Bullying is the intended use of force, hurtful teasing, comments or threats in order to hurt someone. It is also designed to cause someone mental, emotional or physical damage. Basically, a massive issue that goes on in most schools that needs mitigating.
We at Warrington Wolves believe that it is vital that we educate children on the affect that bullying has on people and what they should do if someone is being bullied.
Bullying can have repercussions on their future lives, both educationally and socially. Additionally, students who are bullied are more likely to suffer from depression and anxiety, health issues, behaviour problems at school and poor academic achievement. Also, children who suffer from bullying and violence may miss or drop out from school. Bullying also has impacts on the bully themselves though, individuals who bully others are more prone to exhibit other behavioural issues at school and can even suffer from drug or alcohol abuse and can enlist in criminal activity.
With that in mind the Warrington Wolves Foundation travelled to Park Road Community Primary School to deliver an anti – bullying assembly during anti – bullying week.
During the assembly, the pupils discussed what bullying is and how bullying makes someone feel. The students came up with some great answers such as angry, overwhelmed, anxious and weak.
Bullying can also make someone feel low self-confidence, both emotional and physical. It can make someone feel hopelessness, sometimes victims feel that there is nothing that they can do to end the constant bullying. Additionally, a victim can feel panicked knowing everyday they have to wake up be bullied, and unlike a fear of heights or spiders it is not something that they can easily overcome.
The pupils also discussed what you should do if someone is being bullied, a couple of the answers that they came up with was to tell a teacher, ask if their ok and if they need any help.
There are numerous ways that we can try and stop bullying, some of these ways include teach kindness and empathy, from early ages students could engage in activities that boost social and emotional learning which could hopefully lead to children appreciating their identity and other's identity. Pupils can also come together to speak about their differences, which can allow them to practice conflict resolution and work through problems. Furthermore, you can create opportunities for connection, creating a sense of community in your classroom which can lower bullying incidents and facilitate healing for students.
Since the children were so well behaved Wolfy the mascot made a surprise visit where he and the kids took part in wolfy’s quiz. The students thoroughly enjoyed this, and we hope that the students learned a lot from this assembly.
P.S. We also now know that Wolfy’s favourite kit is the away kit.
Watch Wolfies Quiz on Anti Bullying here
