Dr. Seline Keating:

The anti-bullying policy procedures need to be revised. They were published in 2013 and they need to include current research on bullying prevention and intervention. The societal landscape in which children and adolescents are now growing up has significantly changed. Having appendices would be helpful, as would having a section for schools which includes a list of support services that are there to help them if they have specific queries. With regard to child protection procedures, schools have a list of services that can help them if they have an issue, and there should be something similar in the anti-bullying procedures.

It would be good to have a specific tool to measure bullying. If schools are serious about tackling it, they need to see what is happening in the school. Having a tool to measure it could be linked in with the anti-bullying centre, which could work with schools to design a tool. In one school that I taught in, we measured the level of bullying and it was very good to see the level in classes so we could zone in on it. This highlights that a lot of media education and education on social media can happen too late in that it is mainly at fifth and sixth class, and we need to start earlier to educate pupils before they begin their journey with social media.

It would be good to have Department of Education and Skills-approved anti-bullying programmes. There are so many programmes that schools are inundated with them, whereas they need to have one, two or three that are recommended and that they can use. Particularly at primary level, there needs to be a cross-curricular approach so this it is not isolated and where bullying is seen through the holistic development of the child, and where there are opportunities to integrate with the arts and other elements of the curriculum.

We need to have a list of skilled and qualified organisations and facilitators to help with home-school continued professional development and having exemplars in the new procedures for child-friendly and parent-friendly anti-bullying policies that keep it simple so it does not have to be lost in translation. There is a need for readability in these policies. I listened to what the Chairman said about keeping things simple. A lot of this comes down to respect and teaching children, beginning at a young age in early childhood settings, how to respect people. This can have a huge impact as they progress through childhood and adolescence, and even when they go into the workplace. It is very important that, in anti-bullying work, it is not just talking about what bullying is but about promoting respect, celebrating diversity, creating that culture from the get-go in education settings and acknowledging what schools are doing. We need to take the focus away from the "nots" and the things they are not doing. We should look at what they are doing so they get acknowledged for the work they are trying to implement and we can actively look at how to provide support. We all know they need support but action is needed now. It is a question of how we are realistically and authentically going to provide this support to principals and to schools.

The Senator mentioned the student councils. I have not engaged in research on that element but it might be an area that could be explored to see if having the voice of students through a student council is working to help schools deal with bullying. To have school anti-bullying committees and the use of care teams in some schools so they can identify at-risk pupils from an early stage and intervene quicker, rather than leaving it to be reported, might be also beneficial.