Anti-Bullying

School management authorities are responsible for dealing with bullying in school. Each school is required to have in place a policy which includes specific measures to deal with bullying behaviour, within the framework of an overall school Code of Behaviour and Discipline.

The Department's Guidelines on Countering Bullying Behaviour in Schools, 1993, are available to assist schools to set out their anti-bullying policy and a strategy to prevent bullying behaviour. The template for developing an anti-bullying policy is based on these guidelines, although account is taken of more recent legislative/regulatory changes and reference is also made to issues of contemporary concern such as text bullying, cyber-bullying and homophobic bullying.