Solution focused anti-bullying

"Developing Strength and Resilience in
Children"
1-2 November 2010
Day 2 9:00 – 11:00
Solution-focused anti-bullying:
How to work successfully in schools to address the
problem of bullying
Sue Young

sue@young .karoo.co.uk 2
You may need to tell me to slow down!
Listen out out for anything that may need
translating…
If you are unsure, no doubt there‟s others,
so please just interrupt me…

Hull
• City port in North East of England
• One of the most deprived local authorities in
England
• Twice the national average unemployment,
children in care, etc
• 90 schools - 75 „primary‟, 15 „secondary‟
• Anti-bullying coordinator & behaviour support
manager to 2007
• Now independent, solution-focused practice in
schools

Where are you now?
• On a scale of 1 to 10
• Where 10 is: I know a lot about solution
focused stuff! ( & sf anti-bullying).
• And 1 is: I’ve heard a bit about it…..
• Where are you now?
• 1 – 3 ?
• 4 – 6 ?
• 7 – 10 ?

Aim
• “Show and tell!”
• Solution-focused anti-bullying
• Working with school staff, or maybe a
group of staff
• Working in classes with pupils

Bullying research
Traditional projects led by „experts‟ – Dan Olweus in
Norway was the first - often University staff, based
on theories about bullying:
– What is bullying?
– Who are bullies and why?
– Who are victims and why?
– Where and when does it happen?
– How often does it happen?
– What are the consequences?
– What is effective in reducing bullying?

Traditional anti-bullying projects:
Dan Olweus in Norway & Sweden
(Bergen Project 1983 & several others)
Peter Smith in England
(Sheffield Project 1991)
• Survey of bullying, before & after intervention
Raising awareness of the problem:
• Training for staff about bullying
• Meetings & information about bullying for parents
• Teaching pupils about bullying: assemblies, class discussions &
activities
• Strategies to deal with incidents
“Whole-School Policy”

Traditional projects trying to reduce bullying
Lots of bullying, all the time …
10
5
1

How effective are they?
• Outcomes are disappointing, despite the hype!
• Schools often drop out, or don‟t implement fully
• Any reduction can be short term
• Sometimes leads to an increase in bullying
• No clear evidence for what works

Meta-analysis of projects
“Only one program [Olweus] yielded significant
reductions in victimisation and bullying, while the
other 13 yielded either negligible changes or
increases on these outcomes”
(Smith, Cousins & Stewart, 2005, p. 744; Smith, Schneider, Smith &
Ananiadou, 2004).
Olweus‟ Bergen results have never been replicated,
despite many attempts…

Researchers (not the only ones!) tend to congratulate
their intervention for any success and blame the
schools for any failure… e.g. lack of time and
commitment, pressure from too many initiatives,
changes in staff, lack of leadership…
They don‟t seem to consider blaming their project!
• Schools without support from researchers often
appear to do better!
• So who are the experts in anti-bullying?
Time to do something different?!

New ideas about change
• Steve de Shazer & Insoo Kim Berg –
Solution-Focused Brief Therapy
• David Cooperider – management
consultancy – Appreciative Inquiry
Factors that help bring about change with
individuals also work in organisations

Solution-focused practice
• Describing the preferred future
• Recognising the successful past
• Appreciating existing strengths
• Doing more of what works

Problem-solving
Define the problem
What is bullying?
Assess
How much do we have?
Select a remedy
Consult an expert!
Review
Reassess the problem
Solution-focused
Describe the preferred future
What do you want instead?
Recognise success
What are you doing already
that works?
Appreciate strengths
How did you manage that?
Do more of what works…
Notice it working…!

Solution-focused scale:
How we want school to be instead. Our best hopes for
relationships in school…
Reduction in bullying (Aspiration??)
Lots of bullying, all the time…
10
5
1

Describing the preferred future
Move into small groups of 3/4… Parents… teachers…
pupils… head-teachers… visitors… other staff?
Imagine you visit a school tomorrow… What will you see
that tells you it is a friendly, supportive and safe
community, a 10?
Go round the group – each person in turn, one idea each
• The first thing I would notice that would tell me this is a
friendly school is...
• Another thing I would notice about a supportive school..
Someone make a list as you go. Keep going round… What
else? What else? What else?

Priorities and feedback
• Review your list together and agree the two most
significant
• Feedback
• Notice if the same ideas occur in more than one group…
• The differences that makes all the difference!
• What else do you notice that‟s interesting?

Into pairs!
• Stand up
• Find someone you don‟t know, introduce
yourselves
• Move two chairs so one person can see
the display over the shoulder of the other
• Sit down

• Guided solution-focused interview
• The questions are displayed
• Interviewer, listen for any strengths or
skills, either explicit or implicit, in what
your partner says.
• Interviewee, try to answer the questions as
fully as you can
• Talk about a school you know well

Given all the existing constraints ( of funding, staffing,
buildings, pupil intake )….
“On a scale of 1 to 10… Where 1 is nothing is done to
make your school a friendly place to be… 10 is as
friendly as you can imagine your school being…
• Where is your school now?
• What makes the school so high (and not one less)?
• How do staff encourage friendship already? + +
• What else helps make it so friendly? + +
• How do pupils help to make it as friendly as it is? +
• How do parents help?
(NB NOT why is it not higher?)

Given all the existing constraints (of funding, staffing,
buildings, pupil intake….)
On a scale of 1 to 10….Where 1 is nothing happens to
make your school a supportive place to be…. 10 is the
best you can imagine your school being….
• Where is your school now?
• What makes the school so high? – (and not one less)?
• What else do staff do to support pupils? + +
• How do pupils support each other already? + +
• How do you support pupils? + + +
• How do you know this helps?
(NB NOT why is it not higher?)

Working with class groups
• Outcomes for projects report schools as a whole, rather
than classes
• Some evidence to suggest this is misleading
• The difference in bullying may be as large between
classes in schools as between schools
• Recent review of projects suggested that class
intervention more important than whole school

Classroom work
What do staff do already that promotes
friendly and supportive relationships in the
classroom?
Recognising existing strengths / skills
• Birthday cards
• Secret friends
• What else??

Groups of 4/5
Friendship Week
• The government in England recommends all schools
have an “Anti-Bullying Week”
• How about “Friendship Week” instead !
• In groups make a list of 20 possible suggestions as if
it were next week… the smallest things you can do
to promote a friendly atmosphere in school…
• Each person choose one activity they liked best

Gossip praise!
• Stand up
• Find someone not in your group
• Tell each other the idea you have heard
that you think is best…
• Point to the person who said it !

What is the difference between activities for
• anti-bullying week … and
• friendship week… ??
When people use their own experience and ideas
to build on what they do already it is more likely
to bring about sustainable change

Discussions about bullying
Don‟t do it!

Solution-focused practice
• Describing the preferred future
• Recognising the successful past
• Appreciating existing strengths
• Doing more of what works

SF anti-bullying discussions
• Describing the preferred future:
– How do they want the class to be?
• Recognising the successful past:
– What have you done well today?
• Appreciating existing strengths:
– Complimenting, appreciating each other
• Doing more of what works:
– What would you like to do more next week?

Steve de Shazer & Insoo Kim Berg
Discovered the
solution-focused
approach…
– figured out what
they were doing
when therapy
succeeded and
then did more of it!

Solution-focused schools
Where school staff figure out what they are doing when
they succeed…recognise their own successful past
Where staff and pupils are given the time and
encouragement to describe their own preferred future
and build on their strengths
Those of us who support schools can help by appreciating
the existing skills in schools and encouraging them to do
a little more of what works already.

What’s different?
• Anti-bullying focusing
on POTENTIAL
• Appreciates what staff
and students are
doing already in
schools
• SF strategies for
whole school,
classroom &
individuals
• Now in Swedish!!

Thank-you
To tell me about something you are doing,
or if you think I may be able to help in any
way:
sue@young.karoo.co.uk

Arizona Project – Olweus program
http_gwired.gwu.pdf : S Black, (2007) Evaluation of the Olweus Bullying
Prevention Program: How the program can work for inner city youth.
“ Bullying Incident Density (BID)
BID decreased 25.5 percent in all schools [9 schools,
there were actually13 in the project but 4 had
incomplete data].
Schools with high fidelity [4 schools] demonstrated an
average 21.5 percent reduction in BID
while schools with low fidelity [5 schools] demonstrated
an average 35 percent reduction in BID ”

Arizona Report: Olweus Bully Victim Questionnaire© (BVQ)
Student-reported bullying increased 10% , from 39%… at baseline
reporting victimization to 43% of students in Year Four (at the level of
twice a month or more often).
Changes ranged from a 40% increase in bullying to a 12% decrease
When schools were separated into high fidelity vs. low fidelity groups,
schools with 75% or more implementation [4 out of 13 schools]
demonstrated a 5% reduction in bullying
[Actual figures given: +7, +2, -12, -10 ] .
Schools with low fidelity (< 75% fidelity ) [5 out of the 13 schools]
demonstrated a 14% increase in bullying
[Actual figures given: +28, -5, -3, +4, +40 ] .

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