Schools anti-bullying initiative launched

West Midlands academies working together to beat the bullies.

During this year’s Anti-Bullying Week, two Academy Transformation Trust academies joined forces to stamp out bullying with a unique project.

Six year 9 pupils from Bristnall Hall Academy in Oldbury travelled to Walsall to work with year 5 and 6 pupils from Jubilee Academy Mossley. They worked with year 5 pupils to create comic strips focusing on bullying, how to recognise it and how to handle it.

Year 6 pupils from Jubilee were supported by the Bristnall Hall pupils to create comic strips focused on how to deal with bullying and how to cope with the move into year 7 next year.

Anti-Bullying Week in England is coordinated by the Anti-Bullying Alliance and this year it was held from the 16th-20th November. The aim is to empower children and young people to ‘make a noise’ about bullying – whether it is happening to them or to someone else, face to face or online. The campaign raises awareness of the impact of bullying on children’s lives if they don’t tell anyone it’s happening – or if they are not given appropriate support – with a focus on the impact on their mental health.

The campaign also encourages ‘talking schools’ where all children and young people are given a safe space to discuss bullying and other issues that affect their lives, and are supported to report all forms of bullying. Teachers are also supported to respond effectively when pupils tell them they’re being bullied.

Kelly Vaughan, Vice Principal at Jubilee Academy Mossley, praised the pupils, “We wanted to raise awareness of the positive ways of handling difficult situations and year 6 were definitely reassured that moving up to secondary school might not be as scary as they thought it might be! The pupils from Bristnall Hall Academy were wonderful and interacted really well with our kids.”

Vince Green, Principal at Bristnall Hall Academy, commented, “Academy Transformation Trust is a family of academies and we are always happy to support one another. I am pleased that we were able to work together with one of our fellow ATT academies on such an important project. I am extremely proud of our pupils in their work with Jubilee Academy. Well done to everyone.”