The Effects of Bullying on Academic Achievement: How School Staff Can Help Students Succeed

Bullying of students can have a significant impact on their academic achievement. Victims often experience lower grades, and can skip classes or drop out of school to avoid their bullies. Addressing in-school bullying is crucial to ensure that all students can succeed and reach their full potential. In this article, we'll explore the effects of bullying on academic achievement and provide tips for how to help students succeed despite the challenges.

The Effects of Bullying on Academic Achievement:

1. Lower Grades: Victims of bullying may experience lower grades due to stress leading to the inability to concentrate, and in-class distraction caused by bullies.

2. Absenteeism: Victims of bullying may miss school due to fear of their bullies. Sometimes students will fake illness so their parents keep them home. These avoidance behaviours lead to a loss of valuable learning time.

3. Drop-Out Rates: The effects of bullying can be so severe that victims may drop out of school entirely, limiting their future opportunities and success.

Tips for Helping Students Succeed:

1. Ensure your school has a bullying policy, that staff are familiar with it, and it is implemented effectively. If your school doesn’t have a policy, BullyingCanada has a sample policy you can use.

2. Increase Awareness: Train teachers on how to recognise and address bullying behaviour.

3. Address the Issue: Remind students to bring bullying instances to the attention of school staff. Ensure your school documents these instances to look for patterns and best practices in dealing with bullies.

4. Provide Counselling: Encourage awareness of bullying and create a safe and respectful learning environment by providing resources and support for victims.

Ensure students are made aware that guidance counsellors can provide support bullying victims and help them cope with any emotional and academic impacts.

5. Actions have consequences: If school bullies are never stopped or disciplined, many will go on to become adults who bully or abuse others. Encourage students to report bullying, and who they are being bullied by. Ensure bullies are appropriately disciplined, while also being counselled, since bullies can have difficult underlying causes for their behaviours.

6. Encourage Peer Support: Encourage students to support each other, while modelling for them positive social norms, such as kindness, inclusivity and supporting friends.

7. Focus on Resilience: Focus on building resilience in students, teaching them coping skills and strategies for managing stress and anxiety.

8. BullyingCanada can help: BullyingCanada is available 24/7 to provide wrap-around care for bullied youth. They work one-on-one with bullying victim, their parents, school staff and other local supports for as long as it takes to bring an end to the bullying and help them heal. If you sense a student is being bullied and they are unwilling to open up to any school staff, please ask them to contact BullyingCanada.

Remember, a student’s education is essential to their enjoying a successful future, and we must do all we can to ensure that every student can take full advantage of this valuable opportunity so they can succeed now and in the future.

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