NICCY launches guide to stop bullying

The Northern Ireland Commissioner for Children and Young People, Barney McNeany, has today launched a ‘Stop Bullying’ guidance pack to help schools involve pupils in preventing bullying.

The pack, ‘Having Your Say in Bullying Policies', aims to help involve children and young people in school anti-bullying policies.

Commenting on the package, Mr McNeany said: “Today marks the start of anti-bullying week. There can be no better time for us to launch our guidance pack.

“All schools should involve pupils in their anti-bullying policies by law, and the NICCY ‘Stop Bullying’ pack provides practical, common sense advice on how to do this.”

The NICCY pack was launched today at the same time as the Commissioner jointly announced a major anti-bullying initiative aimed at pre-school children.

This will be supported by a new curriculum for early years settings accompanied by a cartoon and advertisement campaign for early years’ children created jointly by the office of the Commissioner for children and young people in Northern Ireland, NIPPA, Peace Initiatives and the Office of the Children’s Ombudsman in the Republic of Ireland.

The Commissioner continued: “The NICCY pack and the ‘Together’ Anti-bullying cartoon and curriculum show we recognise and acknowledge that we can work with the very youngest of children through to primary and post-primary school children to make a concerted effort to help reduce bullying.

“Our pack has been developed through research which we published in June; and importantly that research involved members of NICCY’s Youth Panel on the Steering Committee and had children and young people engaged as peer researchers in eliciting the views of pupils.”

Copies of the NICCY ‘Stop Bullying’ Guidance Pack will be sent to primary and post-primary schools in Northern Ireland throughout the coming month and is available to download from www.niccy.org

(EF/KMcA)