Worried about bullying

• Family or friends
• Teacher
• Education Welfare Officer
• School Counsellor
• Connexions Personal Adviser
• School Nurse or School Welfare
• Local Youth Worker
• Police Officer attached to your school
• GP
• Buddies/Peer Listeners at school
• Coach or Leader of Activities you do out of school
• Any other adult you can trust
• Remember, if you don’t feel you can talk to someone you know about bullying, you can speak to someone privately without them who you are (find contacts below)

“IF YOU SUSPECT IT, REPORT IT!”
If you see any form of bullying online you can now report it. Wherever you see this logo you can stamp out online bullying. It can now be found on most social networking sites as well as blogs and regular websites. If you see bullying online, be the one to Rise up and Speak out about it.

Contacts

The following websites contain useful information about bullying:

www.thinkyouknow.co.uk
Bullying Online: www.bullying.co.uk
ChildLine: 0800 1111: www.childline.org.uk
Kidscape: www.kidscape.org.uk
Young Minds: www.youngminds.org.uk
Soul Survivor Harrow (local youth work) www.soulsurvivorharrow.com
NSPCC: 0808 800 5000
Connexions Direct: 080 8001 3219
Samaritans: 08457 90 90 90
Harrow Young Person’s Centre: 020 8861 5858
Victim Support: 020 8863 9849 or text: 07969 513 323

Every human being is valuable and deserves to be treated with respect and care. When this does not happen and people are cruel on purpose, it is called bullying. Bullying is persistent unwelcome behaviour, mostly using unwarranted or invalid criticism. Bullying is a very common problem for young people throughout the UK

• Being the butt of jokes or called names
• Being hit, kicked or punched
• Having money or other things taken from them
• Being ignored or left out
• Being picked on because of their religion, colour or race
• Getting abusive or threatening text messages and emails
• Having rumours spread about them
• Bullying can happen at anytime, in any place, by any child or adult

You should not feel ashamed about being bullied and its not your fault, but it is important that you get help. No one deserves to be bullied. Who can you talk to about that’s going on? Do you have a friend or someone in your family you can trust? Talk to them about what is happening and how it makes you feel. They might be able to help you work out what you want to do next.
All schools are required to have a policy on what to do next about bullying. If you tell a teacher what’s happening, they can let you know how your school can help. Sometimes young people tell someone they are being bullied and it does no good nothing changes. If this happens to you, don’t give up! Is there someone else you can talk to?
Write down what has been happening and when and where it has happened. If it helps, draw a picture or write a song, poem or rap about what is happening and how it makes you feel. It is important to feel safe. Can you protect yourself from the bullies? Would it help to walk home with friends instead of on your own, or ask someone to stay with you?
Remember, you don’t have to put up with being bullied. If you don’t feel you can talk to someone you know about bullying, you can speak to someone privately without telling them who you are. Take a look at the phone number and websites on this page.

Even if YOU think that bullying is a laugh, young people who are bullied feel scared and distressed. You can stop people feeling like that if you stop bullying them.
Sometimes people who bully are unhappy about something in their own lives. Maybe they are angry about something and take their anger out on other people by trying to be tough. If you are angry or upset about something, talk about it instead of taking it out on someone else. Even if it seems hard to stop, you can change what you are doing. Talk to someone about how you feel. If you keep on bullying, you could risk exclusion from school and in extreme cases, the police might get involved. You also risk losing the respect of friends and family and regretting what you’ve done.