Education Committee ‘Lends a Hand’ to Support Anti-Bullying Week 2016

Session: Session currently unavailable

Date: 14 November 2016

Reference: EDUC 01/16/17

The Committee for Education in partnership with the Assembly Education Service has today launched a special interactive art initiative, as part of a range of Committee activities, to highlight Anti-Bullying Week 2016.

MLAs and school groups visiting Parliament Buildings this week are being asked to contribute to the artwork by cutting around a signed outline of their hand and attaching it to a canvas so as to quite literally ‘Lend a Hand’ to support Anti-Bullying Week 2016.

Speaking in advance of today’s launch, Education Committee Chairperson Barry McElduff MLA said: “The Committee is delighted to launch this art initiative in support of Anti-Bullying Week 2016 and we look forward to contributions from MLAs and local school children. It will, we hope, be a fun way of highlighting this very serious issue and to remind us all of our responsibilities in recognising and preventing bullying.”

Mr McElduff continued: “We have witnessed progress in recent years in identifying instances of bullying and through the introduction of proactive initiatives to counteract this unacceptable behaviour in our schools. The Addressing Bullying in Schools Act (2016) is a crucial step forward in providing a legal definition of bullying and setting out the duties of Boards of Governors to take measures to prevent bullying.”

Mr McElduff concluded: “Of course there is always much more we can do and it is important that we continually monitor how anti-bullying measures are working in our schools, how effective the legislation is in practice and how we can continue to work together to end bullying once and for all.”    

On Wednesday the Committee will also be visiting two local schools, Ashfield Boys' High School in Belfast where they will hear evidence from the Northern Ireland Anti-Bullying Forum and meet with pupils who have been active in championing Anti-Bullying Initiatives in their school. Members will also visit St Ita’s Primary School in Carryduff where pupils have written and illustrated an e-book entitled ‘Stronger Together’ which looks at anti-bullying and emotional wellbeing.

ENDS

Notes to Editor:

Lend a Hand Artwork:

MLAs and visiting school children will be invited to contribute to the ‘Lend a Hand’ from Monday 14 – Friday 18 November and the art work will be on display in the Great Hall throughout the week.

School visits:

The Committee will hold its weekly meeting on Wednesday 16 November in Ashfield Boys' High School, Belfast from 10am – 1pm. Members will also visit St Ita’s Primary School, Carryduff at 1.30pm -2.30pm.

Further information on the Northern Ireland Anti-Bullying Forum can be found here

Further information on the Addressing Bullying in School Act (2016) can be found here

Committee Membership:

Barry McElduff MLA (Chairperson)

Chris Lyttle MLA (Deputy Chairperson)

Rosemary Barton MLA

David Hilditch MLA

Carla Lockhart MLA

Phillip Logan MLA

Jennifer McCann MLA

Colin McGrath MLA

Lord Morrow MLA

Sandra Overend MLA

Catherine Seeley MLA

Find MLAs

Find your MLAs

Locate MLAs

Search

News and Media Centre

Visit the News and Media Centre

Read press releases, watch live and archived video

Find out more

Follow the Assembly

Follow the Assembly on our social media channels

Keep up-to-date with the Assembly

Find out more

Useful Contacts

Contact us

Contacts for different parts of the Assembly

Contact Us