anti_bullying

anti_bullying_policy

ANTI-BULLYING POLICY

Staff responsible: A. Watkins January 2008

Aims and Objectives

· The policy against bullying is designed to challenge and prevent all forms of bullying, and reflects the school aims and ethos.

· Teaching of strategies against bullying is part of the PSHE and Citizenship curriculum designed to increase understanding for victims and teach pupils how constructively to manage their relationships with others.

· We use approaches that encourage active learning, using the children’s knowledge, experiences and perceptions as starting points. We encourage children to work together co-operatively in democratic ways, to reflect on their learning and behaviour and develops skills of empathy, assertiveness and communication.

· We aim:

To create within our school community an atmosphere/ethos of trust, which values, respects and protects the rights of each of its members to be within a safe and secure environment.
To develop within the ethos and curriculum of our school attitudes, skills and activities which will prevent all aspects of bullying.
To foster trust among members of the school community so that bullying incidents can be reported, discussed and dealt with appropriately.
To encourage and foster active parental support in achieving those aims.

· All members of the school community are involved: pupils, all teaching staff, support staff, kitchen staff, SMSAs, governors and visitors to the school.

Definition of bullying

· Bullying is repeated intentional behaviour, which uses power to hurt, frighten or cause unhappiness to another through physical, verbal or indirect means.

· This behaviour includes:

Name calling
Hitting, kicking, punching
Damaging or stealing property including packed lunch or work
‘Ganging up’ on people, including inciting others to do so
Teasing about personal or physical differences
Teasing about family/domestic/cultural situations
Threatening
Following someone, or gives menacing stares
Shouting, swearing, verbal abuse
Extortion and intimidation
Malicious gossip and rumours
‘Cyber’bullying
Forcing someone to do something they do not wish to do.

Curriculum - How we achieve our aims

· The underpinning values of our school are found in the aims and ethos; they are in our PSHE and Citizenship policy and the policies for behaviour, discipline, self-esteem, healthy schools participation and the school council all relate.

· Bullying is studied explicitly in the classroom as part of the PSHE and citizenship curriculum using the SEAL resources and implicitly through expectations and adult/child relationships outside the classroom.

· It is also addressed in assemblies and through parts of the Religious Education curriculum.

· As part of our strategy for promoting positive behaviour, we look at attitudes, skills and activities, which will prevent bullying:

We value and listen to children’s contributions.
We help the children learn and practise the skills required to build good relationships with other children and adults within the school and the wider community.

Who are the bullies?

· Bullies have no distinguishing physical characteristics but share common traits. They appear to enjoy the feeling of power they gain by bullying and members of a group feel closer by picking on an outsider.

· Bullies can often be victims and they often think what they are doing is a bit of fun. When a group bullies someone there is little feeling of guilt because of the shared responsibility.

Who are the victims?

· Anyone can be the victim of a bully simply by being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Bullies try to justify their actions by suggesting that the victim is different in some way, e.g. have come from a different school, are not part of the group, have physical differences etc.

Where does bullying occur?

· Research indicates that most bullying occurs on the way to and from school, in the playground, on school trips, in the playground and in school toilets.

Approaches to Teaching and Learning - Raising Pupil Awareness

Activities through which this can be developed include:
Playing games
Role play/ simulations (e.g. ‘taking sides’, Agony Aunt/ Uncle, consequences)
Stories, poems, media
Play situations
‘Conscience Alley’ (a proactive SEAL strategy)
Dance
Debate
Continuum (using an imaginary line down the room. Pupils told one end of the line represents one extreme viewpoint, and the other end represents the opposite view. Statements are read out and children stand along continuum according to what they think)
Mind map
Graffiti (Pupils asked to write comments/ opinions/ facts onto a large piece of paper that can then be displayed)
Writing
Behaviour problem solving scenarios
Circle time
Pupil Council Meetings
Participation in drawing up agreed whole school rules
Whole school assemblies including achievement assemblies
House points and the house competitions

· All these activities enable children to share experiences, think of other peoples’ feelings, share opinions, explore difficult feelings, put themselves in other peoples shoes, develop self respect, assertiveness, co-operation and independence/interdependence.

·Practical Advice to Share with Pupils

1. If you are bullied tell a member of staff. All school staff want to ensure that you are safe and happy in school.

2. Try to ignore silly comments or teasing – don’t say anything back – try and walk away

3. Tell people who are bullying you to go away. Shout ‘NO’ or ‘GO AWAY’ loudly and walk away immediately.

4. Stay with friends when playing – you are more likely to be bullied if you are on your own.

Practical Advice for Parents

1. Encourage your child to talk about what has been going on in school, and talk through any minor incidents calmly to find out what has happened.

2. Inform the school immediately if you feel there may be a bullying problem

3. Encourage your child to tell a teacher or the playground supervisors (teachers, support staff or SMSAs) if they or any of their friends are experiencing difficulty in or out of school

4. Watch out for signs of stress in your child – headaches, stomach aches, reluctance to come to school – they can be indications that all is not well.

5. Investigate if toys/money start to go missing

6. Take an active interest in friendships and out-of-school activities

7. Supervise situations where bullying may occur, eg walking to and from school

8. Avoid unsupervised exposure to violence on television/videos/computer games. Spend some time discussing the different forms of violence including reality versus fantasy.

Raising Teacher Awareness:

· Signs which may indicate bullying:

· The child may:

Be unwilling to come to school
Begin to do poorly in school work
Become withdrawn
Start acting out of character, for example by hitting other children
Develop stomach aches or head aches
Want to stay in at break times
Have a cut or bruise after play times

Advice for Support Staff and SMSAs

· Be aware of isolated children, and try to involve them in a sympathetic group.
· Keep a watchful eye on ‘rough and tumble’, to ensure that everyone is enjoying it.
· Check side of school and behind hut regularly.
· Never ignore aggressive or bullying behaviour.
· When dealing with an act of aggression or bullying it is better to remove the victim from the scene as soon as possible.
· Incidents causing concern should be reported to a member of the teaching staff and persistent bullying should be reported to the Deputy Head or Head Teacher.
· Try to help children talk through minor incidents – listen to both sides calmly.

How do we deal with bullying?

· All incidents are investigated, discussed and hopefully resolved, and the children involved are supported. Their future behaviour will be monitored. If incidents recur, parents of the bully and the victim will be contacted, and parents and school will monitor progress together.
· We investigate the incident to find out what has happened, we listen to the victim, the bully and any witnesses.
· We discuss the incident, consider possible solutions, find the best solution for the victim, the bully and the witnesses. We look at ways of coping appropriately in a similar situation in the future.
· Hopefully, the incident is resolved. Support is given to all children concerned.
· All incidents of bullying are recorded and incidents of persistent racial bullying would be dealt with according to the Borough Guidelines and the Racial Equality Policy.
· If a child becomes a persistent bully, we may seek support/advice from outside agencies, e.g. Educational Psychologist.

Monitoring and Evaluation

· As with any learning process assessment of pupils’ personal, social and emotional development is important. It provides information which indicates pupil’s progress and achievement and informs the development of the programme.
· Pupils do not pass or fail within the area but have the opportunity to reflect on their own learning and personal experiences and to set personal goals and agree strategies to reach them. The process of assessment has a positive impact on pupils' self awareness and self esteem.
· We do not assess pupils in all areas of the PSHE and Citizenship programme however opportunities for pupils to reflect on their progress is identified. It is inappropriate to assess pupils’ values.
· The programme is evaluated to inform future planning. An ongoing process of monitoring is through discussion, observation and self assessment. A record is kept of all incidents.

Equal opportunities

Equal access to the anti-bullying curriculum is provided irrespective of gender, race, ethnicity or socio-economic background.
We recognise that bullying is often targeted at those of different backgrounds. All racist incidents are referred to the Head Teacher who follows Local Authority guidelines.

S.E.N.

· We are aware of special individual needs that might make a child more vulnerable to being either a bully or a victim.

· All staff are aware of special individual needs and where appropriate plan differentiated access in order to provide equal access to the PSHE and citizenship curriculum.

Early Years

· Social skills encouraged through the Early Years include appropriate teaching about embracing differences and friendships.

Dissemination and Review

· The policy will be disseminated widely to staff, governors, parents and pupils.

· The policy will be reviewed in January 2011.