“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” – Martin Luther King Jnr.
This week was anti bullying week, a useful opportunity to bring the unspeakable into our normal conversations. Bullying isn’t a new phenomenon, one dip into Tom Brown’s School Days will find that there was plenty of bullying, some of it institutionalised, back in the “good old days”. It is a sad fact of any human institution that there will be bullying to be found, sometimes the most unpleasant being found in the most surprising places. Any Headteacher who believes that they have created a bullying free school is either delusional or in denial. Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. Let’s face it there isn’t much bullying done in the vision of others, it is by nature a secretive activity. Social media has made round the clock bullying more common, and the lack of opportunity to escape this 24-hour cycle causes profound effect.
In our Senior School assembly the prefects gave us an insight to the effects of bullying and the great importance of speaking out, of not simply looking at the person on the receiving end of this unacceptable behaviour and thinking, I’m glad that isn’t me.
But sadly, bullying is often only reported once it has been going on for some time and by this time the damage may be done. We, like many schools follow a restorative approach to bullying when we find it or are told about it. This works best when it is put into action soon after an incident has occurred. This week we’ve been encouraging pupils to speak out when they see unpleasantness, mean behaviour or bullying occurring and reminding them that this is not snitching or telling tales, but is taking an approach that will build our community for the better. We continue to work on ways to improve our methods of reporting.
None of this is easy, it all takes courage, but having seen the commitment with which some of our older pupils spoke about the importance of speaking up, of not letting things grow through inactivity and acceptance it may well be the case that we become that rare community in which we consider the wellbeing of all around us and seek to support those who are targeted. If such a clear moral compass can be applied outside the school gate than what a world we would create.
Nicholas Hammond
Headmaster
