so how do we stop bullying?

We prevent it from happening – by cultivating communities where children can flourish and there is little room for bullying.

We take proactive steps to create a positive, inclusive and tolerant culture. As childcare professionals, we must ask ourselves: “What more can I do to help each child in my care feel more included and more seen and heard?”

This requires us to evaluate and implement initiatives to improve the culture in our children’s community. Meaning that we need to work with the children to foster a shared set of attitudes, values, beliefs and behavioural norms that motivates every child to feel they belong to and are safe in the group.

In practice, this means establishing routines, planning activities and supporting children’s free play in ways that cultivate the positive, tolerant and inclusive culture we want. It also means involving everyone – i.e. all the children, colleagues, managers and parents – in this effort.

And yes, as is often the case, this is easier said than done. That’s why The Mary Foundation and Save the Children Denmark have worked tirelessly for more than a decade alongside experts in bullying to:

• identify the specific values we want to encourage to prevent bullying, and
• develop simple, practical tools that childcare facilities and schools can use to strengthen those values.

This has resulted in the anti-bullying programme we call Free of Bullying. This programme is currently used in over 45 % of childcare facilities, 60 % of preschools and 45 % of primary schools in Denmark, where it has proven to be highly successful (see the Free of Bullying and Children’s socioemotional skills report for the most recent findings). It has also been rolled out in Estonia, Iceland, Romania, Greenland and the Faroe Islands.

Please visit our Free of Bullying page if you would like to know more about this programme and how you could potentially introduce it to your country.