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Bullying is something people face not only as adults but also as children. In fact, bullying is quite common in schools and many children can suffer due to the negative impact of bullying on their physical, mental, and emotional well-being. So how can bullying be prevented and in turn reduce the effects of bullying on children?
For starters, the school you choose has a huge role in preventing bullying and creating a positive environment for your children. We spoke to Imperial College Egypt (ICE) to understand their school policies and how they encourage positive and healthy behavior in the children at their school.
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VIa: ICE
“Imperial College Egypt strongly supports the importance of the discipline indoors and outdoors. To ensure discipline, the parents and school need to collaborate closely. We take discipline seriously, therefore, disrespectful language, bullying, physical harm, or any kind of aggression towards the students or the teachers is prohibited,” an ICE representative explains.
One of the actions Imperial College Egypt takes is opening an investigation immediately when an action against their code of conduct takes place. This helps the school get to the bottom of matters and take the necessary actions to ensure that there are consequences to each action.
Offer support with the aid of the school counselor
Via: Bigstock – School counselor
The school counselor is involved from the very beginning, not only to determine the magnitude of the situation and instantly give the children the care they need but also to provide healthy tips, support, and reasoning for the children’s actions.
This helps prevent labeling children as bullies or punishing them for actions that have a deeper root and stem from psychological or social issues. The school counselor helps in providing the necessary support to both the bully and the victim and involves the parents if necessary. This helps solve the root cause of the troublemaker and prevent it from impacting any other students negatively.
Teach children how their behavior can influence others
Set of children attitudes and emotions illustration
“Young children need a healthy psychological environment and enough time to learn to understand the views, feelings, needs, and rights of others around them, and the influence that their behavior has on people, places, and objects. We understand that this is a developmental task that requires support, encouragement, teaching, and modeling of what is positive and considerate behavior, ” an ICE representative explains.
In the Early Years, Imperial College Egypt tries to provide the children with skills to solve their own problems. If a child has behaved inappropriately towards another child, ICE encourages children to express their feelings and how this action affected them. For example, this could be something like ‘Don’t pull my hair, I don’t like it,’ or using ‘I feel’ statements as such: “When you pull my hair, I feel sad because you hurt me.”This helps the children who have misbehaved understand that their actions have consequences and can negatively affect others.
Display appropriate behavior
If a child is misbehaving, instead of pointing it out in a negative way, the staff at Imperial College Egypt practices a different approach which is praising another child for their exemplary behavior in a positive tone of voice. For example, ‘I like the way you raised your hands when you wanted to ask a question.” This will help the first child understand what positive behavior looks like without having to embarrass them or comment negatively on their actions. When using positive language, prevents children from wanting to rebel. That means instead of saying ‘Don’t run indoors’, you can turn it into a positive statement by saying ‘It is safer to walk inside.”
With these methods, Imperial College Egypt hopes to achieve the following:
- Encourage children to develop positive attitudes towards themselves and learning.
- Encourage children to show consideration for others and to exercise self-discipline.
- Help provide children with the skills needed to manage their own behavior and solve their own problems through talk.
- Ensure children respond to boundaries with encouragement and support and understand the
shared behavioral expectations of the setting. - Protect children’s emotional development and well-being by establishing a safe and caring environment that supports and protects all children’s right to grow and learn.
- Work with parents in managing their child’s behavior both at home and at school or
nursery.
Further reading:
- Common Signs Your Child is Being Bullied
- My Son Is A Bully. What Should The School Do?
- Imperial College Egypt Prepares Students for Real-World Jobs
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