Zeroing in on all the bullies

AS many as 20,000 children every day could be skipping off school to avoid being bullied.

Those shock figures from the charity Beatbullying have been released for Anti-Bullying Week.

Education secretary Alan Johnson says he wants to create a "zero tolerance" culture towards bullying.

New powers under the Education Act will force parents of bullies to attend parenting classes - or face a £1,000 fine if they refuse.

But Mr Johnson has also unveiled an extra £480,000 to develop "peer mentoring" schemes, such as those run in some York schools, in which younger children are encouraged to report bullying to older pupils.

Bullying, Mr Johnson said, is a "horrible, despicable thing". "So once you ensure that there is a zero tolerance regime on bullying, then you can start to change the culture."

But are fines for parents of bullies and more money for peer mentoring really the solution?

Mark Barnett, head teacher of York's Westfield Primary School, believes talk of compulsory parenting classes and/or fines is not necessarily the best way to tackle the problem.

Classes are great for parents who want to attend, he says - but how are you going to force those that don't want to go along?

"I cannot see them attending parenting classes, and the problem is you will be fining people who can probably least afford it," he said. "You're not going to get the money out of them."

The best way to tackle bullying is to ensure that children know there is someone they can trust to talk to about it, Mark says.

Bullying happens when teachers and parents don't know it is going on, he says.

Once schools know about bullying, they can deal with it - in Westfield's case, by bringing the bully and the victim together, with parents present. This approach works, Mark says, but only once a child has spoken out.

Peer mentoring schemes and the "buddy seats" that operate in a number of York primary and secondary schools are designed precisely to help a child speak out about bullying, according to Coun Carol Runciman, City of York Council's executive member for education and children's services.

She says there is no doubt peer mentoring, in which older pupils are trained to listen to younger children who might have a range of worries, does work.

Often children find it easier to open up to them than they would to a teacher or even their own parents.

"They may often have had the same experiences themselves, so they can relate to each other," Coun Runciman said.

Liz Carnell, the Harrogate mum who runs anti-bullying website Bullying Online, remains sceptical about the value of peer mentoring.

Liz, who set up the website because her son, John, was bullied badly at school, says she has spoken to a number of children who have acted as peer mentors.

"They don't feel they have all the right skills they need to do the job," she said.

Chris Nicholls, the head of Year 8 at All Saint's School, in York, disagrees. There is no doubt the peer mentoring scheme at his school works, he says. All the young mentors get two days of training, including from an educational psychologist, in how to talk and listen. "And it has been a huge success," he said.

Bullying Online, the anti-bullying website set up by Harrogate mum Liz Carnell, has advice for children who are bullied, and for worried parents. The website address is www.bullying.co.uk

Case studies

Liam's story

LIAM Pulleyne knows exactly how it feels to be bullied.

At 16, he has only just shrugged off the bullies who hounded him throughout secondary school.

Liam is now at York College and the bullying has stopped. But at school he was bullied from the age of 12 because of his sexuality, he says. There was name-calling before that, but it got much worse.

"I would get physical threats and got beaten up sometimes," he said. "I got punched and got a few black eyes. There were a lot of people who did it and it mostly happened in public, in big groups.

"Mainly it was guys, but a lot of the girls could be really presumptuous and sour, and sometimes worse."

Liam told some of his teachers what was happening. They were concerned, but "didn't really do much".

On one occasion, he was tripped up on the school field and kicked in the face as he got up.

"I was told it was my fault for going on the field because I knew they the bullies were there," he remembers.

"It the bullying made me bitter but it made me stand up for myself instead of being weak. If you just appear strong, it stops."

The bullying affected Liam's grades, and by Year 8 they had slipped dramatically. It took a lot of work to pull them back.

Now, however, he is studying four A Levels and wants to become a barrister.

It doesn't surprise him that 20,000 children skip school because of bullying, but he's not sure fining parents or sending them to parenting classes is the answer.

"Parenting classes would be a bit late," he said. "They've already made the children who they are and classes aren't going to fix it.

"Nobody can afford a £1,000 fine for having nasty kids either and parents wouldn't pay. We would end up with bailiffs and court fees and it costing the Government a lot of money."

He would like to see schools toughening up on bullies, expelling persistent offenders.

"I used to be on the Bullying Counselling Service at school and people came to see me every day," he said.

"A lot of people are bullied but it takes a lot to get excluded at the moment. There needs to be more punishment."

* CHILDCARE students Maria O'Brien and Lizzie Hodgson also experienced bullying first hand.

Maria, 19, was bullied at secondary school, although she has no idea why.

It was mostly name-calling, she says, but it was enough to occasionally stop her going to school.

"It did used to upset me and it wasn't fair because I didn't do anything to them.

"I told the head teacher about it but nothing was done. I think he spoke to the people concerned but nothing changed."

Lizzie, 18, remembers being called names too. It was unpleasant, she says, but it didn't affect her work.

Now, both York College students look out for bullies during their placements at primary schools.

If they see name-calling or children picking fights, they make the teachers aware.

Secondary schools tend to have more problems, they believe, and their discipline should be tighter.

"When I was at school people who were bullied used to go to their head of year but nothing was ever done," Maria said.

"More bullies should be expelled and if needs be they should have home teaching so they're not around people."

Tackling bullying... from peer mentoring and "buddy seats" to new DVD

York

YORK primary and secondary schools widely use peer mentoring and "buddy seats" - playground seats a child who is unhappy or worried about something can sit in, so that a mentor knows they want to talk.

The city also last week launched a campaign urging children who saw another child being bullied to report it - or at least to speak to the victim and encourage him or her to speak out.

A new anti-bullying DVD and CD produced by young people themselves is also to be launched next week.

Teenagers worked with staff from the city council's arts and education teams, and with youth media organisations Cube Media, Young People First and The Basement Media Project, to produce three films and three songs which will be used in schools to encourage young people to talk about bullying.

Zoe Oakland, 18, who plays a girl who is bullied in one of the films, says the films and songs were scripted by the young people, with professional help.

Some of her own friends were bullied at school, says Zoe - called names, pushed around and generally humiliated. "They used to cry in the toilets," she said.

The character she plays in the film is a girl who is bullied at school because her father is an alcoholic. She is then bullied at home by her alcoholic dad.

The film ends with her lying unconscious on a bed with a bottle of tablets and a note to her father, Zoe says.

"Hopefully it will get people thinking about what bullying can cause," Zoe, from South Bank, said.

North Yorkshire

SCHOOLCHILDREN in North Yorkshire are to be given the chance to "blow the whistle" on bullies online.

The council will later this week be launching a pilot scheme for a web-based link to a dedicated anti-bullying email service.

Children will be able to use the email address to contact the council's children's and young people's service for advice and help.

There will also be a web-based link to a pupil questionnaire, in which secondary school pupils can talk about their experiences and give their own views on how bullying can be solved.

Anti-bullying measures already in place in North Yorkshire schools, which include telephone hotlines, a website, and a range of classroom and curriculum activities, have seen the council held up as an example of "best practice" in tackling bullying.

Coun John Watson, the county council's executive member for children and young people, said: "We recognise that bullying can arise almost anywhere and that no child should have to endure its consequences. Our aim is to respond to the needs of all those being bullied, and to change the behaviour of those who do the bullying."