Our primary school is a regional school which lies near the coast and is surrounded by the wheat belt. The town has a population of over 30 000 involved in farming, mining, cray fishing and running a busy port. We have just under 400 students.

Where It Began... In 2004 staff and parents identified that students who were bullied didn't have effective strategies to deal with the bullying and teachers didn't have specific resources to use in addressing the issue. Those who were being bullied stayed silent and parents and teachers only got to hear about it when the bullying had escalated to a serious incident.

Getting Started... We formed an anti-bullying parent/teacher group and surveyed the students about the types of bullying that occurred. To address the feedback we decided to use a program called Friendly Schools and Families which was designed by Edith Cowan University. This program was developed by evidence based research into the most effective way of dealing with bullying. It involves a whole school approach covering areas such as Policy Development, Classroom Practice, School Ethos, Student Management, Family Links and School's Environment.

How We Went About It...
- We developed a parent/teacher Friendly School and Families Committee to address the above areas.
- We meet regularly each term and plan further development. Class teachers now have a resource that they can use in the class to teach the students effective strategies and actions to deal with bullying.
- Teachers were given PD in Shared Concern Method and Restorative Justice.
- A lunch time program was set up by employing parents to run structured activities for the students as it was at lunch time that many students were bullied.
- We developed a slogan of TBBT Tackle Bullying By Talking as this is the key message in many programs on dealing effectively with bullying.
- We published an information pamphlet for parents and students to assist them and had a special assembly to launch

What We Are Learning... The main indicator of success has been an increase of reporting by students and parents of bullying. By using the Shared Concern Method we have been able to get away from the traditional response to bullying which was about blame and punishment.

What's Next... We will be continuing to work on the six areas of Friendly Schools and Families. We will keep a major focus on TBBT. We will keep up skilling teachers. We will conduct regular reviews to identify new areas to work on.