An initiative in which pupils in all New Zealand schools would be placed under cover to help end playground bullying has been met with reservations by some Otago schools.
Undercover Team Approach is one of many initiatives being investigated by the Ministry of Education as a way to tackle verbal, physical, emotional and technological bullying in New Zealand schools.
The initiative has been developed by Edgewater College counsellor Mike Williams in Auckland and has been used by a small number of schools with great success.
It involves the victims of bullying giving an impact statement about the effects of bullying on their lives.
The victims then select two pupils who have been bullying them, and two pupils who are neither victims nor bullies, and together they work to ease the suffering of the victim.
Mr Williams said only the teacher and the victim knew which of the team members were the bullies, so it allowed the bullies to "save face" and contribute to changing the relationships within their classroom.
"It creates a feeling of empathy for the victim," he said.
Special Education deputy secretary Nicholas Pole said during the past 20 years, there had been an increase in awareness of the prevalence and harm bullying caused.
Many countries had developed, implemented, and evaluated a variety of anti-bullying programmes.
The Ministry of Education viewed bullying as a serious issue in New Zealand schools, and prevention and intervention must involve a co-ordinated system of services, directed at individual, family, school and community levels, he said.
"The Ministry recently launched the Positive Behaviour for Learning Action Plan.
"This plan provides evidence-based prevention and intervention services aimed to reduce bullying and other disruptive behaviours in schools.
"As one of its key services, the plan includes the development of a New Zealand school bullying survey to identify and respond to the issues of bullying.
"The New Zealand Police have agreed to be partners with the ministry in delivering this part of the plan, with the Office of the Children's Commissioner acting in an advisory role."
During the next five years, several programmes that have been proven to work in reducing disruptive behaviour and bullying would be introduced across all of New Zealand's 2370 schools, he said.
Education Minister Anne Tolley said $45 million of redirected funding was being invested in the Positive Behaviour for Learning Action Plan.
However, Otago Secondary Principals Association chairman Kevin McSweeney and immediate past chairman Philip Craigie had reservations about having undercover pupils in schools.
"Not every way is tailormade for every school or situation," Mr Craigie said.
"Undercover work could be useful.
"But I wonder - if someone found out who the children involved are, could it put them in danger?" Despite the concerns, both welcomed the idea of having a variety of solutions for bullying.
"Sharing best practice is a great idea," Mr McSweeney said.
Mr Craigie said pupils were very resourceful and learned how to work the system.
Changing the system now and then was a good idea, he said.
"Bullying will always be in schools. Addressing it is a work in progress.
"There's no two ways about it. We've got to look at different ways of tackling it," he said.
