COMBUS – COMBAT BULLYING: A Whole School Program

ComBus aims at empowering students, parents and teachers on how to combat bullying in school.

Project Number: JUST/2014/RDAP/AG/BULL/7698

Funded by: REC Duration: 01/10/2015 – 30/11/2017

Challenge

Bullying appears to be a major challenge for Europe. Recent studies suggest that bullying in adolescence and childhood can have worse long-term effects on young adult‘s mental health than being subject to maltreatment during childhood. According to UNESCO, 25% of students in Europe have experienced bullying, while cyber-bullying has been increased from 7 to 12% in students aged 11-16. Specifically, in Greece, 33% of students have experienced some form of bullying and 20% cyber-bullying.

The effects of school bullying on children’s stress levels, depressive tendencies, and self-concept is not only a barrier to their learning and development but also for wider society. Early, effective, and school-based intervention is necessary to deal with bullying and its collateral effects (Tremblay & Craig 1995).

Innovation

ComBus aims at empowering students, parents and teachers on how to combat bullying in school by providing promptly and free of charge guidance through the development of a mobile application.

Action

A report was developed to describe the current situation and the challenges in Greece regarding bullying. The report is based on the findings from the literature review and from the interviews with relevant stakeholders and local authorities.

Read the national report here.

A training toolkit was developed, which includes activities and resources targeted at school leaders and principals, teachers, support staff, students and parents. This toolkit contains best practice resources, which appeal to all members of the school community, including sample lesson plans for in-class and extra-curricular activities, blended modules for school leaders, teachers and parents, peer support guidelines for students and assessment tools and rubrics for teachers to evaluate the effectiveness of the ComBuS Toolkit in combating bullying in their school.

See the training toolkit here .

The ComBuS mobile application is a new innovative tool, which provides on the go support and guidance to parents, students, teachers on how to fight bullying in schools. It is available to download and free of charge. The ComBuS app is compatible with all mobile web platforms.

Download the app here.