Held in conjunction with the Mental Health Foundation’s Pink Shirt Day, this week provides a great opportunity for all members of our school community to talk about what bullying means to them.

Marshland School works hard to encourage respect, value opinions, celebrate difference, and promote positive relationships in an effort to  make it difficult for bullying behaviour to thrive or be tolerated. To achieve this, we need everyone – school staff, students, trustees, parents, whānau and communities – working together.

What is bullying? 

Bullying is a word that can have a lot of different meanings for different people. Making sure everyone in our school shares the same definition of bullying is important.  

Bullying is deliberate – harming another person intentionally.  Bullying involves a misuse of power in a relationship. 

Bullying is repeated or has the potential to be repeated over time. Bullying can be verbal, physical and/or social; it can happen in person or online, and it can be obvious (overt) or hidden (covert). 

At Marshland we teach the children that not every unkind thing is bullying.  Students, especially young children, are still learning how to get along with others. They need parents, teachers and other adults to model kindness, inclusion, conflict resolution and responsibility. 

Single incidents and conflict or fights between equals, whether in person or online, are not defined as bullying. These behaviours may be just as upsetting and serious but may need to be dealt with in a different way, usually by talking through social issues, role-playing or

enlisting the help of Mana Ake social skills groups. 

Here is an excerpt from our Managing and Dealing with Bullying at Marshland School document:

Every parent knows how important friends are in helping children settle into school because of the fun of playing and learning together and the support friends provide.

Below are some ways children get to know each other. The more you can practice these in your relationship with your child the closer will be their friendships with other children.

Sharing humour, which is a special feature of close friendships.

Sharing fantasy and pretend play which allows friends to talk about themselves.

Sharing information by taking and asking about toys, surroundings and so on.

Sharing activities, games and rhymes.

Talking clearly to be easily understood, particularly linking what they say to what the other child has said.

Talking about themselves, how they feel, what they think, and what they have done, and getting others to talk about themselves.

Talking about similarities and differences in what they are like and do.

Gossiping which encourages belonging to a group.

Sorting out conflict by being polite, explaining how they feel and giving reasons.

Co-operating, agreeing more than disagreeing, seeing the other person’s point of view, being able to wait for what they want.

Together we can make Marshland School a bullying-free environment for everyone. 

Ka kite āno

Jacqui Pascoe

Principal