Bullying is a critical issue for schools, as it can lead to negative impacts for the person being bullied, bystanders, the person doing the bullying and the school. Providing opportunities for students to understand what constitutes bullying, and to learn to recognise it within their school community, is a key part of an effective bullying prevention program.

Year level

7-10

Duration

60 minutes

Type

In class activity

Take away activity

SEL Competencies

Social awareness

Responsible decision-making

Learning intention

Students will be able to understand what constitutes bullying, and undertake an audit of bullying behaviour at their school.

Key outcomes

By the end of the lesson, students will be able to:

  • identify the different behaviours associated with bullying

  • understand that bullying behaviour is never okay

  • recognise bullying behaviour

  • be aware of the prevalence of bullying behaviour in their school.

Materials needed

Mapped to

Australian Curriculum: Health and Physical Education

  • Refine protective behaviours and evaluate community resources to seek help for themselves and others (AC9HP8P08)

  • Analyse factors that shape identities and evaluate how individuals influence the identities of others (AC9HP10P01)

Australian Curriculum: General Capabilities

  • Personal and Social Capability:

    • Social awareness

    • Social management

NSW PDHPE Syllabus

  • Recognises how contextual factors influence attitudes and behaviours and proposes strategies to enhance health, safety, wellbeing and participation in physical activity (PD4-6)

  • Critiques contextual factors, attitudes and behaviours to effectively promote health, safety, wellbeing and participation in physical activity (PD5-6)

Victorian Curriculum: Health and Physical Education

  • Evaluate strategies to manage personal, physical and social changes that occur as they grow older (VCHPEP124)

  • Investigate the benefits of relationships and examine their impact on their own and others’ health and wellbeing (VCHPEP127)

  • Analyse factors that influence emotions, and develop strategies to demonstrate empathy and sensitivity (VCHPEP128)

  • Evaluate situations and propose appropriate emotional responses and then reflect on possible outcomes of different responses to health and wellbeing (VCHPEP147)

Show details

Activity 1

Class discussion: What is bullying?

30 minutes

  1. Ask the students to read the ReachOut.com article 'What is bullying'.

  2. Give each student three post-it notes and ask them to write on each note a word that describes bullying. Once finished, collect post-it notes.

  3. On the white board, draw a Y-chart with the labels ‘looks like’, ‘sounds like’ and ‘feels like’.

  4. Read out each post-it note and ask students to group into ‘looks like’, ‘sounds like’ and ‘feels like’.

  5. From the grouping of words, create a definition of bullying.

Activity 2

Individual understanding: The impact of bullying

15 minutes

  1. Individually, ask students to answer:

  • What actions might be considered bullying?

  • What impact might these actions have?

  • What could be done to reduce the impact of bullying?

Students should come up with 5 dot points for each question. 2. Ask students to reflect on what they have learnt:

  • Do they identify any patterns in their answers?

  • Do they have any questions about the impact of bullying?

Activity 3

Individual activity: Accessing help

15 minutes

  1. Provide access for students to ReachOut.com’s collection ‘About bullying’.

  2. Ask students to explore the various articles, videos and quizzes within the collection.

  3. Ask students to draw a table with three columns:

    • Talk to

    • Get help

    • Look after myself

  4. Ask students to record who they can talk to, where they can get help and how they could look after themselves if they are feeling hurt or being bullied.

Activity 4

Take-away activity

15 minutes

  1. Ask students to have a conversation at home with an older family member or adult about their experience of bullying when they were young. Students should then answer the following questions:

    • What sort of bullying behaviour was common when the person was at school?

    • How did they deal with the bullying they experienced or witnessed?

    • How did their school address bullying?

Print

Related resources

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Respect - what does it mean to me?

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Standing up to bullying behaviour

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Student ideas to address bullying

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Where do I feel like I belong?

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              Aboriginal flagTorres Strait islander flagRainbow flagAustralian flag

              We acknowledge the traditional owners of Country throughout Australia. We pay our respects to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures, and to Elders past and present. We recognise connection to Country as integral to health and wellbeing.

              We acknowledge people with lived experience of mental ill-health and recovery and the experience of people who have been carers, families, or supporters.

              ReachOut values diversity. We are committed to providing a safe, culturally appropriate, and inclusive service for all people, regardless of their ethnicity, faith, disability, sexuality, or gender identity.

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