Anti-Bullying Week 2014 – Secondary Assembly Notes Timings approximate – about 15 minutes

00:0 Play appropriate music whilst young people are coming in 0 e.g. Born this Way’ – Lady GaGa ‘Strip Me’ – Natasha Bedingfield ‘Can’t take that away from me’ – Mariah Carey ‘Mean’ – Taylor Swift ‘Hero’ – Superchick ‘Imagine’ – John Lennon (Please check lyrics are suitable for your setting) Show slide 1 and explain that this week is National Anti-Bullying Week. The theme for this year is a particular focus on the bullying of disabled children and those with Special Education Needs. 00:0 Show slide 2 and say that we are going to start the Assembly/session by watching 1 the Anti-Bullying Alliance official film that raises awareness about this type of bullying. The film is a strong message from young people that it’s not alright to bully people just because they are different and that we should be respectful and make everyone feel welcome in our schools and communities. 00:0 Use slide 3 to make students aware of the specific aims of Anti-Bullying Week this 3 year.  As well as focussing on the bullying of children who are disabled or who have special educational needs, national Anti-Bullying week includes highlighting that all discriminatory language is wrong including disablist language.  Locally, our survey shows that prejudice-related language is common and we are therefore running a “Mind Your Language” campaign to get people to think about and change the way they talk to others. What people may think is banter or joking can actually have a very negative impact.  This year’s campaign is also about promoting action taken by students themselves as these are the best way to change people’s behaviour. Show slides 4 and share facts about the bullying of disabled children and those with special needs 00:0 Show slide 5 and point out that our local survey showed that homophobic language 4 continues to be a problem in our schools – mainly because people don’t think that using the word “gay” to mean rubbish is homophobic Show slide 6 and read out the quotes. These quotes show that whatever your intention this language can have a serious impact on young people who are LGB – (these quotes are taken from Stonewall’s School Report 2012). 00:0 Show slide 7 and explain how this website monitors the use of homophobic 5 language on the internet. It makes the point that people use this kind of language without thinking and it has become a part of everyday language. It also demonstrates the scale of the problem. Anti-Bullying Week this year is a reminder to think about the language you use and how it will affect people. (NB: if the website is viewed live it contains a lot of derogatory language which would not be appropriate to show students - if you don’t think it is appropriate to make students aware of this website remove this slide from your presentation) Show slide 8 and make the point that homophobic and disablist language are just a 1 part of the problem. Any language that insults people or something about them is unacceptable. 00:0 Show slide 9 and point out that insulting language is a part of verbal bullying. 6 Research shows that in schools where language goes unchallenged bullying is more likely (Stonewall’s school report 2012). Bullying is when these kinds of insults become persistent and are targeted at particular individuals. Our local survey also showed that verbal bullying is the most common type of bullying experienced. This poster created by an Oxfordshire student highlights the impact of verbal bullying. The slide also highlights some of the common verbal bullying that takes place – again often because people just don’t think about the effect of what they are saying. Slow slide 10 which highlights the impact of bullying. This is a reminder of how serious bullying is, how it can affect your whole life and ultimately leads to some young people taking their own lives. 00:0 Show slide 11 and remind people that the consequences of doing nothing are that 7 bullying will be allowed to continue. A bystander is someone who stands and watches and says nothing when bullying happens. By doing this they are colluding with bullying and letting it happen. In any situation when bullying happens it is probably a minority of people who want it to happen. The silent majority say nothing because they worry about their reputation, about losing friendships, about being bullied themselves. Encourage students to speak out or to come and tell someone if they don’t feel safe to speak up at the time. 00:0 Show slide 12 and highlight the kind of things that students can do when they hear 8 derogatory language. Ask students to think about their own language as one thing they can control is how they speak to others. They can treat people with respect and they don’t have to join in with insulting banter either face to face or on the internet. This is an opportunity to ask students what they could do to support others and also to highlight any campaigns that you have going on in school this week e.g. an Anti-Bullying pledge, a respectful language pledge, or a language charter about what’s acceptable in your school/setting. (Changing a culture of derogatory language in a school will be much more effective if: Your policy states that derogatory language is unacceptable; school staff feel confident with challenging derogatory language –Tackling Homophobic Language - Stonewall guide provides a useful framework which can be adapted for all derogatory language. More information about tackling homophobic bullying can be found by following the link to Oxfordshire’s Homophobic bullying toolkit (pdf format, 295KB) and more information and free resource packs are available from [email protected] ) 00:1 Show slide 13 to let students know about the Anti-Bullying week competition and 0 other activities that are going on in your school/setting (further details available on Anti-Bullying web pages http://schools.oxfordshire.gov.uk/cms/content/anti- bullying) 00:1 Show slide 14 and remind everyone that as well as looking out for other people it is 1 also important that anyone who is being bullied seeks help. If you don’t tell anyone then nothing can be done to stop the bullying or to help and support you. Remind young people that they need to tell and adult they trust and if they really don’t feel able to talk to someone that they know then they should phone Child Line. 00:1 Play music as young people leave the session 2