Children are the future of the nation the ‘future’ needs to be protected all the time. However, with the widespread use of technology and 24-hour access to the Internet, students’ harassment or bullying has become a life-threatening epidemic that needs to be curtailed immediately as soon as you notice the warning signals. Not only consistent bullying can damage your child’s self-confidence but can severely impact the entire concept of effective schooling. All best schools in Ghaziabad have taken a note of this have formulated stringent rules against bullying. This is how Khaitan Public School in Ghaziabad is dealing with this:
- Defining bullying clearly
It is important to have a clear definition set for bullying, which refers to ‘a common an intentional aggressive behavior characterized physical or verbal/nonverbal means, which are recurrent in nature. Here, it is important for teachers and parents to understand the difference between teasing and bullying. Often teachers, parents or students report teasing as bullying. While teasing is done with the intention to irritate or annoy someone, bullying refers to an imbalance of power exhibited in different forms such as threats, teasing, name calling, hitting, pushing, excluding etc.
- Enforcing clear rules and expectations
Top CBSE schools in Ghaziabad have implemented age-appropriate rules against bullying to set clear expectations from its students. They have clearly indicated what behavior is expected out of children. It is also important to keep these rules simple and in sync with the age and maturity level of children. For example, at KPS, we ensure that we state these rules using positive terms and keep them as low as from 3-5. Lastly, these rules must be taught to children at all levels by setting an example and being consistent with their enforcement.
- Rewarding positive behavior
It is easy to find fault and indicate a bad behavior of a student, but what makes all the difference is rewarding them when they exhibit a good behavior. So, we encourage good behavior not by setting an example, but also by rewarding them when they meet our expectations.
- Having open communication
Having clear and open communication helps building rapport with children. Therefore, we encourage teachers to have an open communication with students so they feel more open discussing their problems—including bullying. The idea is to indicate how empathic listening can save children from many of life’s complexities including bullying.
- Engaging parents
We encourage parents to establish a two-way communication with their children. In fact, parents remain the greatest influencers as well as protectors in children’s case. At the same time, there is a need of having an open channel where parents feel free to convey any concern to the teachers and they both can work together to shape up lives of children. We keep parents informed about child’s grades, behavior, friends and attitude demonstrated in school to help them approach us more freely in case of any negative behavior.
There are always warning signs associated with a negative behavior or situation. As one of the top schools in Ghaziabad, we at KPS, go an extra mile to promote students’ wellbeing and mental health and are committed to prevent bullying at all levels by adopting effective measures.