“Children have to learn about the friendship culture in their host country and adapt to the prevalent social rules.”
it should never be used to belittle a child’s distress or stop parents from seeking help.
follow these practical steps: 1. Listen before solving. Create a safe space for your child to talk to you about what is happening. Try to refrain from immediately questioning, correcting or proposing solutions. 2. Notice patterns. Look for changes in your child’s mood, sleep, physical condition, friendships, confidence, school attendance or online behavior. 3. Record what you know. Keep factual notes, relevant dates, messages, screenshots, places and names if and when appropriate. 4. Contact the school early. Speak with your child’s teacher, the guidance counsellor or safeguarding contact, and describe observations rather than arriving with a fixed diagnosis. 5. Ask for a clear plan. Establish what will happen next, how the child will be supported in everyday settings, who will follow up, and when you will review the progress made. No child should have to manage such a situation alone. And you as the parent do not need perfect knowledge of the system to begin a constructive conversation with the school.
PAUSE BEFORE LABELING What to do if your child encounters similar situations to Kento? Instead of wanting to immediately diagnose, it is important to distinguish what really happened. Speak to your child and find out: • Was it just a difficult one-off interaction or a misunderstanding? • Has your child experienced repeated exclusion, intimidation, humiliation or online targeting? • Has your child received comments or treatment related to nationality, language, race, religion, disability, gender, or other aspects of identity? Once? Multiple times? By whom? As parents, there is no need to prove that something is bullying before asking for support. It is always valid to share with the school what you are seeing, how it is affecting your child, and why you are concerned. WHAT PARENTS CAN DO If you are worried your child might be experiencing bullying at school, you can
number of additional layers of complexity. In most cases, after relocation, children have to deal with learning a new language or being labeled for their accent. They have to learn about the friendship culture in their host country and adapt to the prevalent social rules. Parents on the other hand may not know the school’s rules when it comes to dealing with bullies, who to approach for help or what is considered normal behavior in this international school’s context. Parents may also struggle without their normal support network, as they do not have close friends and family members nearby to talk to about their concerns. Sometimes, parents may also dismiss a child’s difficulties as “normal settling in” after the relocation. And while cultural context can sometimes explain a situation,
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