Sunshine Bay Public School

SUNSHINE BAY PUBLIC SCHOOL

ANTI-BULLYING PLAN

POLICY AND PROCEDURES

What is Bullying?

Bullying is the intentional harming or hurting of a person, or their belongings, by another person or persons. It is distinguished by how the targeted person feels.

Bullying can be physical, verbal, psychological and/or social.

These actions are repeated over a period of time.

Bullying involves the abuse of power in relationships. Bullying can involve all forms of harassment (including all sexual type, race disability), humiliation, domination and intimidation of others.

Bullying is damaging to both the person who does it and the person who is being bullied and often perpetuates itself.

Bullying devalues, isolates and frightens. It affects an individual’s ability to achieve. It has long term effects on those engaging in bullying behaviour, those who are the subjects of bullying behaviour and the onlookers or bystanders.

Bullying includes

·  Taking others’ property, damaging others’ property, hiding possessions, putting down, daring-manipulative

·  Talking about, using standover tactics, writing insulting notes, Using SMS or email to send unwanted messages, bribing, racism, spreading rumours

·  Kicking, hitting, punching, spitting, scratching, tripping, pushing, biting, chasing, invade others’ space

·  Insults, name-calling, abuse, threatening, sarcasm, teasing

·  Excluding, ostracising, alienating, making inappropriate gestures

These actions may be placed on a severity scale as follows:

1)  Teasing – sometimes mistakenly called playful.

2)  Malicious, sustained – often name calling, stealing, verbal.

3)  Pre-meditated/violent –hitting, pushing, damage to property or persons.

Bullying at Sunshine Bay is not acceptable, is taken seriously and will not be tolerated.

It is the shared responsibility of teachers, parents, caregivers and students to work together to address bullying.

The school will work with the community to continue to develop the plan and promote it widely.

Procedures

1.  When an incident of bullying occurs the matter must be reported to a teacher. The bullied person, a teacher, a parent, community member or another child may make this report.

2.  The responsible member of staff will record the incident in the Sentral system

3.  The person found to be bullying others would be dealt with in line with existing discipline strategies. The levels of action are clearly outlined in the school’s Discipline Policy.

4.  Incidents recorded for an individual’s unacceptable behaviour/s will also indicate if it was a bullying issue. This will ensure monitoring of the individuals record will show clear patterns of bullying or otherwise

5.  Depending on the seriousness of the incident/s the person/s being bullied and/or the child doing the bullying will receive appropriate counselling which may range from a simple reminder that the behaviour is unacceptable to formal counselling which may involve parents and caregivers.

6.  Support may be requested by parents and caregivers. Such requests will be considered by the school.

7.  Appeal information may be requested from the school in cases where action by the school is deemed or perceived to be inadequate or unsatisfactory.

It is important to delineate between bullying and “feuds” between two or more children. Bullying inherently occurs when one side has a degree of power over another.

Strategies to Address Bullying

Students will take part in a wide range of learning experiences that address key understandings and skills relating to positive relationships, safety, gender equity, discrimination, bullying and harassment which may include;

- involvement in the schools’ Personal Development program

- involvement in the K – 6 Robert Perreria system

-  participation in the school’s Health & Physical Education program and other Key - Learning Areas

-  modelling of appropriate behaviours

-  consistent responses to reports of bullying

-  advertising and delivering messages at all levels that consistently help students to identify bullying behaviours and react appropriately to them

-  appropriate and/or fortuitous training of staff at staff meetings, development meetings and/or District and Region courses

-  teach the student appropriate response/s

·  do not retaliate

·  take a deep breath,

·  look directly into the eyes of the person attempting to bully you,

·  speak in a firm, clear voice and say loudly, “Stop that I don’t like it!”

·  go directly to your teacher (or the teacher on duty) if the attempts to bully you don’t stop and report what happened.

Parents and staff can

·  watch for signs and symptoms of possible bullying including;

·  unexplained cuts and bruises

·  stolen, hidden, destroyed or damaged personal items

·  complaining of vague headaches, stomach aches or feeling sick

·  wetting the bed, biting nails, poor sleep patterns and/or bad dreams

·  unusual emotional outbursts

·  withdrawal from family and friends

·  appearing anxious, insecure, sad, teary, depressed and/or secretive

·  having low self esteem

·  displaying an unwillingness to go to school

·  sitting alone in class and/or be alone in the playground

·  changing friendship groups frequently

·  coming home hungry

·  wanting extra money without giving a reason

·  showing deterioration in schoolwork

Parents can;

·  listen to your child

·  give assurance and support

·  discuss appropriate responses listed above

·  inform your child’s class teacher of suspected bullying

Monitoring

Information contained in the Sentral System and the schools suspension register will be used to monitor the level and type of bullying practices that may be occurring in the school.

Periodic surveys of staff and/or students and/or parents will provide data on trends and patterns.

The Parents and Citizens Association, as the policy ratifying body, will review the schools’ Discipline and Anti-Bullying plans annually as evaluated by the staff.

A copy of this policy is available on the schools website.