What an anti-bullying programme should include
A school anti-bullying programme should cover prevention, early intervention, reporting routes, recording, pupil voice, parent communication and follow-up. Anti-Bullying Week can start the conversation, but the strongest work continues through assemblies, classroom activities, staff briefings and pastoral review.
HIP Psychology positions the programme around kindness, respect, resilience and practical help-seeking, with language that can be adapted for primary, post-primary, NI and ROI settings.
Connect lessons with school systems
Pupils need more than a poster. They need to know what bullying behaviour looks like, who they can speak to, what happens after a report and how bystanders can support without escalating risk.
School leaders can use the free resources for assemblies and lesson plans, then use the policy checklist pages to review whether the same language appears in staff guidance, parent communication and written procedures.
Workshop and resource routes
For awareness week planning, start with the Anti-Bullying Week 2026 guide and the Odd Socks Day 2026 ideas. Primary schools can pair those resources with HIP Psychology's P4-P7 live online workshop.
See the live online workshop or register for the reviewed P4-P7 resource.
Primary and post-primary support
Primary pupils usually need simple language around kindness, friendship, exclusion and telling a trusted adult. Post-primary pupils often need deeper discussion around peer groups, group chats, social pressure, prejudice-based bullying and online escalation.
A whole-school programme should keep the same core principles while changing examples, discussion prompts and outcomes by age and context.