Ms Ann Piggott:

Sometimes the examples are very hard to see. If it is physical, for example, somebody has a black eye or students are caught fighting, that is easy to deal with because it is visible. However, there are other very subtle cases going on and if somebody does not speak up, the teacher will not know. Teachers must make sure they have the best possible relationship with their students so they feel they can talk to their teachers. Maybe a school, through the student council, could go through the policy on bullying. Every student council member should then go back to their class and inform their classmates. We need to create a culture whereby students know it is real if it is happening and they can talk. According to a report issued earlier this week by the Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, sometimes young people just need one good adult. If every student could have one good adult, that would be a huge achievement for us.