One of the growing challenges facing our society today is the increase in bullying. It is possible that it is fuelled in part by the use of social media, because it allows hurtful comments to be made to or about someone without having to eyeball the person. I think it is also fuelled by the drift of our culture away from its historic Judeo-Christian ethic, which called on us all to treat each other with dignity and respect because we are all made in the image of God.

All schools have to deal with incidents of bullying amongst students, and GPCC is no exception. So, the question might be, why is it that increasingly younger students are engaging in bullying behaviour towards others? They may not have direct access to social media platforms, and, in GPCC’s context, they come from families who, on enrolment, all express a commitment to a traditional Judeo-Christian ethic and values.

As we seek to deal with bullying incidents at school, we ask ourselves this question often – where is this coming from? None of us would endorse any form of bullying as appropriate, yet our children are engaging in it. It is easy for us to blame you the parents – it is up to you to bring your children up "properly" and teach them not to bully. But we know that this is too simplistic. Even in families that appear to be doing everything right, sometimes a child will bully another.

Societies are complex and as communication has improved and increased, and our children are exposed to social media and other media forms, they do imbibe the general cultural trends – good and bad. We cannot shield them totally from these influences. As a school we don’t really want to do that either – we want to teach them to stand against such behaviour and live rightly – extending respect and kindness to all.

Bullying is also part of the natural development of children as they learn that they can have power over others. This power can be used for good or evil and in experimenting with it, it is often used poorly – hence the bullying. Our goal is to help our children to learn to use the power over others for good.

As a school, dealing with bullying is one of our most difficult tasks. Bullying situations are often complex and getting to the truth of exactly what happened is not easy. We are committed to having a safe and caring environment for all students and need your support and forbearance as we seek to deal with bullying behaviour. Our desire is always for the bully to reform and in most cases, we can achieve this. However, sometimes this is not possible when a student is unwilling to change their behaviour and, in those cases, we take the difficult decision to terminate their enrolment at the College.

Dealing with bullying cases requires forbearance on the part of both school and home. None of us want to be told we have a child who is bullying, but facing up to the possibility and working it through can be a significant developmental moment in a child’s life that sets them up for a much better and stronger future.

This is how we can work to equip them for a life in which they contribute to a better society.

Phillip Nash

Principal