Week 23 - bullying on the way home

Week 23 sees J bring home another beautiful piece of handarbeit – a sewn notebook and pencil case. At this rate, I’m going to be putting him on the street selling home made craftwork – he’d make more than I would selling anything.

The Thursday sees C have another little friend round to play in the afternoon - good !

On Friday J is bullied on the way home at lunchtime by the two lads who approached C a few weeks ago. They seem to be following classic bully behaviour – there are two of them, they wait until they are not in sight of anyone, and are a good distance from school. They try to block his path, make fun of him for needing to go to extra German lessons, push him off his scooter and refuse to believe that he’s in Grade 4, because of his size.

J is very upset – understandably. So after lunch we look on the CBBC website and search for “bullying” and how to cope with bullies. http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/specials/bullying/default.stm

Bullying behaviour is outlined, along with strategies for dealing with it. So the boys have some ideas now, and understand why I want them to walk to and from school together wherever possible – they are less likely to be approached if they are together. J also wants to join the local judo club, so we’ll be doing that next week. I send him back to school, asking him to tell his teacher and ask her what he should do, so that he gets the Swiss “take” on what his next step should be rather than just mine. Luckily she says the same as me – get their names and what class they’re in (we know they are at the school next door rather than ours).

We need to keep practising what they need to say to bullies if this happens again. OH and I are both of the view that you can’t protect kids from bullies – bullies are everywhere, school, the workplace, you name it. But we want to help them learn to deal with it, not become victimised. Luckily we seem to have supportive teaching staff at school – and at least we know that the kids involved are not at the same school as ours, though that could potentially make the situation more complicated to handle. I hope not.