As we approach the end of 2024, we hope you’re able to enjoy a well-earned break over the festive season after a busy and eventful year. We are profoundly grateful to everyone who has worked tirelessly to improve the lives of children and young people by standing up against bullying. Looking back at our recent team discussions, it’s incredible to think how far we’ve come since January, which now feels like a distant memory.
This year has brought its share of challenges and rewards, reflecting the complexity of the world we navigate together. We have a new government and opportunities for change we hope to come to fruition in 2025 and while bullying levels remain high in the UK, we truly feel that progress is being made – deepening our understanding of bullying, refining what works to prevent it, and strengthening how we respond when it occurs. These strides are a testament to the passion and dedication of our brilliant members and the wider children’s workforce, all united in the mission to end bullying.
Thank you for your unwavering commitment. Wishing you a peaceful festive period and a bright and hopeful start to the new year.
According to our Zoom team Christmas quiz, there are 12 days of Christmas that start on Christmas day. We’ve come up with 12 things that we are proud of achieving as a team in 2024, our Twelve ‘Yays’ of Christmas:
1. We have provided CPD training to over 40k school and wider children’s sector staff. Be it online or face-to-face, we will continue to provide training in 2025 for as long as we are able. All our online training is still available and you receive a certificate of completion for all courses you undertake and you can find all our live training courses most of which are free to take part in listed here. Don’t miss out on this opportunity and take part today.
Here's our Young ABA group talking about why it is so important to give school staff training:
2. We are proud to have completed the third and final year of our United Against Bullying (UAB) Programme. UAB was our anti-bullying support programme, which was funded by the Department for Education for schools in England until March 2024. We are pleased to celebrate the successes of the programme, including: 746 schools achieving a United Against Bullying award, 1,560 school and children’s workforce participants trained in live training sessions, and that 98% of schools surveyed would recommend the programme to other schools. Find out more about the programme and its outcomes here.
You can watch the United Against Bullying Celebration video below:
3. Anti-Bullying Week 2024: Choose Respect was a huge success reaching thousands of schools and millions of children across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. We gave out free school packs, films and social media toolkits all developed with young people. During the week we released our research with Goldsmiths, University of London, which showed that more than 1 in five school children are frequently bullied. We also worked again with the BBC on their BBC Teach Live lesson for Anti-Bullying Week. A massive thank you to everyone who made Anti-Bullying Week so special this year!
4. 6 people across England, Wales and Northern Ireland received our School Staff Award in 2024. We received 100s of nominations across the UK, with pupils nominating teachers and school staff that went above and beyond the call of duty to prevent and respond to bullying and to raise awareness of bullying in school. We are delighted to have been supported by Radnor FAM to bring the award to the UK again, as well as for the support of BulliesOut in Wales. All those nominated received a certificate, whilst the winners got their hands on some lovely prizes from Radnor FAM and trophies. You can read more about the winners here.
5. Millions of children and adults (and pets) joined in with Odd Socks Day, which forms part of Anti-Bullying Week and is delivered in partnership with our patron Andy Day and his band Andy and the Odd Socks. This year we held the day on a Tuesday, to avoid clashing with Armistice Day. We worked with Andy to bring you free school resources about the importance of reaching out for help about bullying, a video and song, and an Odd Socks competition on social media for schools to win a visit from Andy and the Odd Socks! We also ran our ‘Pets In Odd Socks’ competition again this year, and the ABA staff loved seeing the adorable pictures that were shared as a result! You can see many of the submissions in a video on Instagram here. All our Odd Socks Day resources are still on our website for you to use. You can find Welsh versions of these resources here.
6. We are delighted to have two new patrons for the Anti-Bullying Alliance, who have join the ranks of our long-standing patron Andy Day! A massive thank you to Manchester City and Portugal national team defender Rúben Dias, and Bastille drummer Woody, for their patronship!
7. We were pleased to launch several new free online resources this year, all of which were written with input from young people. They include out Banter & Bullying training and toolkit, as well as guidance for handling conversations and preventing racist bullying in schools and myth-busting videos to dispel common bullying untruths.
8. We have united against bullying! We have been delighted with how many new members we have this year. Our membership is the life blood of our work and integral to achieving our aims. This year we have held 4 member meetings and 7 #Take20Talks, where we hear a 20-minute presentation from a member about their anti-bullying work. We couldn’t achieve what we do without the support of our amazing members. They all have their own resources and anti-bullying tools available as well. Have a look at our members here and you can find out more about signing up to become a member here.
9. We're so pleased to say that we had a new intake of our Young ABA group of young people from across England and for the first year Northern Ireland. This group of over 50 teenagers, have supported us on our programme work and Anti-Bullying Week. We've provided them with training throughout the year and they've inputted into our work to ensure that young people voice is at the centre of the work we do. We thank them for their time and look forward to establishing a new group in January!
10. The launch of Belonging Matters: We’re proud to have launched with the National Children’s Bureau (NCB) this new and innovative, first of its kind evidence-based 18-month programme designed to develop and enhance pupils' sense of belonging within school. Academic achievement, good mental health and wellbeing are significantly influenced by pupils' sense of belonging and this trailblazing programme this year has started to provide schools with the support needed to embed a whole-school approach to enhancing pupil belonging.
11. 100s of people added their names in June to our open letter to the future Prime Minister. A massive thank you to everyone who joined us in calling on the future Prime Minister to act decisively to establish the structures, mechanisms, and legislative framework necessary for real and lasting change to reduce childhood bullying.
12. The first year of the United Against Bullying Plus (UAB+) Programme: UAB+ is a two-year free anti-bullying program for secondary schools, targeting Year 8 to 9 pupils. In collaboration with Kidscape and funded by the Education Endowment Foundation and Youth Endowment Fund, it will run until 2025. Participating schools this year have received a 360° audit tool, action plan, online questionnaire, and support from anti-bullying experts. The Anna Freud Centre has been leading a pilot evaluation spanning two academic years, with results published in November 2025.
So that’s our Twelve ‘Yays’ of Christmas. We would love to hear yours too. Please tag us using #12YaysOfXmas. We have lots of plans for 2025 and we aim to keep providing you with anti-bullying resources from ABA and our members. We all hope you have a restful, safe and happy Christmas break and we can’t wait to work with you all in the new year.
