Spotlight: Bullying in Australian schools

Bullying occurs in many forms, including overt physical aggression, covert teasing, harassment online or in the classroom. It has lasting effects for victims, bullies, peer groups, families and school communities. It is an issue facing each and every school in Australia. In fact, a largescale survey conducted in 2009 found that one in four Australian year four to nine school children had been bullied (Cross et al., 2009). It has also been estimated that approximately one in five Australian young people had been cyberbullied in a twelve month period (Katz et al., 2014).