Dealing With Bullying Head-On How a policy could help your service It seems that every other day a story about bullying and the effects of bullying is reported in the media. Child care professionals work hard to prevent bullying and manage incidents when they do arise but most would admit it is an ongoing battle. In fact recent Government statistics show that as many as one in six Australian kids are bullied in some form or another every week. In addition, new research conducted by University of Ottawa psychologist Tracy Vaillancourt and her team is showing that bullying may have catastrophic long term effects on victims including high stress levels, cognitive deficits and mental-health problems. Types of Bullying The most common type of bullying in the early childhood sector are physical and verbal and to a lesser extent social isolation, older children may also be the victim of cyber bullying. Physical bullying includes hitting, punching, pushing, kicking and so on. While many of these behaviours occur on a seemingly daily basis in child care environments, when they are directed towards the same children over an extended period of time they can have serious effects. Verbal bullying includes calling children names, taunting them, making sexist/racist statements, making cruel statements about personal attributes, clothing etc. Social isolation occurs when particular children are excluded from activities and games by other children in a group. Young children form very fluid friendships and may change allegiances regularly so again the distinguishing characteristic is if it is the same child/ren being excluded over a long period of time. Cyber bullying is more common in groups of older children and happens when kids use texting, email and social networking sites such as Facebook to intimidate, harass and vilify other kids. Developing an Anti-Bullying Policy Developing an Anti-Bullying Policy for your service is a proactive way of dealing with the issue of bullying head on and is a powerful tool to show parents. The purpose of an anti-bullying policy is to make it clear where your service stands on the issue of bullying and what action your service will take in the event of bullying. Your policy should include general principles and guidelines and should be flexible enough to deal with the unique peculiarities of cases which may arise. You may find it helpful to include some or all of the following: A strong statement about your services stand against bullying. A simple definition of bullying with illustrations. A declaration of the rights of individuals in your service (including children, teachers, other workers and parents) to be free of bullying and (if bullied) to be provided with help and support. A statement of the responsibilities of everyone in the service to refrain from bullying others, to discourage bullying when it occurs and to offer support to those who are the victims of bullying. A general description of what will be done to deal with incidents of bullying. For example: The severity and seriousness of the bullying will be assessed and appropriate action taken. This may include counselling, the imposition of sanctions, interviews with parents and in extreme cases suspensions. An undertaking to review the effectiveness of the policy on a regular basis. To be truly effective your policy must have strong community support and should ideally be developed in consultation with staff, parents and children. Once you have developed a policy conduct an education campaign to ensure that everyone associated with the service knows what it contains. If necessary have the policy translated into the various community languages so parents, children and staff from non-English speaking backgrounds are familiar with its contents. Information on developing an anti-bullying policy was adapted from the Australian Government's Bullying among young children – A guide for teachers and carers Have you successfully dealt with bullying in your child care service? Go to www.CareforKids.com.au/Social to share your experiences with your colleagues in the industry.

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