Resources - Bullying. No way!

The auditing process

Auditing: a methodical examination or review of a condition or situation it involves collecting and interpreting existing data, and collecting and interpreting new information...

Reporting against the NSSF means being able to demonstrate to an outsider to what extent your school's practice align with the principles and elements. Click here to download a useful audit tool using the structure provided by the six key elements.

The process of auditing should be inclusive and encourage participation from all members of the school community. The kinds of auditing tools and processes you use depend very much on the context of the staff and families you are working with. Some parent groups, for example, will respond well to private questionnaires while others may respond better to a group information gathering session.

There are a number of audit tools and processes that can be helpful in finding out what you need to know about in your school. You can download some audit tools (Who is our community? What does our school do now? and What do our students think?) from the Mind Matters website.

The wide range of audit tools, most if not all that you will be familiar with, include:

Databases: Any organised collection of information.

Checklists: A checklist is basically a series of statements describing the issues. Compiling the checklist itself can be a useful part of finding out what you need to know.

Surveys: These are a quick way of getting people's views. It's important that you compose the right questions to find out you want to know. Some interactive, online surveys are available via the internet, however it is important to consider the security and confidentiality of your collected data when stored at an external site.

SWOT analyses: Identifying Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.

Focus group interviews: Group interviews with people with a stake in the issue being investigated.

School records.

Student drawings of your school (possibly coordinated by the SRC) - a map of your school environment, identifying where the bullying 'hotspots' are.

Anonymous ways for students to report bullying.

For more information on auditing and auditing tools see the NSSF Implementation Manual [pp13-24].

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