Schools Out Blog :: Interviewees wanted for BBC documentary on bullying

My name is Kate Griffiths and I am a producer with Minnow Films, a television production company specialising in sensitive and high quality observational documentaries for the BBC and Channel 4. I've included a bit more information about Minnow and the kind of documentaries we make below.

We've recently been commissioned by BBC3 to make an hour-long, observational documentary about children/young people's experience of bullying. We have a unique opportunity to bring attention to the complex ways bullying can impact on a child's self esteem and their ability to function in everyday life - and often at school. The film will be told from the perspective of young people who are endeavouring to overcome big challenges and move on from these traumatic experiences.

I wondered whether you would be able to advise us on what we're doing on two fronts. Firstly, it would be useful to talk to perhaps one of your chairmen about the issue of homophobic bullying; how widespread it is and how you've seen it affect children/teenagers. It would also be good to hear about some of the projects that you or your partners run to help combat this issue.

Secondly, we're looking for teenagers who are either being bullied or have been bullied recently and are still feeling the effects of this. They may be refusing to go to school, have dropped out of school altogether, or find social situations stressful - and wondered whether School's Out may be in a position to help us contact families who are dealing with this currently. At this stage, we are just looking to have a confidential conversation which will of course not commit them to anything.

I do hope that you're interested in what we're doing; I'm sure you'll agree that bullying is an issue that needs to be addressed as it's a problem that certainly isn't going away for young people in the UK today.

Minnow Films

Minnow Films Minnow Films was set up in 2006 by acclaimed documentary maker, Morgan Matthews. We recently made The Fallen, a BAFTA winning 3-hour documentary that remembered every British service man and woman who died in Iraq and Afghanistan. Our team has a strong track record in making genuine and sensitive documentaries and in the past have brought understanding to, among other things, mental health, youth crime, drug and alcohol addiction and women in prison. We are very experienced at filming with people who are going through extremely difficult times in their lives and have strict duty of care guidelines that are adhered to at all times.

Thank you in advance for your help and I look forward to hearing from you.

If you would like me to call you please let me know a convenient time; otherwise you can contact me on 07952 586 818.

Kind Regards

Kate Griffiths

Producer

Minnow Films

020 7566 1450=

Keywords: BBC, journalist, bullying

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Re: Interviewees wanted for BBC documentary on bullying

by littlehuw on Fri 23 Apr 2010 04:54 PM BST | Profile | Permanent Link

by Anonymous on Wed 21 Apr 2010 13:33 BST | IP: 81.135.129.191
My daughter whom is 15 years old and attending college in Northern Ireland is presently being bullied every day. She has an English accent and she is told constantly to F off home. She is called every name under the sun and is threatened, hit, abused. We informed the school a few weeks ago and they investigated and indeed found that Emma was being bullied by a large group of students. A couple of them were put into detention for a week. The bullying and abuse stopped a little for about a week. Now she is dealing with propably the worst form of abuse they are going to the teachers and conjuring up lies about my daughter. Something new each day and the teachers (whom are mostly related to all of these pupils) are believing these lying bully's. Our lives are in tatters with all the stress and the lies. We moved from another school to this school after my daughter was very severly bullied there and we tried to get evidence by making recordings on her phone and keeping notes given to her saying f off back to England and kill all English. After giving the evidence to the school it seemed to make it worse for her. Now today we are going through the same with this school. The school are turning against us as we are the outsiders and the pupils the can say and get away with everything. This is a terrible thing to go through and it just gets worse and out of control. It is taking the same pattern here as the last school. My daughter is a very good student who is trying to get through her exams and I don't know how she is able to carry on through this right now. She is a very pretty girl, 6 foot tall, quiet and the bullying seems to start with jealousy and verbal abuse and threats, then the lies start and then the next stage as in the last school she will be attacked, pushed down stairs, punched, spat on, every type of abuse possible and the school seem to make it worse by believing the bully's I have taken time off work today in case she is attacked again as she was yesterday and I am awaiting a call back from the school since yesterday at 11.00am and I am disgusted. I went in with my daughter this morning to see the deputy principal as she did not call me
but she was not able to see me. I have waited all day for her to call bearing in mind what my daughter suffered yesterday but nothing.

(name and address withheld for confidentiality)

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