How to use the Act Against Bullying Monologues

AAB founder Louise Burfitt-Dons first published these monologues  in 2002. Since then hundreds of schools and organisations have found them indispensable. Anti bullying monologues help counter bullying by increasing overall empathy among students.  There’s something about acting out real situations that young people can relate to.

Use the anti bullying monogues yourself.

Now we are offering them to you  for free whether you are a teacher, student or someone wanting access to them. We recently added the set scene pieces at the end  to cover social media, cyberbullying, sexting, and parental abuse. All we ask is you  support us where possible with our campaigns or choose our charity for one of your fundraisers. 

Why anti bullying monologues work

Research shows that certain students will seldom take the initiative to bully others. But they will easily ‘go along’ with a group out of fear or disengagement.  Sometimes young people are unaware of how their tacit involvement can cause pain. That’s not just to the target of bullying but also to themselves. These anti bullying scene pieces can be most effective in highlighting these issues.

 How to Use Them

Read them, perform them, then discuss them.

Example anti bullying monologue: Partners

‘When you go into the classroom in the morning there are always people screaming and running around. I just want to stay at the back and be on my own. The worse time is when you have to have a partner.

And you know no one will pick you. It makes you feel really bad like everyone hates you.

I told my mum and she said to go and ask someone to be my partner first. But I tried that once. It was in a cooking lesson. We were making cakes and we had to be with someone else. I asked this girl, ‘Will you be my partner?’ and she said, ‘Yes’. I was really happy. Then when we went to the table she suddenly said ‘I don’t want to be your partner any more’ and ran off and joined another girl.

I was left on my own and the teacher told me off. ‘I said to get into partners’ she said. I never asked anybody again. My mum says I’m shy, but I’m not really. It’s just I don’t want that to happen again. It was horrible.’

Sample questions to to use afterwards

• Have you ever felt like this?
• How could this lead on to bullying?
• How would you have helped in this situation?
• What would you do differently?
• Can you write a similar monologue?

Below are a couple of anti bullying monologues performed by a professional actress