Anti-Bullying Production- 'Sticks and Stones'.

Dear Parent 

Bullying has always been around, it is often dismissed as unimportant and 'Just kids  playing'. If this statement is true, why is it that even though adults are concerned about the problem, they find it difficult to cope with and resolve?

Bullying is a serious social problem. It may start in the playground but it doesn't stop  there. A child who is a bully often continues to be so into their adult life. One study has shown that bullies are more likely to be violent as adults and have difficulty in forming relationships. Bully like behaviour in children can only lead to problems in the future.

The children's organisation KIDSCAPE conducted a pilot study on bullying. 4,000  children, aged between 5 and 16 took part in the scheme. An alarming 2,740 (68% of  the group) complained of being bullied at some time. Many of these incidents happened
when travelling to or from school and usually took place when no adult was present

. 1,520 (38%) of children had been bullied more than once or had experienced a particularly terrifying bullying incident. Of the 1,520 who were bullied more seriously 1,033 were boys (68%) and 483 (32%) were girls.

Many of these had been chronically bullied, to the point where it was affecting their  everyday lives. Some of these children were terrified of going to school, were often  truant or had attempted suicide.

The reported bullies were mainly boys - 80% and usually at least two years older than  their victims.

The latest data reveals that a third of all primary pupils are bullied at some stage. This alarming survey underlines the intensity of the problem and prompted FIREHORSE to act positively to the issue.

We have produced 3 anti bullying productions, Bully's Paradise, The B Word and now  Sticks and Stones.

All the productions aim to underline that no child deserves to be bullied and to  encourage children not to tolerate such behaviour from their peers. A school hosting this  production does not necessarily have to have a bullying problem, prevention is always better than cure.

Bullying has always been around, but that doesn't mean it has to exist in our schools forever.

We hope that this information and suggestions that follow help your school in tackling this issue and aids our mission for zero tolerance on bullying in our schools.