The Council's anti-bullying team wants as many organisations working with young people as possible to take part in a wide range of events and activities in Anti-Bullying Week which kicks off on November 19.
As part of its own ongoing work supporting schools and colleges in tackling bullying, the Council's team will also be launching one of the largest ever anti-bullying surveys with children and young people.
The aim of the survey, which will at first involve 4,500 pupils in ten schools and which will then be rolled out to a further 20 schools, is to help the Council to focus anti-bullying resources and assess the effectiveness and impact of anti-bullying initiatives in our schools.
The team will also be running a county-wide poster competition which will be launched just before anti-bullying week and which will focus on e-safety and cyber-bullying.
Councillor Rupert Simmons, the Council's Cabinet Member for Learning and School Effectiveness, said: “We are very well aware of the importance of bullying as a major issue for young people everywhere, not just in East Sussex. This was confirmed by the survey carried out by our Youth Cabinet which highlighted bullying as one of the most significant issues for our young people.
“Clearly bullying in any shape or form is completely unacceptable and the work of our anti-bullying team in implementing our anti-bullying strategy demonstrates our commitment to combating bullying both in and out of school.”
The County Council's anti-bullying team has issued a resource pack with lesson plans and other ideas for anti-bullying initiatives to primary and secondary schools. Schools will also be receiving a resource pack from the Anti-Bullying Alliance, of which East Sussex is an active member, with further information, promotional material and ideas on what events and activities they can hold during the week.
Assemblies and workshops will also be held in some schools as well as parents' evenings to raise awareness of bullying issues and the important role they play.
Councillor Simmons said: “I really hope everyone who works with young people will want to be involved in this week to raise awareness of the issue and tackle it. This year we also hope that organisations will use Anti-Bullying Week as an opportunity to start a year-long programme of work which will enable them to visit their anti-bullying work on a regular basis.”
Information for parents and carers and young people on bullying is available on our bullying pages.
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