How do you encourage your children to speak up? when he/she is being bullied in school?

My daughter experienced bullying in school during her 3rd grade. She did not mention it to me at first and kept mum about it. One day while arranging her things for school, I accidentally read notes at the back of her Science notebook. It was a list of "Mga Isusumbong" with explanations why she would complain these names to me. I got so alarmed but did not want to startle my daughter so I waited until I had the chance to ask her. We have a close relationship that was why I was worried about not knowing anything. I told my wife about it and during that night, since we sleep beside our children, we were able to inject that subject in our daily bedtime conversation. My wife and I first ensured my daughter that she can trust us and we won't let any people harm her. Thankfully, she was able to release her fear and gradually opened up to us. My wife then informed her school adviser and fortunately, the school did some mentoring to the bully. After that conversation of ours, my daughter still continued on writing names at the back of her notebooks but she would also tell it to us personally at the end of the day.

There will come a time that each one of us will be judged/ picked on by others and will end up hurting our feelings. Same goes for our kids. One of the best ways to deal with it is having the right mindset when put in that certain situation. I've read in an article suggesting doing role plays at home and teaching kids how to respond when someone bullies them either by name-calling them or attempting to physically abuse them. What the article suggests is that parents should coach their children on how to react when they encounter such situation. In this way. Parents can explain to their kids on how to avoid bullies as well as who to approach for help. You can read the rest of the article in this link: https://www.empoweringparents.com/article/is-your-child-being-bullied-9-steps-you-can-take-as-a-parent/

Establish an open communication with your child even before he goes to school so when he's exposed to other people, he knows how to handle himself and he can open up to you in case something comes up. Here are some tips on how to deal with School Bullying: http://www.parents.com/kids/problems/bullying/how-to-deal-with-school-bullies/

As a parent, we have to talk to them everyday to know what's happening to them in school. You'll be able to gauge if the child is being bullied based on his stories. Help him to have confidence in himself and at an early age, teach him how to defend himself and advise to let the teacher know asap if it happens to him.