[Luckypants]

Depends on who you are dealing with IMO. If the bully comes from a family of thugs, you need to be very sure you can sort them out physically before taking option 1 or 3. That type think nothing of beating a child and you mob-handed, if they cannot beat you one on one.

Happily most parents are not like this and would be horrified at the thought of their child being a bully. If this is the case, a combo of 1 and 3 is effective. Option 1 is good if the child is matched physically to his bully and if he is armed with the knowledge his family will back him up in a 'righteous fight'- just standing up and telling the bully to get lost is often enough.

If not, then option 3 - marching the bully home and confronting parent with little toe-rag has worked for me in the past.