Bullying
Last Updated on Tuesday, 01 February 2011 10:00 Written by Administrator Wednesday, 01 July 2009 02:42
Results from the Nationwide Study on Bullying Behaviour in Irish Schools show that in Primary schools in Ireland 74% of children who said they were bullied, reported that they were bullied in the playground. While 31% claimed that the bullying occurred in the classroom. At Secondary level the most common place to be bullied was in the classrooms, with 47% of victimised children placing the incidents there. The next most likely place, at 37%, was in the corridors, with the playground at 27%. Other areas, within the school, where children reported bullying to go on, at both levels, included the toilets, changing rooms, locker areas and dormitories in boarding schools. 19% of primary school children who said they were bullied said that the incidents occurred going to or from school, while 8.8% of post-primary students said the same.
Verbal Bullying
can leave children feeling angry, frightened and powerless, if children are unable to share their feelings with someone else it can leave them emotionally bruised and exhausted. Their powers of concentration can suffer, adversely affecting their capacity for learning. Verbal attacks can be of a highly personal and sexual nature. They can be directed at the child’s family, culture, race or religion. Malicious rumours are particularly insidious forms of verbal bullying.
Physical Bullying
is often written off as "horseplay", "pretend" or "just a game" when challenged. While children can and do play roughly, in the case of bullying be aware that these ’games’ can be a precursor to vicious physical assaults. Both boys and girls indulge in physical bullying, boys perhaps more so as they have a greater tendency towards physical aggression.
Gesture Bullying
there are many different forms of non-verbal threatening gestures which can convey intimidatory and frightening messages, i.e. The state or look which accompanies bullying behaviour.
Exclusion Bullying
is particularly hurtful because it isolates the child from his/her peer group and is very hard for the child to combat as it directly attacks their self confidence/self image.
Record numbers of children are turning to the charity Childline for help over bullying. There has been a 12% increase over the last year - with more than 3,000 calls every month. Worryingly, more and more young people are being targeted over the internet - and suffering homophobic bullying. Just over 37,000 young people rang for counselling between April 1, 2005 and March 31, 2006, compared to 32,500 the previous year.With the school year about to start, the organisation has released anti-bullying tips for parents.
These include how to react if a child is being bullied, how to deal with the school, and detecting the early warning signs.ChildLine has expressed "growing" concern at homophobic bullying. It says an estimated 2,725 young people call them each year to talk about sexual orientation, homophobia or homophobic bullying.