The Telegraph – Natasha Devon
” Last summer, I was invited to observe an assembly at one of the schools I visit in my capacity as founder of the Self-Esteem Team, a group that travels the UK delivering workshops on mental health and body image. Pupils had been working on a sketch as part of their drama lessons, which was to be presented for the first time to the rest of the school. A pupil dressed in a poorly fitting polyester suit announced that he was the headmaster, to raucous laughter. He then proceeded to read their school’s “anti bullying policy” as it appeared on their website, while his classmates mimed a child being tormented and beaten in the background. The laughter stopped. The performance had a profound effect on everyone who witnessed it and I was no exception. Over the next few months I made it my mission to measure the discrepancy between perceived and actual incidents of bullying in the three schools a week I visited.”(more)