Well-being and prevention of bullying at school (20 December 2018)

Three years after its recommendation on the prevention and approach to bullying at school, the Vlor brings certain recommendations from this advice under the attention again and sets additional accents. In addition to recommendations to the government, the text also contains a concrete and strengthened commitment from all the partners in the Vlor-platform to put their shoulders under a policy of well-being and prevention and tackling bullying at school.

Why this recommendation?

Steps have been taken in the right direction. The attention to well-being and prevention of bullying at school is more prominent in the discourse of the policy and of the media. A number of decrees have recently been approved that require schools to implement a high-quality policy on well-being. Many schools are doing great work.

But recent figures about well-being and bullying prevention remain worrying. It is also becoming more and more clear how great the broad impact of bullying is, also at the long term. Moreover, compared to 2015, the problem has become even more complex, partly because cyberbullying is emerging in more and more diverse forms.

There is still too much bullying at school and the consequences are disastrous.

Towards a stronger policy for well-being and prevention of bullying at school

The Vlor makes the following recommendations to the government and commitments of the Vlor platform:

• Need for more systematic bundling and disclosure of available research results.
  • De Vlor asks that the government facilitates a knowledge network that connects scientists across disciplines;
  • The platform is committed to regularly updating a list of suggestions for research;
  • The platform wants to help ensure that research findings find their way into the educational field.
• Need for extra support for schools.
  • The platform is committed to developing a guiding framework with building blocks for an anti-bullying policy as a tool for schools. 
• Strengthen the partners who shape well-being policies at school.
  • The Vlor asks for further clarification of the roles and tasks of the actors who shape the well-being policy at school.
  • The Vlor requires resources to strengthen the professionalism of these actors.
• Systematic attention to well-being and prevention of bullying in teacher education.
  • The platform undertakes to consider, together with teacher training actors, how teachers are best prepared during their training to be able to work on well-being and prevent bullying at school. 
• Neutral mediation.

The Vlor requires an independent, neutral point of contact outside the school that has the expertise and staff to mediate in exceptional cases.