To coincide with our Bully Free Ficino Day, Assembly today was aimed at giving our students the tools to understand what forms bullying can take, what to do if they should come across it and how to help prevent it. On this last aspect, one of the evidence-based recommendations from the Ministry of Education is to have a school-wide approach to the prevention of bullying. This is why we always have an annual assembly addressing this topic.

Bullying is a very emotive word and is often misunderstood, so it is good to be clear about the definition. Bullying has three components that distinguish it from other forms of harmful behaviour. It is targeted hurtful behaviour; it involves a power imbalance and has an element of repetition over time.

The message to the children at Ficino is clear – that bullying in any shape or form will not be tolerated. For the older students this includes cyber-bullying, which is of course the most covert and difficult to identify. The purpose of the Assembly is to empower our students to recognise and report hurtful behaviour of this kind.

Ficino has a very specific Policy to deal with bullying which is different from other incidents of antisocial or harmful behaviour between students. We use a process called the No Blame Procedure, in which the victim is supported and the bully has their power withdrawn, comes face to face with the harm they are causing and is given the opportunity to change their behaviour without public of private recrimination. I have used this process a few times over the last 15 years and have found it to be highly effective.

No one wants to be a victim of bullying and equally no one wants to be a bully. The process we use frees the perpetrator from their compulsive behaviour and changes their attitude from within, which is the most permanent kind of transformation.

If you hear of any behaviour that is a cause of concern, please do contact the school to report it.

Peter Crompton

Principal