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RYTON

COMPREHENSIVE

SCHOOL

ANTI-BULLYING

POLICY

Contents

1. Introduction 3

2. Aims 3

3. Rationale 3

4. Moral Values and Framework 3

5. Key Staff 4

6. What is Bullying? 4 & 5

7. Pro-active Strategies 5

8. Re-active Strategies 6

9. Cyber- Bullying 6

10. Information for Students 7

11. Information for Parents 7 & 8

12. Whole School Context 9

13. Action 10

14. Monitoring and Evaluation 11

15. Success Criteria 11

16. Details of appendix 12

Bullying takes place in every school and in the wider community and we seek to address this issue by developing a culture of openness and a structured response to incidents.

1. Introduction

This policy is a response to the DfES document (December 2000) “Bullying – Don’t Suffer in Silence” and also draws on the experience of schools within Gateshead Council and reflects the L.A. policy. This policy should be read in conjunction with other relevant policies.

2. Aims

This policy aims to:

· define bullying for the school community

· communicate key issues to students, staff, governors and parents

· provide a framework to address all bullying incidents effectively

3. Rationale

It is everyone’s responsibility to prevent bullying. In addition to statutory requirements, there are also a number of practical reasons why bullying must be addressed in school:

· the safety and happiness of all members of the school community

· educational achievement

4. Moral Values and Framework

The school believes that its students have the right to learn in a supportive, caring and safe environment without fear of being bullied.

All institutions, both large and small, contain some numbers of students with the potential for bullying behaviour. If a school is well disciplined and organised, it can minimise the occurrence of bullying. The school also has a clear policy on the promotion of good citizenship, where it is made clear that bullying is a form of anti-social behaviour. It is wrong and will not be tolerated.

It is important therefore that the school has a clear written policy to promote this belief, where students and parents/carers are fully aware that any bullying complaints will be dealt with firmly, fairly and promptly.

5. Key Staff

Deputy Headteacher, Heads of Year, Assistant Heads of Year, Form Tutors, Subject Teachers, Duty Staff and Lunchtime Supervisors.

6. Definition – What is Bullying?

· It is deliberate hurtful behaviour (including aggression)

· It is repeated over a period of time

· It is difficult for those being bullied to defend themselves

Bullying takes many forms, but the 3 main types are:

· physical – hitting, kicking, taking/destroying belongings,

· verbal – name calling, insulting, making racist, sexist and other personal comments,

· indirect – spreading hurtful rumour and gossip about someone or excluding them from social groups. Sending malicious e-mails, text messages on mobile phones or posting information on social network sites.

Warning signs of Bullying

There are many possible warning signs of bullying, both for individual students and a whole school. They should only be seen as possible indications, and prompt the start of further investigations into their causes.

Individual signs:

· torn clothing and damaged books

· sudden mood swings that do not usually occur

· loss of belongings

· requests to be accompanied to and from school and between lessons

· bedwetting

· nail biting

· nervous tics

· sleep walking

· flinching

· underachievement at school

· school refusal

· wish to change routines such as the journey to and from school

· temper flare ups

· physical marks

· avoidance of certain days/lessons

· psychosomatic illness

Possible signs of bullying within the whole school:

· graffiti insulting individuals or groups of students

· frequent name calling

· poor attendance

· students appearing afraid

· students not willing to approach adults to discuss problems

· social exclusion of certain students

· some students being by themselves at break times

· certain graffiti on school books

· work being torn and destroyed

· loss of school equipment by certain students

· sudden underachievement

· students appearing upset

7. Proactive Strategies

· A clear lead from Leadership Team with effective and repeated communication between staff, governors, parents and students.

· Modelling positive behaviour for students by all adults.

· Listen carefully to and supporting students, parents and staff.

· Monitor student behaviour carefully in and around school.

· Curriculum approaches, promoting understanding of bullying issues through Assembly, Drama, Art, Citizenship, English, Religious Education and pastoral group work.

· Draw up the expertise and experience of outside agencies and other schools.

· Organised initiatives – Anti-Bullying Week.

· Supportive Friends – ‘peer group support’.

· Use of Mentoring Room – Learning Mentor Support.

Five key points:

1. Never ignore suspected bullying.

2. Don’t make premature assumptions.

3. Listen carefully to all accounts – several students saying the same does not necessarily mean they are telling the truth.

4. Adopt a problem-solving approach which moves students on from justifying themselves.

5. Follow up repeatedly, checking bullying has not resumed.

8. Reactive Strategies

· Log incidents of bullying as quickly as possible and maintain detailed records.

· Take action as soon as possible, informing other members of teaching, non-teaching and midday staff.

· Increase vigilance at times of transition and other unstructured times of the school day.

· Once it has been established that bullying has taken place, parents of all students involved should be notified and if necessary invited to visit the school.

· Once clear evidence for bullying is established, actions will be taken to ensure that there is no recurrence. These can include:

Ø individual interview/counselling for both parties by teaching staff, Leadership Team or Learning Mentors,

Ø increased monitoring of vulnerable parties,

Ø inclusion in anti-bullying programmes,

Ø providing alternative facilities for unstructured times (e.g. increased supervision, access to support groups),

Ø involve outside agencies,

Ø increased home/school liaison,

Ø opportunities for reparation,

Ø use of rewards/sanctions as defined in the Behaviour Policy.

9. Cyber-Bullying

Advice for Adults in school

· preserve evidence

· stop or remove the material by contacting the service provider

· Contact the appropriate member of staff for that student

· identify the person exhibiting bullying behaviour and talk to them.

· use technology available to block

· contact parents.

· in extreme cases contact the police.

Advice for Students

· don’t reply to abusive messages, that may encourage the person exhibiting bullying behaviour

· keep a record of events/messages or pictures. They will be used to trace the bully,

· think before you send pictures of someone via email, mobile phone or on social networks. They can spread further than your circle of friends,

· if you receive a rude image or text about someone else do not forward it,

· you have a right not to be harassed and bullied on line, make sure you tell someone,

· treat your password like your toothbrush don’t let anyone else use it.

10. Information for Students

If you are being bullied:

· try to stay calm and look as confident as you can,

· be firm and clear – look them in the eye and tell them to stop,

· get away from the situation as quickly as possible,

· tell an adult what has happened straight away.

After you have been bullied:

· tell a teacher or another adult in your school,

· tell your family,

· if you are scared to tell an adult by yourself, ask a friend to come with you,

· keep speaking up until someone listens and does something to stop the bullying,

· be involved with Supportive Friends.

· don’t blame yourself for what has happened.

When you are talking to an adult about bullying, be clear about:

· what has happened to you,

· how often it has happened,

· who was involved,

· who saw what was happening,

· where it happened,

· what you have done about it already.

11. Information for Parents and Families

Bullying behaviour includes:

· name calling and nasty teasing,

· threats and extortion,

· physical violence,

· damage to belongings,

· Leaving students out of social activities deliberately and frequently,

· spreading malicious rumours,

· Using email, social networks and mobile phones to bully others.

Parents and families have an important part to play in helping schools deal with bullying:

· discourage your child from using bullying behaviour at home or elsewhere – show how to resolve difficult situations without using violence or aggression,

· watch out for signs that your child is being bullied, or is bullying others. Common symptoms include headaches, stomach aches, anxiety and irritability. It can be helpful to ask questions about progress and friends at school, how break times and lunch times are spent, and whether your child is facing problems or difficulties at school. Don’t dismiss negative signs. Contact school immediately if you are worried.

If your child has been bullied:

· calmly talk to your child about it,

· make a note of what your child says – particularly who was said to be involved, how often the bullying has occurred, where it happened and what has happened,

· reassure your child that telling you about the bullying was the right thing to do,

· explain that any further incidents should be reported to a teacher immediately,

· make an appointment to see your child’s Head of Year or Assistant Head of Year,

· explain to the teacher the problems your child is experiencing.

Talking to teachers about bullying:

· try and stay calm, bear in mind that the teacher may have no idea that your child is being bullied or may have heard conflicting accounts of an incident,

· be as specific as possible about what your child says happened, give dates, places and names of other children involved,

· make a note of what action school intends to take,

· ask if there is anything you can do to help your child or school,

· stay in touch with school; let them know if things improve as well as if problems continue.

If your child is bullying other children:

Many children may be involved in bullying other students at some time or other. Often parents are not aware. Children sometimes bully to others because:

· they don’t know it is wrong,

· they are copying older brothers or sisters or other people in the family they admire,

· they haven’t learnt other, better ways of mixing with their school friends,

· their friends encourage them to exhibit bullying behaviour

· they are going through a difficult time and are acting out aggressive feelings.

To stop your child bullying others:

· talk to your child, explaining that bullying is unacceptable and makes others unhappy,

· discourage other members of your family from bullying behaviour or from using aggression or force to get what they want,

· show your child how to join in with other children without bullying,

· make an appointment to see your child’s Head of Year or Assistant Head of Year, explain to the teacher the problems your child is experiencing, discuss with the teacher how you and the school can stop them bullying others,

· regularly check with your child how things are going at school,

· give your child lots of praise and encouragement when they are co-operative or kind to other people.

12. Organisation within the whole school context

· Organise the community in order to minimise opportunities for bullying, e.g. provide supervision at problem times such as breaks/lunchtimes.

· Use any opportunity to discuss aspects of bullying, and the appropriate way to behave towards each other.

· Deal quickly, firmly and fairly with any complaints, involving parents where necessary.

· Review the School Policy and its degree of success through an annual audit in each year group of the number and type of reported bullying incidents.

· The school staff will continue to have a firm but fair discipline structure. The rules should be few, simple and easy to understand.

· Do not use teaching materials or equipment which give a bad or negative view of any group because of their ethnic origin, sex etc.

· Encourage students to discuss how they get on with other people and to form positive attitudes towards other people. This includes a review of what friendship really is.

· Encourage students to treat everyone with respect.

· We will treat bullying as a serious offence and take every possible action to eradicate it from our school.

· Any members of staff/students who suspect a student is being bullied should relay this information to the relevant Head of Year/Deputy Headteacher Pastoral as soon as possible.

· The school staff will investigate the background and reasons why the person exhibiting bullying behaviour is behaving as he/she is.

13. Action to be taken when bullying is suspected

If bullying is suspected we will talk to the suspected victim, the suspected person exhibiting bullying behaviour and any witnesses. If any degree of bullying is identified, the following action will be taken. Help, support and counselling will be given as is appropriate to both the victims and the persons exhibiting bullying behaviour

We support the victims in the following ways:

· by offering them an immediate opportunity to talk about the experience with their class teacher, or another teacher if they choose,

· informing the victims’ parents/carers,

· by offering continuing support when they feel they need it,

· by arranging for them to be escorted to and from the school premises,

· by taking one or more of the nine disciplinary steps described below to prevent more bullying.

We also discipline, yet try to help the person exhibiting bullying behaviour in the following ways:

· by talking about what happened, to discover why they became involved,

· informing the person exhibiting bullying behaviour’ parents/carers,

· by continuing to work with the person exhibiting bullying behaviour in order to get rid of prejudiced attitudes as far as possible,

· by taking one or more of the nine disciplinary steps described below to prevent more bullying.

Disciplinary steps:

1. They will be warned officially to stop offending.

2. Informing the bullies’ parents/carers.

3. They may be supervised on the school premises at break and/or lunchtimes.

4. We may arrange for them to be escorted to and from the school premises.

5. They may be placed in the Mentoring Room or Behaviour Support Unit for a period of time.

6. If they do not stop bullying they will be suspended for a minor fixed period (one or two days).

7. If they carry on they will be recommended for suspension for a major fixed period (up to five days) or an indefinite period.

8. If they will not end such behaviour, they will be recommended for permanent exclusion (expulsion).

9. We will enlist the support of the Educational Psychologist for an individual who shows repeated examples of bullying.

14. Monitoring and Evaluation

Monitoring will have regard to information about incidents of bullying and how they were resolved in the short and longer term.

The policy will be reviewed annually by a joint working party consisting of governors, staff, parents/carers.

Students’ views will also be communicated to the working party. A regular audit of training needs will be carried out for governors and staff.

15. Success Criteria

Students will feel confident within the school environment. They will know that either they or their parents can discuss any fears about bullying they might have had and be sure that their concerns will be dealt with sympathetically. Incidents of bullying will decrease within each year group.

Summary of process used to generate Policy

Years 7, 8 and 9 Citizenship Programmes all deal with the issues of bullying.

School Council discussion.

Annual review of document.

Anti-Bullying Week.

Policy compiled by Nigel Gibson and Val Gardener: September 1998

Reviewed by Steph Howarth and Maureen Summerill: May 2001

Reviewed by Maureen Summerill: December 2004

Reviewed by Maureen Summerill: March 2007

Reviewed by Maureen Summerill July 2008

Reviewed by Maureen Summerill October 2010

Appendix attached – “Anti-bullying strategies; the latest law and practice”.

This policy meets the following criteria	Yes	No
Gender Equality	√
Race equality	√
Disability Policy	√
Date approved by Governing Body Curriculum Committee	24 March 2011

Signature of Chair of Governors__________________________

Date of Review September 2011

Sw/KW/Policies/AntiBullyingPolicystudentfriendlyversion

October 2010