Bullying In The UK

Bullying is unwanted, aggressive behavior among people of all ages, but mostly school-age children. Society has been aware of bullying since around 1693, but it was not viewed as a real problem until the 1970s. “While overall incidents of school violence, such as assault and theft, have declined in the last decade, bullying is on the rise.” (qtd in Tyre) The percentage of middle and high school students that have been victimized by bullying went up from 14 percent in 2001 to 32 percent in 2009. (Tyre)

The topic of bullying in schools across Australia has a large impact on the children and adolescents that face this issue daily. Bullying is not tolerated in schools as it can lead towards mental illness and much worse, yet this does not stop other students in the school from bullying another class members. However, when bullying does occur schools do have policies about how they handle the matter for it is the schools duty to keep their students safe. It is believed that being bullied can make a person stronger mentally in the later years of their life, however this may not always be the case as seen in the article from nineteen hundred. Bullying should not be taken lightly, the parents and teachers need to realise that issues like these do

Bullying is a problem that is on the rise in society; however, many individuals have a distorted view of what bullying entails. Usually when someone thinks of bullying, they assume that it is a standard part of a child’s life. This view, on the contrary, is erroneous. Bullying is actually abnormal behavior, many times, leaving victims with a dismantled self identity. Since some people do not understand the consequences of bullying, the actions of the bully often go unnoticed and are perceived as “kids being kids”. The issue of bullying goes deeper than that nevertheless. Despite the erroneous views that many individuals hold towards bullying, it is still a distortion of normal behavior in children.

School bullying and bullying as a whole has become a growing concern. The need for more intervention is more recognized, as incidents of bullying and inappropriate acts towards others occur in places outside of the classroom. This literature takes a closer look at bullying in schools. Olwesus (2013) states “the field of bullying research is to some extent plagued by problems, disagreements, and unresolved issues” (p.752). Whether if anyone will agree on the root of bullying, the fact remains that bullying has to be examined at its very core to remedy the matter before it becomes a bigger concern. There is a dire need for intervention based programs to be set in place to address the fact the act of bullying has lasting effects on the bully and the victim. When intervention programs are put into place to address bullying, the act of bullying decreases due to the gained understanding of the effects.

Understanding the notion of bullying is undermined by an individual’s point of view, life experience, and personality. What some people declare as bullying others shake off as a typical behavior of kids. Whether the bias also has a base in gender or age the issue that needs to be dealt with is the damage done to the victim and the mental health needs of the perpetrator. The question regarding bullying is about norms and responses to violations of the norms. How students and adults interpret the actions, reactions, and feelings are tied to the level of open communications that exist. Adults often believe it when the student says ‘I’m fine’ because they want to believe it. Students are quite skillful about saying what they think adults want to hear. This lack of communication at home and school leaves a student who is being bullied isolated and vulnerable.

Bullying has always been recognized as a normal part of growing up; therefore, most people in the past have not given bullying much thought. Bullying is often thought as “kids being kids” or a “rite of passage,” but it is much more of a problem than just being a kid (Maughan 2). According to the U.S. Deparment of Education, over 13 million students are bullied each year, and over 160,000 students avoid going to school because they are bullied (Maughan 1). Students who feel so threatened by bullying that they do not want to go to school demonstrates just how much bullying can change a child’s life. Bullying is a serious problem, and a child’s life could be dramatically changed by being terrorized at school. (Maughan, 1-2)

Kids will be kids” is a famous saying suggesting that bullying is a normal part of growing up. I was bullied as a kid and a primary school student. Being bullied left a negative impact on my stay in school. For example, it had an impact on my mental health, put fear in me and also affected my academic experience. These are some of the negative impacts of the bullying and as a result of that school authorities should find ways to reduce bullying in schools.

As more and more children go to school, the rates of bullying go up as time goes by. there are many times at which students suffer all the bullying that occurs within their lives. As more schools become aware of the magnitude of the bullying occurring right under their noses, there are rules created to aid the victim. There are various types of bullying and these are created to do one thing, instill superiority among the “stronger” and place a feeling of inferiority. Bullies are the ones who are detrimental to a child’s development.

Bullying in Australian primary schools has become an epidemic, having a negative effect on children’s learning and development (Lodge, 2014). Therefore, it is crucial that schools and teachers are aware, understand and educated on how bullying can impact children’s learning and development; to be able to effectively implement policies, respond, educate and eliminate bullying in the school environment.

According to the NHS choices (2015), it is evident that around 46% of young people, have witnessed or been the victim of bullying during their childhood (Choices, 2016). Although there is no official legal definition of bullying, it is suggested that it is a repeated and negative behaviour which is deliberately used to hurt someone either physically or emotionally (Lives, 2013). There are many form of bullying including the most common; physical, verbal, relational and cyber bullying. It is often motivated against specific groups, including religion, gender, sexual orientation or race but can be initiated by disagreements or perceived differences (Department for Education, (DFE), 2015). Bullying can be long term, it may also effect individuals so much that on occasions they may lead to suicide. According to Hayes (2004) ‘it takes various forms, from name calling, teasing and physical abuse, to intimidation, extortion and serious physical assault’. Greater Manchester Safeguarding Partnerships (n.d.), firmly state that you should not underestimate the impact that bullying has on individual’s lives as it can generate high levels of distress, behaviour and social development problems and individuals wellbeing.

Empowering students to reach their full potential physically, intellectually and socially are essential to an individual’s wellbeing. The school’s milieu needs to be a safe and respected space for this potential to reach its peak. A factor that contrasts with this ideology for schools and communities to be a safe place for students to gain a deep understanding of this world is the engagement in bullying practiced by students and even staff members. Preventing behaviours associated with bullying is very important due to the detrimental effects it has on students learning, social and emotional wellbeing and mental health status and therefore school, state and national policy has been enforced to clearly communicate that bullying is not tolerated. Although schools require to provide policy for students to have a safe learning environment, the autonomy and inconsistency of policies within schools has generated a lack coverage in important areas such as the lack of a specific expectation,

It is only in the recent years that attention has turned toward the widespread problem of bullying, especially in schools, and that bullying is identified as a serious problem that merits intervention and research (Coy). Therefore, relatively little effort has been made to overcome or address the problem, which still remains a widespread social vice. This paper purports to illustrate how, despite efforts made to rectify the situation, bullying still remains rampant, and is getting worse.

Bullying is defined as “verbal, physical, or psychological abuse or teasing accompanied by real or perceived imbalance of power” and is usually targets what children perceive as different (Olweus, 1993). Bullying is prevalent across the nation. It has devastating effects on students each day. Bullying is a problem for all students, regardless of race, gender or class. The National Education Association reports that 160,000 children are absent intentionally from school each day because they fear being bullied whether it is an attack or just intimidation by other students. This accounts for 15% of all school absenteeism (Hunter, 2012). Dan Olweus (1993) from the National School Safety Center tells us that bullying includes three parts: (1)

Interviewing children and adults may result in biased and conflicting reports on bullying incidences. From this perspective, researchers employ the use of a questionnaire which not only allows a large number of children and young adults under survey but allows researchers to measure the frequency of bullying correctly and understanding the phenomenon. A study conducted across 22 countries report that 53% of young adolescents were involved in bullying as perpetrators, both or victims. Additionally, the study revealed that majority of students in high school experienced mild forms of bullying such as being shoved, tripped and nicknames with 22% of the students reported physical injuries (Hall). Due to the ubiquity of bullying across different schools and countries through online and physical means, bullying poses harmful impacts on the society which demand effective and supportive policies in alleviating bullying in schools.

Bullying has been a serious problem around the world. Different reports and studies states that 15% of the students are once being a victims of bullied or either bullying behaviours on a regular basis. Due to the process of number of victims, and frequency of bullying. Bullying is a behaviour that is unpredictable which comes without a pattern and becomes an issue in one in six students. Bullying occurs most in schools and not restricted (Peter, K. and Sonia, S.1994, pp, 124-125) race, colour, gender, class or in other natural distinctions, in addition, it looks bad during the early