This is a powerpoint presentation showing the results of the focus group we had carried out with students at Manshead School.

1. Anti-bullying Focus group
Laura Fanning

2. How would you define bullying?
When carrying out the focus group some of the students gave us very
relevant and helpful answers which will help us with the rest of our research.
When asking how the students would define bullying some of the students
came up with similar types of answers.
They said that bullying is when ‘Someone is being repeatedly mean to
another person’. They then went on to say that this could be because of a
number of reasons such as their race, sexuality etc. They also commented
that bullying doesn’t just happen in public, it also happens online which is
called ‘Cyber Bullying’. This form of bullying can be just as harmful as bullying
a person face-to-face. It can cause many children harm and has been know
that children have committed suicide from being cyber bullied.

3. Have you ever been bullied or know
of anyone that has?
Although we didn’t get any answers for this question
we believe that it was because we were asking a group
of people, who may not have wanted to share their
experiences with bullying. Therefore we want to go
back to this question and ask somebody in a one-toone situation so that they may feel more confident
when telling us their stories or experiences with
bullying.

4. What are the reasons that you believe
most people get bullied for?
When asking the focus group this question they had come up
with many relevant and good answers which we have also come
across in the other research we have carried out.
The students said that they believe most people get bullied
because of their ‘Race, sexuality, fashion (the way that they
dress), financial situation, social group and intelligence’.
These answers given were similar answers to which we had
received from the questionnaire we had carried out, and
therefore we know that these are the reasons that most
students around the school believe that people get bullied.

5. Where would you go if you were being bullied
both at school and outside of school?
When asking this question some of the students again came up with
some very good and relevant answers, although some of the students
were still being very passive.
The students said that they would go to the police, family
(Mum, Dad), Childline and friends. These are the people the students
agreed that they would go to outside of school.
When inside school they all agreed that they would go to the
hub, where the teachers in there would be able to deal with any
problems they are having. Also they said that they would tell their
friends at school about any problems they are having. There is also a
school email set up called ‘Beatbullying@manshead’. Here you can
report any problems yourself or anyone else is having with in relation
to bullying. The students in the focus group said that they would also
use this email address which is set up to try and prevent bullying from
happening around the school.

6. Do you think bullying affects self
image?
The students said that they believe bullying affects a
persons self image. They all agreed that it affects a
persons ‘confidence, and puts you down as you begin to
believe all of the nasty things that have been said to you’.
The feedback that we have got from this question was
very reliable and relevant as we wanted to include self
image in our advertising campaign, and show how
bullying affects a persons self image. From the
information we have gathered today on self image we
now know that people believe that self image is affected
in many ways by bullying, and would therefore be
relevant to include in our campaign.

7. Have you ever heard of the beat bullying
organisation?
All of the students in the focus group had never heard of the
beatbullying organisation. This then shows us that by making this
advertising campaign it will bring awareness to the charity, and bring
the charity to the attention of young people in schools. As none of the
students had heard about the charity they had never used or seen
their beatbullying website before, which allows young people to go
online and talk to ‘CyberMentors’ about any problems or issues they
are currently having in relation to bullying.
The students said that the organisation should do more to bring
themselves to the publics attention. This could be things such as put
advertisements on social networking sites, explaining what the
organisation does, also by putting up posters around the school to
show the students that they have someone to speak to if they don’t
want to speak to somebody they know about the problems they are
going through.
By creating our anti-bullying campaign based around the Beatbullying
organisation we will be bring them to the publics attention, and will
also let young people know where they can go for help and advice.

8. Would you use the Beatbullying website?
As none of the students had heard about the organisation
they didn’t know what they do, and also about the website
that they are running.
One student said that she wouldn’t use the Beatbullying
website because she would want to confined in somebody she
trusts. Although the other students agreed that they would
use the website if they were being bullied.
When creating our campaign we want to show young people
that the ‘Beatbullying’ organisation are a reliable organisation
who just want to help people who are having a hard time, or
want to talk to somebody about their problems. We also want
to show the public that the organisation does work and help
children around the country, as they have cut down on
bullying by 39% since they were founded.

9. Have you seen any anti-bullying adverts?
When asking the students this question none of them have
ever seen any anti-bullying adverts. As a group this shows us
that by creating this campaign it will show young people what
bullying actually is, and also that it is a very serious issue with
young children.
The focus group said that they should show more anti-bullying
adverts so that people know what to do when being bullied.
This is very important as some children feel as though they
have no one to turn to, and in a very serious case some
children turn to self harming, and even suicide. By creating
our anti-bullying campaign it will show all young children what
bullying is, and that there are people out there willing to talk
to you and help you through any problems you are going
through.

10. What would you like to see included in an antibullying advert?
The students came up with loads of ideas in relation to what they would want
to see in a anti-bullying advert.
They said that they would want to see a ‘demonstration of what bullying is’.
This is because they don’t believe that bullying has been defined as anything
and therefore some people don’t realise that they are being bullied, or the
bully doesn’t realise that they are bullying another child. They would also
want to see ‘where to go when you need help’, which again is another
problem as some children don’t know where to turn to for help, or just to talk
to somebody about the problems they are going through. The focus group
said that they should show an advert in the cinema, on television and on
social networking sites such as Facebook or Twitter. This is because by
showing it on all of these different things it will show a wider audience, and
also bring bullying to the publics attention.
When creating our anti-bullying campaign we will need to take all of these
things into consideration. We will need to make sure that we define what
bullying is, and talk about the organisation and say what they do and that
they are there to listen to any problems or issues that young children are
going through.

11. Conclusion
From the primary research that we have carried out in this focus group we were able
to find out a range of information needed to create our anti-bullying advertising
campaign. This focus group was made up of teenagers both male and female, which
are our target group and therefore their feedback was important in our research.
We firstly we able to find out how they would define bullying and they came up with
a range of answers. Therefore we know that when creating our advertising campaign
that we will have to define bullying so that people will know what it actually is. Also
when asking them if they have heard of the Beatbullying organisation none of them
had. This shows us that when creating our anti-bullying advertising campaign we will
need to bring the organisation to the publics attention. We could do this by including
information on the organisation, and also stating what they do and how their website
works. We would then go on to share the advertising campaign on social networking
sites, and also on Youtube where teenagers are most likely to view it.
When asking the students what they would like to see included in an anti-bullying
advert they said that they would like to see included where they could go when they
need help. Therefore we will be including websites, and places where they are able to
go when being bullied, or when they just need somebody to talk to.