Ms Mary Briody:

Experience has taught me that there needs to be a whole school approach. We need to look at the principal and teachers being involved. We need all the young people buying into this as well. Parents in particular should be involved. The board of management has to take an active role in how it is rolled out.

I was thinking about my experience having been in schools, having worked with young people in primary and secondary schools and having experience of working with parents in an evening workshop with the children. What works is bringing it all together. I was thinking about professionals who could actually bring it together. I am thinking about play psychotherapists at primary level and psychotherapists or counsellors at secondary level. I am thinking about how we bring the whole idea together around the parents. What I have in mind is relationship mentoring and parent mentoring in particular. In this scenario we have people who will not judge parents but work with them and help them to understand and make sense of the behaviour of their children. When it is brought to the door of parents that their children are actually bullying they feel judged or can feel shame. When all these big emotions get involved it is difficult for it to be worked out. We need to get underneath and understand what the bullying behaviour is about, whether in respect of the dominant person who is bullying or the more passive person. To me both need help with self-esteem. We need a professional in place to do this. We need a whole school approach and we need to bring people in to do that.