Category Archives: News & Blog

Spare a thought for the parents of bullied children That children who are continually bullied at school suffer excruciatingly is now widely acknowledged. To a large extent this realisation drives the anti-bullying campaigns that have taken root in many countries throughout the world including Australia. We know that bullied children can become at serious risk […]

The National Centre Against Bullying congratulates our Chair, The Hon Joseph Kay on being the recipient of Member [AM] In The General Division Of The Order Of Australia. The award recognises Joe’s substantial contributions to the judiciary through reforms to child protection policy and family law and practice, and to the legal profession. His outstanding […]

Teachers and administrators demonstrate all too well a capacity to either enrich or diminish one another’s lives and thereby enrich or diminish their schools” Roland Barth As a consultant, I spend a lot of time in school staff rooms. They are fascinating places and tell us a lot about the culture of the school. There […]

It is widely agreed that bullying in schools can be addressed more effectively when parents are well informed and supportive of what their children’s schools are doing about it. There is in fact little research on how parents evaluate the work of schools in this area. However, recently, as part of a Government-funded project on […]

Bullying has traditionally been seen by schools as a behaviour problem that requires sanctions or consequences to “stop the behaviour from happening again”. Yet evidence suggests that consequences – especially harsh consequences that punish the perpetrator – are counterproductive when trying to build and maintain a positive school climate where power is not used to […]

Building resilience involves creating the three things every parent wants for their children and every teacher wants for their students: this is for children and teens to have safe, happy, and fulfilling lives. Making resilience pathways possible for young people protects them against mental health problems while making them less likely to be involved in […]

How teachers address cases of bullying in schools: a comparison of five reactive approaches – Dr. Ken Rigby. While much effort goes into preventing bullying in schools, many young people continue to be bullied after they have told a teacher. What do teachers do when students come to them and how successful are each of […]

Ken Rigby of the University of South Australia, together with Coosje Griffiths, led a project commissioned by the Australian Government to evaluate the effectiveness of the Method of Shared Concern approach to addressing bullying in the Australian schooling context. Bullying has for some years been identified as a major problem affecting school communities throughout the world (Smith […]

There is a growing awareness within Australia of the importance of safe learning environments in promoting social and academic outcomes for students. Making Australian Schools Safer, written by Dr Helen McGrath, is a summary report of the outcomes of the National Safe Schools Framework Best Practice grants program. The grants program was managed by the […]