When a child is bullied or excluded

Check what happens in queues, corridors, group selection, breaks and transitions, including when you turn away. Agree who watches the identified place and who covers their absence. A general instruction to “keep an eye out” is too vague.

Arrange groups and access to materials so participation does not depend on being chosen by classmates. Explain acceptable conduct to the whole class without naming a child's diagnosis. Hear witnesses separately and discreetly. Avoid a class vote on whose account is credible.

Tell the responsible lead what happened, what protection is in place and what needs checking next. Offer the child a discreet return to learning; an upset child should not automatically lose the lesson. NAS guidance for teachers highlights staff understanding and support during unstructured times.

Agree a way the child can ask for help without having to give a public explanation. Make sure the teacher recognises it too. Support communication without speaking over the child or making them repeat the account to every adult.

Notice who approaches or withdraws when you are present. Record the setting and others' actions as well as the child's response. Check whether your proximity helps or draws unwanted attention; agree a workable distance and a backup adult.

Do not become the only person who knows the plan. Pass on the necessary actions for breaks, cover staff and outings. If the plan repeatedly leaves the child unsafe, raise this with the school lead. Your job is not to train the child to tolerate mistreatment quietly.

Assign one lead with authority to act, a backup and a clear contact for the family. Put immediate protection in place while investigating. Specify who gathers each account, which places need supervision and when the child and family will next hear from you.

Examine staff conduct too: public humiliation, dismissed reports, repeated removal or a response that exposes the child to retaliation. Professional status does not settle whose account is credible. A complaint about an adult must not be resolved solely by that adult's reassurance. Correct harmful practice and explain the correction to those who must implement it.

Do not use forced reconciliation, a joint confrontation or an apology as proof that the problem is over. Where there is coercion or a power imbalance, treating this as a disagreement between equals can add pressure. StopBullying.gov's support guidance addresses continuing protection and responses to the children involved.

Set a prompt review point appropriate to the risk, with an earlier check if harm recurs. The practical plan below proposes what to record; it does not invent a statutory response deadline.

Keep a short record: date, place, what the child said, what you observed, impact and previous reports. Preserve the child's wording, including uncertainty. You do not need a complete investigation before asking for protection.

Write to the responsible school adult with a concrete request: “What will change before the next break, who will do it, and when will we check with my child?” Ask for a written account of agreed actions. Keep copies and a record of unanswered requests. The school must contribute its own observations and work; documentation is not a task to leave entirely to an exhausted family.

Ask the child whether the action helped and whether anything became worse after reporting. Avoid public accusations or circulating children's names and images in parent groups. Use the school or relevant service to handle contact with other families. Do not promise that speaking up will immediately make everything safe; show the child the next action and follow it through.

Ask about treatment by peers and adults when distress, attendance, sleep or participation changes. Do not automatically attribute everything to the existing diagnosis, parenting or a need for more behaviour training. Consider health and other possible contributors alongside the social environment. NICE CG170, recommendations 1.4.1 and 1.4.3 list exploitation or abuse by others among the factors to assess and call for those factors to be reassessed when behaviour becomes challenging.

Explain what support is needed in the actual setting and which observations would change your interpretation. If previous advice overlooked harm, correct it explicitly. Therapy for the child cannot substitute for stopping mistreatment. Medication should not become the default answer to an unsafe environment; prescribing decisions require individual clinical review.

With appropriate agreement, share the minimum useful recommendations with the school, then check whether they were implemented and helped. Address persistent distress or loss of functioning within your remit, and coordinate further care where needed.

Check the places a classroom plan does not cover: changing rooms, team selection, equipment queues, the bus and online team chats. Agree a reporting signal and an adult who can act in that setting. A child should not have to choose between attending and enduring humiliation.

Do not leave protection to a teammate or send the child away simply because supporting participation is inconvenient. Explain the available adjustment and any genuine safety constraint. Record incidents and pass the necessary information to the responsible lead and family. After an absence or staff change, check that the arrangement still works.

Words adults can discuss with children: “You do not have to confront someone or put yourself in danger. Get an adult. Tell them what you saw, including what happened before the reaction. Do not join in, film or forward humiliating messages. You can ask the child privately whether they would like company.”

An invitation should leave room for “no”. A friend is not a guard, therapist or permanent helper. Adults must also protect children who report what they saw. Guidance for bystanders explains how peers can help; responsibility for protection stays with adults.

Hear the specific account without immediately dismissing it as banter or defending your child's character. Ask what happened before and after, who was affected and what needs to stop. Discuss a concrete alternative and cooperate with the adults putting it into practice.

Your child's own needs deserve support. They do not make another child responsible for tolerating harm. Avoid a permanent “bully” identity, public shaming or a forced friendship. Any later repair must be safe and must not require the affected child to forgive, meet or reassure the other child. Use the guide to repeated boundary crossing and harm for the detailed plan.

Not every declined invitation or disagreement is bullying. Children may choose their friends, keep personal boundaries or want time alone. Ask whether the child has a real choice, whether there is an organised pattern of rejection, and whether shared school activities are accessible.

Adult arrangements can exclude too: routinely sending a child home, leaving them out of trips, keeping them apart at breaks or requiring a parent to attend because support was not arranged. Examine the particular reason, the adjustments considered, who can authorise them and what participation has been lost. Safety concerns need a specific plan and review, not an indefinite exclusion justified by a diagnosis.

A chosen quiet break can be helpful. Being assigned permanent solitude is different. Ask the child what participation they want, remove practical barriers and check the result. These are proposed standards for reviewing practice; an individual legal dispute needs the applicable Greek rules and facts.

If images or videos may show a child nude or in sexual activity, do not download, screenshot, record or forward them. Contact the police; in Greece, the Cybercrime Division can be reached on 11188. Ask how to handle material already received, and note the account, link and time without making copies of the image. UK police guidance on sexual images supports this handling precaution; its legal provisions are not Greek law.

For other evidence, preserve relevant messages, threats, dates, account names and links without repeatedly exposing the child to them. A written disclosure or threatening message is not the same as a sexual image: do not discard it because it describes abuse. Report through the platform and use blocking or muting where helpful. Do not forward humiliating material to a parent group.

Connect online events with what happens at school or in the activity. Avoid making loss of all online contact the automatic price of telling an adult; agree a safer arrangement that preserves supportive connections where possible. US cyberbullying reporting guidance covers evidence and platform reporting; its US legal provisions do not establish Greek law.

Use a short shared record. The school or organisation completes its own actions; the family is not the case manager for every adult.

• What is known: child's words, observed facts, reported events, disputed points and missing information kept distinct.
• Before the next likely encounter: the protective change, location, named adult and backup; how the child asks for help.
• Participation: lessons, breaks, activities and friendships the plan must preserve or restore, with the child's preferences.
• Investigation and communication: who does each task, what information is shared, with whom and by when.
• Review: an agreed date and earlier triggers, including another incident, retaliation or a failed adjustment; who receives an unresolved concern.

At review, ask: did the harmful behaviour stop, does the child feel safer, can they participate, and are adults doing what was agreed? Silence, absence from school or a signed plan is not evidence of success. Keep checking through staff changes and new settings. Support for recovery may need to continue after the incidents stop.

Tell the school what protection is needed now and ask who is responsible. The official Greek reporting service accepts named reports from parents or people with custody of minor pupils. Secondary pupils can report using their Panhellenic School Network (ΠΣΔ) credentials; primary pupils cannot submit directly. The school sees the reporter's identity and contact details. The FAQ states that records may be retained for up to 25 years. Read the privacy information before submitting.

Reports reach the school and the education directorate's four-member action team. The FAQ describes intervention by that team for serious cases, delay, documented inability of the school to resolve the case, or direct involvement of a teacher or their relative. A further report can refer to the earlier report number if the first was not adequately examined.

Ask the head who handles reports at your school. Keep the report number, request specific protective actions and agree when you will receive an update. Submission alone does not make the child safe. If action stalls or staff are involved, state that in writing to the directorate team. Do not wait for an online process when protection is urgent.

For other settings or concerns, use the Greek protection and support routes. The school platform is not a universal reporting route for clubs or online incidents. Service information checked 26 October 2026; this page does not promise a response deadline or outcome.

Guide 03 · Evidence and limits. This is an editorial synthesis of practical questions, actions and sample words, informed by the linked guidance. It is not a validated intervention or an individual clinical or legal assessment. Autism-specific sources contribute relevant questions; they do not define every neurodivergent child's experience.

The US guidance on disability and bullying supports attending to communication, individual needs and the environment; its education-law mechanisms are US-specific. UK NAS guidance supplies recognition and school-support considerations. NICE supplies clinical reassessment principles. The Greek government sources above supply the reporting route. None guarantees that a particular service will act effectively.

Continue with responsibilities by role, classroom overwhelm and return, harm and boundaries and stigma and purposeful disclosure.