
Some of the recommendations made by delegates:
- teachers and senior pupils should give up time - patrol corridor, earn respect - show presence
- guidelines to be set nationally by Scottish Executive (to include buddy scheme)
- need to keep statistics to measure progress
- need to have some more consideration/publicity about situation of teachers bullying pupils and pupils bullying teachers
- address racial issues - including Scottish nationalism against English
- better publicity - more 'in your face', use celebrities.

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