Definition

The Office of Children and Young People’s Services’ Anti-Bullying Strategy defines bullying as a persistent, deliberate attempt to hurt or humiliate someone.

There may sometimes be misunderstanding about the meaning of the term ‘bullying’: one-off incidents, whilst they may be very serious and must always be dealt with, do not fall within the definition of ‘bullying’.

Types of bullying

There are various types of bullying, but most have three things in common:
1. It is deliberately hurtful behaviour.
2. It is repeated over time.
3. There is an imbalance of power, which makes it hard for those being bullied to defend themselves.

Bullying may take various forms, including:

• Physical
  e.g. kicking, hitting, pushing, intimidating behaviour or interference with personal property
  
• Verbal/Psychological
  e.g. threats, taunts, shunning/ostracism, name-calling/verbal abuse or spreading of rumours
  
• Racist Bullying - see the link on the right for more information
  e.g. physical, verbal, written, on-line or text abuse or ridicule based on differences of race, colour, ethnicity, nationality, culture or language
  
• Faith-based Bullying
  e.g. negative stereotyping, name-calling or ridiculing based on religion
  
• Sexist Bullying
  e.g. use of sexist language or negative stereotyping based on gender
  
• Sexual Bullying
  e.g. unwanted/inappropriate physical contact or sexual innuendo
  
• Homophobic Bullying – see the link on the right for more information
  e.g. name-calling, innuendo or negative stereotyping based on sexual orientation or use of homophobic language
  
• SEN / Disability Bullying
  e.g. name-calling, innuendo, negative stereotyping or excluding from activity based on disability or learning difficulties
  
• Gifted/Talented Bullying
  e.g. name-calling, innuendo, ostracism or negative peer pressure based on high levels of ability or effort
  
• Cyber Bullying – see the links on the right for more information
  e.g. abuse on-line or via text message, interfering with electronic files, setting up or promoting inappropriate websites and inappropriate sharing of images from webcams/mobile phones
  

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