Experts suggest literacy could help kids can build resilience to bullying

Bullying – online and face-to-face – affects too many of Australia’s kids but one key ingredient to better outcomes is often overlooked: childhood literacy.

According to the 2025 survey The Forces Shaping: Australia’s Primary and Secondary Education System, three in five students have experienced bullying at school.

With 60 per cent of children affected, it’s little wonder bullying is a key concern for mums and dads.

Bullying and its sometimes serious consequences can harm children’s physical and mental health and 59 per cent of parents want more government attention on student wellbeing. But foundation literacy skills may operate as a defensive layer, boosting resilience* and mental health.

With over 70,000 students already registered in the Prime Minister’s Spelling Bee nationwide, experts suggest basic skills like reading, writing and spelling may also help kids beat the bullies.

Early literacy helped award-winning Australian author Kathryn Heyman withstand schoolyard bullies when she was a child.

“Books were clearly a way into something magical; that felt very exciting and safe and comforting – things that weren’t necessarily in my environment,” Heyman said. “I knew from a very young age that I needed whatever the keys were to get me into that world.”

What Heyman couldn’t know as a child was that her flourishing vocabulary would unlock the door to her future.

RMIT Associate Professor Christine Grove’s research focuses on child mental health literacy. She believes literacy gives kids the language to discuss their experiences.

“Reading and storytelling give children language for emotions, words to understand and explain what’s happening to them and teaches them to know what to do with those emotions,” Dr Grove said.

That resilience toolbox was certainly the outcome for Heyman.

“Once you can put words to your experience, then you are in charge of it,” Heyman said. “There was the sense that I could be the driver when nothing else in my world was telling me that. The messages of my world were, ‘You are powerless, you are not in control, you are not important.’

“Being able to write and record what you see … can change the shape of your life.”

Learning to read in kindergarten was “a gateway” Heyman said.

“(From) giving shape to the world, to being able to tell your parents off, to power; that’s where the magic is,” Heyman said.

With registrations and the school round open until February 21, Kids News’ 6th PM’s Spelling Bee is a free, fun classroom activity that aims to spark that magic in young learners as an early introduction to a wide vocabulary that can have a lasting impact on mental health throughout life.

Part of Australian Catholic University Professor Genevieve McArthur’s research is focused on reading-related wellbeing.

Prof McArthur said when children learn to think of themselves as readers at any level, positive self-image can build and be improved over time by classroom culture “if you normalise* that diversity*.”

Registrations and the school round of the Prime Minister’s Spelling Bee remain open until 5pm AEST on Friday 21 August. Visit spelling-bee.com.au, kidsnews.com.au

POLL

GLOSSARY

• resilience: the ability to be happy and thrive again after something difficult or bad has happened
• normalise: to return to the normal or usual situation, or to make something do this
• diversity: to become varied or different, or to make something varied or different

EXTRA READING

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Bee breaks opening week records

PM builds bridge to Spelling Bee

QUICK QUIZ

1. What percentage of children are affected by bullies, according to the Growth Distillery survey?
2. What percentage of surveyed parents want more government attention on student wellbeing?
3. What felt very exciting, safe and comforting to Australian author Kathryn Heyman when she was a child?
4. How many students are already registered in the Prime Minister’s Spelling Bee?
5. What can happen when children learn to think of themselves as readers at any level?

LISTEN TO THIS STORY

CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
1. Reflecting on a problem
There are numerous quotes and data points about bullying in this story. Choose one quote or survey finding that feels the most true or important to you. Write it down, then add a paragraph to expand, explaining in detail how your chosen quote or insight connects with your own thinking and/or experience.

Time: allow 20 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English

VCOP ACTIVITY
Read with Kung Fu punctuation
Pair up with the article between you and stand up to make it easy to demonstrate your Kung Fu punctuation.

Practise reading one sentence at a time. Now read it again, while acting out the punctuation as you read.

Read and act three sentences before swapping with your partner.

Take two turns each.

Now ask your partner to read a sentence out loud while you try and act out the punctuation. Can you keep up? Swap over?

Try acting out two sentences – are you laughing yet?

• Registration and the school round are now open in the Prime Minister’s Spelling Bee, a free digital competition for Australian students in Year 3-8.
• Supervised by teachers, students compete at their school in three levels: Green level for Year 3-4, Orange level for Year 5-6 and Red level for Year 7-8.
• They get 30 randomly selected words from their competition level and have 25 seconds to type each answer. The students with the most correct words in the fastest time progress to finals.
• Teachers can register and supervise their students right up until Friday 21 August, when the school round ends.
• State and territory finals will be held August 31 to September 4 and the national finals on September 9-10.
• The national champion in each age group wins a trip to Canberra to meet the Prime Minister, an iPad, HarperCollins book pack and a $1000 voucher for their school.

Details: spelling-bee.com.au and kidsnews.com.au