Bullying Prevention

What Is the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program?
The Olweus Bullying Prevention Program (OBPP) is the most researched and best-known bullying prevention program available today. Backed by more than thirty-five years of research and successful implementation in many different countries, the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program is a whole-school program that has been proven to prevent or reduce bullying throughout a school setting.

The Olweus Bullying Prevention Program is used at the school, classroom, and individual levels and includes methods to reach out to parents and the community for involvement and support. School administrators, teachers, and other staff are primarily responsible for introducing and implementing the program with the purpose of improving peer relations and making the school a safer and more positive place for students to learn and develop.

What Are the Goals of the Program?
The goals of the program are to:

• reduce existing bullying problems among students
• prevent the development of new bullying problems
• achieve better peer relations at school

What Are the Components of the Program?
The Olweus Bullying Prevention Program is not a classroom curriculum. It is a whole-school, systems-change program at four different levels: school wide, classroom, individual, and community.

What Are the Effects of the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program?
The Olweus Bullying Prevention Program has been more thoroughly evaluated than any other bullying prevention/reduction program so far. Six large-scale evaluations involving more than 40,000 students produced the following documented results.

• Average reductions of up to 50 percent in student reports of being bullied and bullying others. Peer and teacher ratings of bullying problems have yielded roughly similar results.
• Marked reductions in student reports of general antisocial behavior, such as vandalism, fighting, theft, and truancy.
• Clear improvements in the classroom social climate, as reflected in students’ reports of improved order and discipline, more positive social relationships, and more positive attitudes toward schoolwork and school.

Olweus Parent Guide

FORUM is a Welsh Valley Middle School based initiative to strengthen our community and to reinforce the idea that all students should feel respected and valued. FORUM allows students to have a voice and be heard. FORUM meets every other week in Homeroom classes where students participate in classroom meetings. Discussions and activities during classroom meetings are interconnected through the Four Pillars. These are Character, Respect, Responsibility, and Citizenship. They are the foundation for building a stronger Welsh Valley community. A major component of FORUM is the Olweus Anti-Bullying Prevention Program. All staff members have been trained using the Olweus Anti-Bullying Prevention Model, and will hold classroom meetings through FORUM that will address the issue of bullying. FORUM is a time during the day where the focus in on what students think and feel regarding the world around them. When students feel good about who they are, know that people care about them, and are able to make connections with the students and adults around them, they are more likely to be at their best and have success in the classroom.

Class Meeting Rules

1. Everybody sites in a circle.
2. We raise our hand when we want to say something.
3. Everyone has the right to be heard
4. We let others speak without interrupting
5. Everyone has the right to pass.
6. We can disagree without being disagreeable or saying mean things; no "put downs."
7. When talking about bullying or other problems between students, we don't mention names.

At Welsh Valley...

• We will not bully others.
• We will try to help students who are bullied.
• We will try to include students who are left out.
• If we know that somebody is being bullied, we will tell an adult at school and an adult at home.