Ms Rachel O'Connor:

I thank the Deputy. One of the common misperceptions is that, under the 2013 guidelines, schools have to deal with issues that arise inside of school and carry on outside of school, but the guidelines state that schools are responsible for dealing with issues that happen outside of school that have a negative impact inside of school. In other words, the issue carries over. It could happen at the Saturday night disco or on Snapchat at 9 o'clock on a Friday night. It is not necessarily the case that there is too much emphasis or onus on schools but that schools need to be supported in supporting parents in that space.

In terms of tackling bullying and in terms of being preventative in mental health, we need a partnership approach. Schools need to be resourced to support parents. They should not have to bat issues back to parents on the basis that they are in loco parentisfor 167 days of the year between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. and that, outside of school hours, they are not getting involved. If a matter is having a negative impact in school, there is some onus on the school. It is the boundaries of that that are at issue. We need to support parents. Our school is in its third year of its restorative practice journey. We can see a real and concrete impact of restorative practice in reducing bullying in our school, but that is because parents are on board. It is a very transparent system.