Every NSW public school will give teachers strategies to identify cyberbullying and publish them, along with a clear list of school rules, for parents to see from term one of 2025 as part of recent changes to the department’s behaviour policy.
It will be mandatory for schools to outline strategies for teachers to identify, prevent and respond to bullying and cyberbullying – including outside the classroom – as well as other student “behaviours of concern”.
Schools must list a range of preventative behaviour strategies as well as rules.Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto
The changes come as the federal government revealed plans to enforce a social media ban for children and teenagers which could go some way to stamping out cyberbullying. Earlier this month, a 12-year-old girl at an inner west private school died by suicide after her parents said she was bullied.
The Department of Education says schools are responsible for cyberbullying which occurs between students and each school’s behaviour plan should include “effective strategies to identify, prevent and respond to disruptive student behaviours, including bullying and cyberbullying”.
“The expectations and rules should be clear, positively stated, and easy for the whole school community to understand,” policy documents state.
It says teacher strategies for detecting cyberbullying may include monitoring pupils’ “written materials, performances or artworks”.
Principals have been told to list three rules for every school expectation and explain consequences such as a detention or a “reflection” period.
Each school’s behaviour plan will replace schools’ existing behaviour and anti-bullying policies and must adhere to the statewide behaviour policy introduced earlier this year which gave principals more autonomy to suspend students.
A federal Senate inquiry last year recommended children be given explicit lessons on behaviour in schools, but this has not been implemented by any state or territory.
However, NSW Secondary Deputy Principals Association president Trent Colley said there had been a renewed focus on how schools handle poor behaviour, and the new behaviour plan requirement was a chance for schools to adopt policies which work in their own communities.
“Schools are currently reviewing what is working and not working. I think it does need to evolve,” he said.
One part of that, Colley said, was deputy principals, who typically manage discipline in schools, now dealing with the fallout of cyberbullying which happened out of school hours. “On Monday mornings, I keep my calendar clear, to be as proactive as possible to support students if required.”
President of the NSW Secondary Principals’ Council Denise Lofts.
NSW Secondary Principals Council president Denise Lofts welcomed having a broadly consistent discipline policy which was clear to parents.
“It is not detailed, but it has a broad overarching view of discipline,” she said of the policy.
Lofts said cyberbullying had plateaued after the introduction of a mobile phone ban in NSW public schools. However, she said individual incidents had increased in severity, with students using deepfake technology to generate false images of classmates.
“When it happens it is often at a high level. It seems to have a much bigger impact. With all the deepfake stuff, the ramifications are bigger, it has more catastrophic effects,” she said.
Merrylands High School, in Sydney’s south-west, has already uploaded its behaviour plan ahead of the 2025 deadline.
Its plan lists over 70 school rules, such as being polite, and says students who prevent a teacher from teaching must complete a reflection worksheet which asks students what they did, their feelings at the time and what they could do differently in the future. Students who fail to improve are monitored by the deputy principal in every single lesson for a period of time.
Students at Merrylands High must answer questions about their behaviour and describe their feelings.Credit: Merrylands High School
The school’s plan also lists numerous preventative strategies to encourage good behaviour.
Australia’s classrooms are ranked as among the most disruptive in the world, with a third of all students saying they do not listen to the teacher in most lessons in international surveys.
Last year, 800 students in NSW public schools were suspended every week, most for aggressive behaviour.
A NSW Department of Education spokesperson said it was working hard to reduce the impact of social media and cyberbullying on young people.
“This includes the mobile phone ban in all public schools which was introduced in Term 4 2023 and delivering new syllabuses for teachers that explicitly address cyberbullying and online safety,” they said.
Support is available through Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800, Beyond Blue on 1300 224 636, Lifeline on 13 11 14, Sane on 1800 187 263, and Dolly’s Dream on 0488 881 033.
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