Ms Mary Briody:

One of the things I found very effective and creative occurred in a particular school with which I worked. I and a colleague of mine were brought into the school and we worked with the first years. We sat them down on the floor and got their thoughts on how they would treat each other, what would happen, the challenges they were facing and so forth. It was very successful. We also did the tree where they left a message anonymously for their parents, and we had a chat with the parents that evening. It was, as Dr. Noctor said, that they all bought into being active rather than just paying lip service to something. The school found that very effective. It would roll it out again for the second years, so they got two years of it, and then introduced it to the first years. In this school before lockdown we were up as far as transition year. It is being rolled out from the first year in the school. I found that and the feedback from the school and the parents to be one of the most effective actions on bullying and how they treated one another in all aspects of themselves. It has proved to be very successful.