Bullying advice and support for parents

Help and support that is available both in and out of school.

If your child is being bullied at school speak to the school as soon as possible. Schools are responsible for investigating your concerns.

How a school deals with bullying will depend on how serious the bullying is and the circumstances. All state schools have a behaviour policy, usually published on their website.

A school’s behaviour policy will tell you:

• what behaviour the school expects of its pupils
• disciplinary action and procedures

You may want to look at your school’s behaviour policy so you can refer to it when you speak to them.

If you have raised concerns with your child’s school and you don’t feel the issues are resolved, ask the school for their complaints procedure.

If you’ve followed the complaints procedure, or you think a child is still at risk, you can ask the Department for Education to consider your complaint.

Family Lives has a lot of information on dealing with bullying at school.

If your child is being bullied at a club, group or leisure activity, speak to a member of staff to try to resolve the situation.

Headteachers at state schools have the legal power to make sure pupils behave outside the school premises. If you see bullying happening off the school premises you can tell that pupil’s school or headteacher.