Trinity Conference Highlights Best Practice in Prevention and Intervention in School Bullying

Nov 18, 2011

Trinity’s Anti Bullying Research and Resource Centre recently held a one day conference on New Global Practices in Prevention and Intervention in the area of School Bullying.  The conference provided school staff and the general public with a unique opportunity to increase their understanding of bullying in both its traditional and cyber forms.  Experts also shared the most recent advances in how best to tackle such bullying.

Bullying as a phenomenon is an all too regular occurrence made easier by the use of text messages, e-mails, Internet message boards and websites.  Bullying can be verbal, physical or psychological and can lead to stress related illnesses, low self esteem and poor educational performance.

Professor Mona O'Moore and Minister for Children, Frances Fitzgerald who opened the conference.

Led by Professor Mona O’Moore of the Anti-Bullying Research & Resource Unit at Trinity College Dublin, the conference featured internationally renowned experts in the field of aggression studies in education together with international researchers and practitioners in this field.  Contributors shared their knowledge and views on how to combat and prevent bullying behaviour.

Speakers at the conference included Christina Salmivalli of Finland, who spoke about the highly successful Ki-Va anti-bullying programme. Peer support strategies, including cyber-mentoring, were addressed by Helen Cowie, the leading international expert in this field.  Also of value were the successful strategies of combating cyber-bullying in Australia. In addition, there were invaluable lessons to be learned from the many years of experience that Norway has had in having a national anti-bullying programme in all their schools.  Finally, the law and how it relates to school bullying today was also addressed.