The Minister for Education and Skills, Jan O’Sullivan T.D., today announced that additional funding of €55,000 is being provided to support the delivery of anti-bullying training sessions for parents in 2014. This is on top of the €60,000 announced earlier this year and brings the 2014 allocation to a total of €115,000.
The Anti-Bullying Parent Training Programme is being run jointly by the National Parents Council Primary (NPC-P) and the National Parents Council Post Primary (NPC-PP) to support the implementation of the Action Plan on Bullying which called for training and resources for parents and boards of management.
In 2013, funding of €60,000 supported the delivery of 105 anti-bullying parent training sessions to 3,279 parents nationwide. It is expected that the funding in 2014 will allow more than 200 sessions to be organised throughout the country.
Feedback from the sessions organised to date has been very positive. Parents who attended the training sessions said that they felt that the training had given them more confidence in supporting their child with a bullying issue and in engaging with their school if a bullying incident arose.
The Parents Councils have also developed an information leaflet for parents who attend the sessions and these can be downloaded from their websites.
Minister O’Sullivan commented, “I recognise the very high level of demand among parents for this type of training. Parents need the tools and know-how to support their children in preventing bullying from happening and in dealing with it when it does arise – in particular, I have already been contacted by many parents who are seeking more support in helping their children to combat cyberbullying. Therefore, I am very pleased to make this additional funding available to ensure that a greater number of parents can avail of these courses.”
She also thanked the NPC-P and the NPC-PP for their work in delivering the sessions and noted the very positive feedback from participants.
The Minister encouraged all parents to avail of the training saying that, “Everyone in the wider community has an important role to play in tackling all forms of bullying and in teaching children how to manage relationships, be resilient and have empathy for others. Bullying is not a problem schools can or should be left to tackle alone."
CEO of NPC-primary, Áine Lynch, welcomed today’s announcement and recognised the commitment of the Minister to providing supports to parents to assist them in the vital role that they have with their children in tackling bullying.
She said, “These sessions continue to be popular with parents and schools and there is always a very good attendance. It is important that parents are supported to work with their child and the school in managing bullying situations and the funding announced today ensures that all parents of children at primary and post primary schools in Ireland will have an opportunity to attend a session and will help them to play their part in keeping their school a happier place for their child.”
Don Myers, President of the NPC-PP commented “National Parents' Council Post Primary welcomes this extra funding towards the Anti-Bullying Training Programme. This is both an endorsement and commitment by the Minister for Education and Skills to help parents deal with such a serious issue in modern society."