Skip to content

Odd Socks and Action

Join us to wear odd socks to raise awareness of Anti-Bullying Week on Monday

StopSpeakSupport logo

Anti-Bullying Week runs from 12 to 18 November, and like many other organisations, NTU will be helping to raise awareness throughout the week.

Associate Professor Lucy Betts leads the bullying and aggressive behaviour research group which means that this week is of particular importance to her. She will have a busy week promoting her work on cyberbullying. During Anti-Bullying Week she will be chairing a session for the Ben Cohen Standup Foundation on Monday, will showcase her research to MP’s and charities on the evening of Tuesday 13 November, following her submission to the Science and Technology Committee, and will be joining delegates for the Anti-Bullying Alliance’s Westminster event on Wednesday.

Alongside these events, Lucy has been sharing her research to Members of Parliament and Schools through a research briefing (available online). This briefing outlines her studies on cyberbullying in schools and the impact and awareness of this amongst students and teachers. Lucy estimates that two thirds of 16-19 year olds have been involved in cyberbullying in the last year. Her research also highlights that young people are aware of the value of social media and could identify when bullying online was occurring but stressed that there were concerns about how to report issues when it occurred. Research with 11-15 year olds showed that cyberbullying impacted on learning and can create a fear that victims have no safe space to escape to from bullies. Research with teachers showed students were often ‘naive’ when online and highlighted the impact it has had on students they work with. Teachers felt student’s confidence was affected. Worryingly, Lucy’s research highlighted that some teachers felt that issues occurring away from school could not be tackled by schools.

Following this research, Lucy was not content to simply study the issues, and she has developed a series of lesson plans that can be used in school to help people discuss cyberbullying, and how to tackle it. If you are interested in these resources created as three lesson plans, you can download them from the Times Education Supplement website. They have already been downloaded over 200 times. We hope these resources can act as a starting point for discussion alongside the work undertaken by so many organisations during Anti-Bullying Week, and beyond.

Please don’t forget to wear your odd socks on Monday, think before you post that comment, choose respect and stop, speak and support.

Nottingham Civic Exchange

Nottingham Civic Exchange has been established by Nottingham Trent University to maximise research, policy and practical impact by bringing together university expertise with partners seeking to address the needs of local communities. Nottingham Civic Exchange acts as a resource to look at social and economic issues in new ways. This means facilitating debate, acting as a bridge between research and policy debates, and developing practical projects at a local, city and regional level.

Visit our website - www.ntu.ac.uk/nce Contact us - notts.civicex@ntu.ac.uk Follow us - @NottsCivicEx

Published on 11 November 2018
  • Category: Nottingham Civic Exchange; Staff; School of Social Sciences