Anti-Bullying Week

What is Anti-Bullying Week?

This year: Anti-Bullying Week 2026 runs from Monday 16 to Friday 20 November. See the Anti-Bullying Week 2026 page for this year’s date, theme and what’s on.

Anti-Bullying Week is the UK’s annual campaign against the bullying of children and young people. It runs Monday to Friday in the third week of November and opens with Odd Socks Day on the Monday, when pupils and staff wear mismatched socks to celebrate what makes everyone different. The week is organised by the Anti-Bullying Alliance (ABA), a coalition of charities, unions, schools and individuals hosted by the National Children’s Bureau. The ABA estimates that around 80 per cent of UK schools take part, reaching more than 7.5 million children and young people.

Anti-Bullying Week exists to raise awareness of bullying in schools and elsewhere, and to show children, families and staff practical ways to prevent it and respond to it. Each year the ABA works with hundreds of young people to choose a theme that speaks to the issues they are facing, then publishes free lesson plans, assembly outlines, films and cross-curricular ideas built around it. Schools do not have to register or pay to take part; most simply download the pack and build the theme into assemblies, PSHE lessons and form time.

The ABA coordinates the week in England and Wales. In Northern Ireland it is led by the Northern Ireland Anti-Bullying Forum, the ABA’s sister organisation, and in Scotland by respectme, Scotland’s anti-bullying service. Each sets its own theme and materials, so a school in Glasgow or Belfast may be working to a different strapline from one in Leeds, but the dates normally line up.

When is Anti-Bullying Week?

The ABA describes the week as falling in the third week of November, running from Monday to Friday. There is no fixed calendar date, so the exact dates move each year and the ABA confirms them in the spring, usually at the same time as it announces the theme. Odd Socks Day is always the Monday of the week. For the current dates and theme, see the Anti-Bullying Week 2026 page, which is updated as the ABA publishes details.

It is an awareness week, not a public holiday. Schools stay open and no bank holiday is attached in any part of the UK.

History of Anti-Bullying Week

The Anti-Bullying Alliance was set up in 2002 by the NSPCC and the National Children’s Bureau, bringing together organisations that had been working on bullying separately. The ABA dates Anti-Bullying Week to the same period, and it has run every November since, growing from a modest campaign into one of the biggest fixtures in the school calendar.

Themes have become the week’s defining feature. The ABA now launches each theme in May so that schools have time to plan, and past themes have included Choose Respect, Change Starts With Us, United Against Bullying, Reach Out, Make A Noise About Bullying and Power for Good. Odd Socks Day was added in 2017, created with the ABA’s patron, the CBeebies presenter Andy Day, and his band Andy and the Odd Socks, who write a new song around the theme each year. The week also has a parliamentary strand: the ABA holds an annual event with young people in Westminster and works with MPs to table debates during the week.

What happens in the UK during the week

The week is driven by schools, but it reaches well beyond the school gate. In a typical year you will see:

• Odd Socks Day on the Monday. The ABA says around 56 per cent of schools take part, reaching more than 5 million pupils. There is nothing to buy and no costume to make, which is a large part of why it has stuck.
• Assemblies and lessons built on the ABA’s free resources, tailored for primary and secondary ages.
• A national poll. Each year the ABA commissions independent research with children and young people and publishes the findings at the start of the week, which is where most of the press coverage comes from.
• Social media activity under #AntiBullyingWeek and #OddSocksDay, with football clubs, broadcasters and public figures joining in.
• Workplace and community events run by councils, youth services, sports clubs and employers, often using the same theme.

How schools can take part

Anti-Bullying Week usually sits with the PSHE lead, pastoral team or designated safeguarding lead. The practical rhythm is: download the ABA pack when it is released, plan assemblies and lessons before the October half-term, book any outside speakers early, and send parents a short note a fortnight ahead explaining what the school is doing and how to report concerns.

• Launch assembly: open the week on Monday with Odd Socks Day and the year’s theme. Explain plainly what bullying is, how it differs from falling out, and the ways pupils can report it in your school.
• Classroom: scenario-based PSHE sessions on the line between banter and bullying, bystander behaviour and what to do online. The ABA pack includes age-appropriate versions.
• Class charter: each class writes and signs its own anti-bullying agreement and displays it for the week.
• Whole school: a kindness wall or compliment box, with notes read out in Friday’s assembly; an Odd Socks Day class photo shared with families.
• Pupil voice: ask the school council to review the anti-bullying policy and present one change they would make.
• Parents: a coffee morning or short online session with the pastoral team covering online safety and how to talk to a child who may be being bullied.
• Review: use the week to check your behaviour policy is current. State schools in England must have one that includes measures to prevent all forms of bullying, and it must be shared with staff, pupils and parents, as set out on gov.uk. The Department for Education’s Preventing and tackling bullying guidance is the reference document for school leaders.

Taking part at home and at work

Parents and carers can mark the week by asking open questions rather than waiting for a disclosure: who did you sit with today, what happens at break, has anything online bothered you. Children often stay quiet because they fear it will make things worse, so the most useful message from home is that telling someone is the right thing to do and that you will act calmly. If you are worried, speak to the class teacher or head of year first, and ask to see the school’s behaviour policy. Children and young people can also contact Childline, which gov.uk lists alongside Kidscape and the ABA as a source of support.

Employers increasingly use the week too. Bullying does not stop at 18, and a workplace Odd Socks Day, a short session on respectful communication, or a reminder of how to raise a grievance all fit the theme without needing a budget. Youth clubs, sports teams and faith groups can use the ABA’s materials in the same way.

Related awareness days

Anti-Bullying Week sits in a cluster of days about kindness, safety and children’s wellbeing. World Kindness Day falls on 13 November, in the days before the week begins, and many schools run the two together. Safer Internet Day in February picks up the online side of bullying, and Children’s Mental Health Week, also in February, covers the emotional impact. In the United States, October is bullying prevention month and includes Bullying Prevention Awareness Day, which is why some searches for “anti-bullying day” turn up October dates.