Wellbeing
Mr. John Ryan - Deputy Principal
Bullying No Way Week commences Monday, August 12. The College has put into place several initiatives to raise student awareness about how to respond to bullying.
In Year 7, students have taken some ownership with an anti-bullying campaign. It is the intention to use our large screen displays to keep students and staff focused on the issue of bullying. Members of the Child Safety Committee will ensure anti-bullying material which highlights, “What is bullying?”, is distributed to all students in the College.
Further initiatives to raise awareness have been planned to remind students about College policies and processes outlined within the Anti bullying and Bullying Prevention Policy.
Do students know where to find our Anti-bullying and Bullying Prevention Policy?
Does our community use the MMCRC Bully Record-Keeping Tool?
Some facts about bullying and violence:
Bullying
- Approximately one in four Year 4 to Year 9 Australian students (27%) report being bullied every few weeks or more often (considered to be frequent) during the last term at school.
- Frequent school bullying was highest among Year 5 (32%) and Year 8 (29%) students.
- 83% of students who bully others online, also bully others offline.
- 84% of students who were bullied online were also bullied offline.
- Peers are present as onlookers in 85% of bullying interactions, and play a central role in the bullying process.
- Hurtful teasing was the most prevalent of all bullying behaviours experienced by students, followed by having hurtful lies told about them.
- Cyberbullying appears to be related to age (or access to technology), with older students more likely to engage in cyberbullying than younger students.
(Source: Cross, D., Shaw, T., Hearn, L., Epstein, M., Monks, H., Lester, L., & Thomas, L. 2009. Australian Covert Bullying Prevalence Study (ACBPS). Child Health Promotion Research Centre, Edith Cowan University, Perth).
Violence
- The overwhelming majority of children and young people are not involved in violence either as victims or perpetrators.
(Source: Commissioner for Children and Young People, Western Australia (2009), Submission to the National Inquiry into the Impact of Violence on Young Australians. Submission No 33).
- While often perceived primarily as perpetrators of violence, young people are in fact at greatest risk of being victims.
- Young people themselves are concerned about their own personal safety, with about one-quarter of young people aged 18–24 years feeling unsafe or very unsafe when walking alone in their local area after dark, and around 1 in 10 feeling unsafe in their homes at night.
(Source: Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia 2010, Avoid the Harm - Stay Calm Report on the inquiry into the impact of violence on young Australians).
Families can further source materials mentioned in this newsletter by going to the following sites:
Online resources:
Bullying No Way Advice for families:
https://bullyingnoway.gov.au/support-and-advice/for-families
MMCRC Anti-Bullying and Bullying Prevention Policy
MMCRC Bullying Record keeping Tool