When thinking about whether our children are ready for school generally we think about making sure they have the books and stationary they need, having a hair cut, getting the school uniform and shoes sorted out, and making sure we have lunchboxes and bags. Most families and parents never consider whether their children are equipped to deal with bullying. With the prevalence of bullying in schools (pretty much every child is involved in bullying as either the aggressor, victim or bystander) we might ask the question why don’t we make sure our children are adequately equipped to deal with bullying?
The answer is usually because we don’t know what to do. And hey, isn’t it the schools responsibility to ensure our children aren’t bullied. Or maybe we think that because the school has an anti-bullying policy that it isn’t a problem. Unfortunately in the Yarra Ranges Council there is a huge bullying problem. A mid 2013 study published by the Victorian Department of Health states that 47.4% of adolescents report being recently bullied. That is 1 in 2 adolescents that have recently been bullied. This is a huge problem.
Despite the policies, despite the constant chatter about bullying, and despite the current anti-bully programs bullying is still a major problem. So what then do we do? This is the question we are going to be problem solving at our Superhero Bully Defence Seminar. We will be tackling practical strategies that parents can use to help their children deal with bullying and what they can do to help their child not be bullied. Most attempts to deal with bullying either deal with the bully or the victim. We will be covering strategies that are useful for victims, bullies, spectators, teachers, parents and our whole society. Bullying is a society level problem hence we need to tackle bullying at this level.
For information on our Superhero Bully Defence Seminar please follow this link www.superherobullydefence.eventbrite.com.au