BULLYING - THE SCOTTISH EXPERIENCE

This article explores the efforts made to combat bullying in Scottish schools, beginning with a research project of 1989 in 10 secondary sch ools. It found that schools who had anti-bullying policies were more s uccessful in combating bullying, The SCRE Anti-Bullying Packs were pub lished in 1992-3 to help schools in developing such policies. Between March 1993 and March 1995 there was the Scottish Schools Anti-Bullying Initiative, where central government support was given to schools and local authorities towards this end. As an effective anti-bullying pol icy takes large but finite amounts of time and effort, the author conc ludes that a possible answer is a more holistic and pragmatic approach ' aimed at protecting children from bullying and abuse of all kinds. I t is not, the author stresses, an easy way out. He emphasises that the re has to be a range of possible options for the school to take, as bu llying is not a simple problem and there is no simple cure.