Anti-Bullying Week can be organised entirely within your school. You may already have experienced staff, active pupils, strong peer support and ideas that work well in your setting. Or you may decide that some outside help would add something useful. This page offers both routes.
Before planning something new, look at what is already happening.
What do pupils think is working? What concerns are they raising? How confident are they about reporting bullying? Do staff understand what happens when a concern is raised? Does your anti-bullying or behaviour policy reflect what actually happens in practice? What would you like Anti-Bullying Week to strengthen or change?
The aim does not have to be to create the busiest possible week. It is to make the week useful.
Work with young people
Young people should have opportunities to help shape anti-bullying work. They may see behaviour, language, relationships and online spaces that adults do not. Ask them what needs attention. Ask what they think adults miss. Ask what would make Anti-Bullying Week meaningful to them.
Young people can contribute to planning, activities, films, performances, campaigns, peer support, policy discussions and evaluation. Their participation should be genuine rather than decorative. At the same time, responsibility for safeguarding and responding appropriately remains with adults and the organisation.
You do not need an external provider to run a successful Anti-Bullying Week. Our Free ABW Resources for 2026 will include lesson plans, activity sheets, posters, an assembly outline and follow up material that schools can use and adapt.
You can also explore the nine activities developed around Break the Silence. The important thing is to make them relevant to your pupils and your setting.
Bringing someone in
Sometimes an outside practitioner, theatre company, trainer or workshop provider can bring a different voice, additional skills or extra capacity.
Outside provision might include:
workshopsperformancescreative activitiesstaff trainingpeer support developmentpolicy workfilm or theatre projectslonger term anti-bullying programmes
An outside event can be useful. But it works best when it connects with what the school is doing before and afterwards.
If you are considering outside provision, see our independent guide:
It includes questions you may want to ask, possible benefits and limitations, and things worth checking before you book.
Workshops and creative work
Schools use anti bullying workshops for different reasons: to start conversations, involve large numbers of young people, explore difficult issues creatively, strengthen existing work or bring a different voice into the school.
Creative approaches can provide ways of exploring bullying that are very different from an ordinary lesson or assembly. Drama can allow people to test choices. Film can offer distance from personal experiences. Role work can explore different perspectives. Art, music, movement and play can give people ways of contributing without relying only on discussion.
The aim is not simply to entertain pupils for an hour. A useful workshop should give them something to think about, talk about or use afterwards.
Peer support
Peer approaches can be powerful because young people often know what is happening among their peers before adults do. But peer supporters should not be expected to investigate serious situations, carry safeguarding responsibility or solve bullying themselves.
They need preparation, boundaries, support and adults they can refer concerns to. Good peer work strengthens adult responsibility rather than replacing it.
Refresh an existing scheme or establish a new one.
Staff training
Anti-bullying work is not only about pupils.
Staff may need opportunities to explore:
what the school means by bullyinghow different definitions affect responseswhat young people may be reluctant to reporthow to listen when somebody speakshow to recognise patterns that may not be obviouswhat happens after a concern is raisedhow policy translates into practice
A shared understanding across staff can make responses more consistent.
Film-making
Student-led film-making or commissioned professional film.
Anti-Bullying Week can be a useful time to take your anti-bullying or behaviour policy off the shelf and look at it again.
Does the definition of bullying still reflect your school? Would pupils recognise the language? Does it reflect online and contemporary forms of behaviour? Are reporting routes clear? Do pupils know what happens after they report something? Do staff? Does the policy explain how incidents are followed up?
A policy is most useful when it is understood and used. Its definition of bullying may also need to evolve over time as language, technology, relationships and research change. Young people can have a useful role in reviewing it.
Whatever you decide to do, think beyond the event itself.
Before
How will pupils be prepared? What do staff need to know? What happens if somebody discloses bullying? How will the work connect with your policy?
During
What are pupils noticing and saying? Are unexpected issues emerging? Are support routes visible? Who is listening?
After
What needs following up? What should change? What worked? What did pupils think? What should continue?
And perhaps the most useful question:
How will you use Anti-Bullying Week to help deal with bullying throughout the year?
What kind of support do you need?
You may need none. You may need one workshop. You may want staff training. You may want support reviewing policy. You may want to develop peer work. Or you may want a longer creative project shaped with your young people.
Start with what you are trying to achieve. Then decide what help, if any, would make that possible.
Want to know more about Actionwork first?
An independent University of Plymouth evaluation of Actionwork's work with schools, carried out in 2015, involved 22 primary and secondary schools, interviews with young people and staff, and observation of 10 workshops.
All 22 participating schools were positive about their experience of working with Actionwork and said they would recommend the organisation highly to other schools.
The evaluation also highlighted the value of participation, creativity, inclusion and follow up, while noting that longer term impact needed further investigation.
You do not need to know exactly what programme you want.
Tell us a little about your setting, what you would like to explore and roughly when you are thinking of doing it. We can talk through the options, suggest what might work and let you know what is realistic.
No fixed package. No obligation. Just a conversation about what might be useful.
Established programmes can be adapted, or something can be designed specifically for your setting.
I know what I wantI have an issue I want to exploreI’m not sure yet
