Anti-Bullying Week 2019 Teaching Resources – Stop Speak Support

Anti-Bullying Week 2019 will be celebrated throughout November and this year there will be a greater emphasis on cyberbullying, Thursday 14th November 2019 will mark ‘Stop Speak Support Day’

So we are taking a look at these new engaging videos and how they could be used as a teaching resource.

These simple messages are powerful and easy for students to recall. Why not use these short videos to start a conversation with your students about cyberbullying in the following ways…

Stop:

Before responding to a negative comment, stop and think. Encourage students to think before they respond.

Research shows that young people feel a great pressure to respond to messages. It may be difficult for them not to respond. In our Anti-Bullying Workshops we talk about students having a choice about how they behave and how they respond. Ask you students…

‘How could we respond if we see or receive a negative comment or messages online?’

You could suggest to your students ideas such as making your account private, disabling comments or speaking up to a teacher or friend.

Speak:

If we do see cyberbullying taking place, we can speak up to our friends or an adult that we trust.

In our Anti-Bullying Workshops, we talk to students about what to do if they ever see cyberbullying happening to someone else. It is very likely they will see some form of cyberbullying. The question is, will they identify that behaviour as cyberbullying?

It’s important that students relate what they learn in school with their actual online experiences.

When talking about cyberbullying it can be a powerful to reference directly the specific platforms that students are using. Ask your students…

‘What might cyberbullying look like on the platforms or games that you use?’

Or

‘Have you ever seen cyberbullying before and what did it look like?’

Support:

If you know someone is being cyberbullied, offer support. This can be through a supportive message or a face to face chat.

Students have a huge power to reduce incidents of cyberbullying and create a positive culture around them. Ask your students…

How could you show support to someone who is being cyberbullied?

It can be useful to talk about the idea of being an Online Upstander: someone who is proactive and speaks up about cyberbullying if they see if.

Anti-Bullying Week 2019 will have the theme ‘Change Starts With Us’. Last year Anti-Bullying Week reached 79% of schools in England, that’s 19,200 schools and 7.5 million pupils and awareness is constantly increasing. It’s a great way of promoting awareness around bullying and getting your students to think about the power they have to create a positive and supportive culture at your school.

We will be visiting schools throughout the UK with our Anti-Bullying Workshops and Anti-Bullying Performances. See some of the work we have been doing with schools recently here.