Mary Moran (Labour) | Oireachtas source

Those teachers are not gone and that option remains, but it is up to the school to decide on the number of guidance hours. I understand the need for guidance and appreciate the value of the work done by guidance teachers. However, I believe dealing with bullying must be a whole-school approach. That is the reason I believe professional development on this issue for all teachers is important. Teachers must be allowed half days to attend training and courses so they can understand how to deal with bullying.

For various reasons students might often be unwilling to go to a teacher assigned to a particular area. They might prefer to go to another teacher, perhaps one who teaches them or does not teach them. Therefore, there must be a whole-school approach so that everybody in the school knows and recognises how to deal with these situations. I spent 25 years in the classroom and I know that often it is the pupil who is making the loudest noise or laughing the heartiest who is suffering the most deep down. Teachers need to have the ability to get to know their pupils and to recognise what is going on behind what they see.

I appreciate that bullying is also dealt with in the SPHE curriculum. I have a bugbear with regard to how this programme is taught. It is important that SPHE does not become a class where because it is not an exam subject, pupils are just told to study their books or that they will have a chat class. Sometimes, a chat class can be beneficial in dealing with bullying and aspects of mental health, but it is important that these issues are dealt with and that SPHE is taught well.

I noted that all the proposals in the Minister's speech were pupil oriented. What about teachers who are bullied? This is an important issue. Teachers do get bullied and these teachers, like some pupils, can be afraid to say that they are being bullied. Bullying of teachers can have a serious effect. Sometimes it is the best teachers in a school who are targeted and bullied by colleagues. This can be devastating. Something should be done to support these teachers.

Last January, as a result of discussions on positive mental health and mental health in schools and other areas, I helped found and set up a positive mental health group in Dundalk. We had no resources and knowing there was nothing we could achieve on our own, we decided to bring together all the groups offering services in the area. There is a huge problem with regard to duplication of mental health services. As a result of setting up our group we got representatives from the HSE, Shine, GROW, LGBT, the Dundalk Outcomers and all the groups to come together. We meet now on a monthly basis and our steering committee invites people to deliver presentations on various topics. One presentation on bullying and cyberbullying was delivered by the juvenile liaison officer in the area. We got a fantastic response from pupils, children and teenagers in the Dundalk area to that. They came and said they could talk about it there, but they could not talk about it in school.

It is a good idea to get outside agencies involved in dealing with bullying in schools. I am aware that the HSE and its suicide officer in Dundalk, who is on our steering committee, see this as a great idea. It is like what happened with religious retreats years ago, where pupils were far quicker to discuss topics with the person who came from outside than they would be with the school teacher.