Blackpool Beating Bullying
Blackpool Beating Bullying is a campaign that was set up by young people, for young people, with the overall aim of reducing bullying that unfortunately may sometimes occur in Blackpool Schools.
Our young people highlighted that bullying in schools is one of the most common issues that young people face, with 23% of Blackpool secondary school students saying that they had been bullied within school or near the school’s location in the last 12 months (Blackpool SHEU, 2019). Using their own personal experiences, young people articulated how bullying has an impact on victims, which may often be dismissed.
What is the aim of #BlackpoolBeatingBullying?
The aim of #BlackpoolBeatingBullying, is to decrease bullying across the town, by co-producing a charter mark to help implement whole systems change. The campaign group have worked tirelessly to look at what they feel does not work within schools, within the policies, and with the overall way that schools deal with bullying. When developing the charter mark, our young people have turned the negative things into criteria, with the aim of this reducing how much it happens / occurs in schools. In a town where only 36 % of pupils in secondary schools think that their school takes bullying seriously, our young people saw that there is a massive need for change to occur on a wider scale, where a culture shift occurs across the town (Blackpool SHEU, 2019). By implementing a charter mark within Blackpool schools, our young people aim to ensure schools are equipped with a set of tools and mechanisms to help decrease bullying across the whole town.
The young people found that there are only 3 other anti-bullying charter marks in the UK. These are all based in the South of the country and none of them have the views and opinions of young people within them. As a group of strong and passionate young people, they decided it was time to change that, and began to work on their own charter mark!
The charter mark that has been developed has three tiers: Bronze, Silver and Gold. They all incorporate key issues that young people highlighted as being important such as having the anti-bullying policy on show, in an accessible place, in an accessible manner – i.e. printed in yellow or a large font. Resilient therapy is also imbedded within the charter mark, with young people ensuring school’s are using the Resilience Framework to help increase young people’s mental wellbeing and resilience.
What is the success so far?
To date, Montgomery Academy have piloted the charter mark. They have worked alongside the group of young people in the #BlackpoolBeatingBullying Campaign, helping them make adjustments where necessary in order to make the process of applying for the charter mark an easier and smoother journey.
Montgomery Academy have completed the required questionnaires to apply for the charter mark. They received a staggering 80 responses from young people, 23 staff responses, 8 parent / carer responses and 2 governors’ responses. Our young people looked through the responses and highlighted the positives that came from them, which enabled the young people to decide that Montgomery Academy have successfully met the criteria in order to be the first school in Blackpool to be awarded the #BlackpoolBeatingBullying Bronze Charter Mark, showing how their school is working towards and striving to eradicate bullying.
Young people that have spent the last 12 months working on this campaign speak about how proud they are to be implementing change across the town and how they feel the charter mark will make a difference to young people’s lives.
What can you do to support #BlackpoolBeatingBullying?
Our young people know and understand that people of Blackpool lead very busy lives, which they took into consideration when looking at what people can do to try and promote and support their campaign.
By simply wearing one of their bright orange wristbands that say, #BlackpoolBeatingBullying, or by sharing the hashtag on social media, you will be promoting and support the campaign. If you would like to further support the young people’s campaign, would like more information, or have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact us at:
Email: Oliver.gibbs@blackpool.gov.uk
Tel: 07825715695 or (01253) 476746