DAVID KIDNEY MP BACKS CAMPAIGN TO STAMP OUT BULLYING

Stafford’s Labour MP David Kidney today gave his backing to Anti Bullying Week and called for the broadest possible support for the work of schools and pupils to stamp out bullying inside and outside school: 

“Bullying blights the lives of children picked on. I am glad that the Government is giving its full support to this campaign. The Department for children, Schools and Families is giving £3 million of new investment for ‘peer mentoring’ schemes. 
“Peer mentoring works by training pupils from a wide range of backgrounds and ages to be mentors. They will be taught by experts to resolve conflict, offer support and advice, help pupils in making friends and on feeding back information about bullying to teachers.

“I saw how seriously schools and children take this issue during my recent visit to Barnfields Primary School where the pupils were preparing posters for this week. I also recall the tremendous ground-breaking work that was done by the Walton High School pyramid of schools to tackle bullying through peer mentoring. The teacher who led this work subsequently published a book on this subject.

“Bullying is totally unacceptable in whatever form it takes. We cannot just sweep it under the carpet. It’s something we must all stand up to. Whether it’s bullying in the playground or on the way to school, or using mobile phones and the Internet, all of us including teachers, parents and children must work together to stamp it out.

“Research shows that more often than not a child being bullied would rather confide in another pupil than go directly to a teacher. That’s why peer mentoring - young people supporting each other - is a realistic solution. Obviously teachers remain vital, supervising these peer mentoring schemes as well as upholding school discipline and maintaining disciplinary sanctions. But this scheme allows young people to be responsible and mature by helping other children who suffer from bullying.

“The Government’s new campaign against cyber-bullying includes new guidance for teachers on tackling the problem and an online campaign with the slogan ‘laugh at it and you’re a part of it’ which will feature on websites like Bebo, MySpace, Yahoo and MSN.”