THE SAFE to LEARN POLICY: Preventing and Tackling Bullying

THE SAFE ACADEMY ENVIRONMENT

THE SAFE TO LEARN POLICY: Preventing and Tackling Bullying

ACADEMY DEFINITION

“Bullying is deliberately hurtful behaviour, repeated over a period of time.”

Hodgson Academy will not tolerate bullying, where someone is hurt either emotionally or physically, because of ethnic background, religious faith, gender, sexuality, disability, special educational need, appearance, age,issues in their family or any other reason.

Bullying can take many forms:

This can be physical (Hitting, theft)

Verbal (name-calling, racist, sexist and homophobic remarks, mean comments

about families or people with disabilities)

Indirect(spreading rumours, excluding from friendship groups)

Cyber-bullying(inappropriate text messaging, or Emailing)

Different roles in bullying have been identified and it is important that these terms are understood and used by all members of the school community.

The Ring-LeaderThe person who through their social power can direct bullying activity.

Assistants/AssociatesThose who actively join in the bullying (sometimes because they are

afraid of the ringleader. Sometimes because they want to stay friends

with the ringleader.)

ReinforcersThose who give positive feedback to the bully, perhaps by smiling or

laughing.

Outsiders/BystandersThose who stand back or stay silent and thereby appear to condone or

collude with the bullying behaviour.

DefendersThose who try to intervene to stop the bullying or comfort pupils who

experience bullying.

The Anti-Bullying Policy aims to:

1) Promote the educational and social well-being of every member of the Hodgson Community;

2) Celebrate differences and promote respect;

3) Encourage and reward good behaviour;

4) Keep all members of the Hodgson community informed about how the development of technology may bring changes

to the ways in which people may become victims of bullying.

5) Take all reported incidents of bullying seriously;

6) Deal with such incidents quickly and effectively;

7) Identify and support students who might be at risk;

8) Work with students who have bullied in order to promote good behaviour in future;

9) Create a safe environment for learning where every child matters.

The Limits of the Policy

It applies to every body when they are within the academy environment, when they are travelling to and from the academy and when they are out within the community.

Statutory Obligations, June 2013:

1) Every school must have measures to encourage good behaviour and prevent all forms of bullying amongst pupils.

These measures should be part of the academy’s behaviour policy which must becommunicated to all pupils, academy staff and parents.

2) Principals have the ability to discipline pupils for poor behaviour even when the pupil is not onacademy premises orunder the lawful control of academy staff.

Equality Duty:

The Academy must have due regard to the need to:

1) Eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation

2) Advance equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and peoplewho do not share it

3) Foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and people who do not share it.

The Academy must also understand that in response to criminal law:

Some types of harassing or threatening behaviour – or communications – could be a criminal offence:

Regard must be given to the Protection from Harassment Act 1997, the Malicious Communications Act 1988, the

Communications Act 2003, and the Public Order Act 1986.

If school staff feel that an offence may have been committed they should seek advice from the police.

Bullying OutsideAcademyPremises.

This can relate to any bullying incidents occurring anywhere off the academy premises, such as on academy or public transport, outside the local shops, or in a town or village centre.

Should the academy become aware of bullying issues that occur outside of the academy, where possible, these will be acted upon and investigated. The Principal should also consider whether it is appropriate to notify the police or anti-social behaviour coordinator in their local authority of the action taken against a pupil.

Cyberbullying

The wider search powers included in the Education Act 2011 gives teachers a specific power to search for and, if necessary, delete inappropriate images (or files) on electronic devices, including mobile phones.

Promoting and Rewarding Good Behaviour

Students have CARE embedded into their daily lives: Care And Respect for Everyone. Progress Time and Assembly time are used to promote the principles of CARE.

SEAL materials are used to promote an anti bullying culture and to promote the principles of effective team-work.

Plus-points are given for supportive behaviour.

Acts of kindness are rewarded during Anti-bullying week

Students are taught to understand what behaviour for learning looks like.

Procedures for Recording and Reporting Bullying Behaviour

Students are taught through PHSE, English and Drama how to recognise bullying behaviour and what to do if they witness it or if they are a victim of bullying.

Anti-Bullying week provides an opportunity for annual training and reviewing for staff and students provided by the Anti-Bullying Co-ordinator and taught through curriculum subjects, Registration periods and Assemblies.

Students are taught to report and challenge bullying behaviour.

Bullying incidents are recorded using the correct terminology on the Behaviour Log on SIMS.

Statements are collected and stored in The Pastoral Office.

Procedures for Dealing with Incidents including follow-up

All allegations of bullying are treated seriously.
When bullying is reported, witness statements are taken and aPastoral Support Officer, Progress Tutor and the Student ProgressCo-ordinator are involved. Every case of bullying may be different and will be treated differently.However, in all cases, parents are informed and support provided for the victim through the Peer mentorship system or through buddying.
Bullying incidents are recorded using the correct terminology on the Behaviour Log.
Bullies are sanctioned appropriately and are supported in returning to acceptable behaviour. It is also possible that Outside Agencies could be involved at this stage and students could be referred to the SENCO for inclusion on the Stages of the SEN Code of Practice and/or Behaviour Management Plan.

After a period of time, a follow-up letter is sent out to parents. (see Appendix)

Procedures for dealing with Complaints

The anti-bullying policy is made available to parents and opportunities to discuss it are provided.

Parents are given booklets in year 7 which outline what to do if they believe bullying is taking place.

The booklets also provide information on how to complain and what procedures are in place for that complaint to be heard.

Parents are invited to contact the School to express concernsin the first instance.

Should there be cause for further complaint, it is always possible to make an appointment to speak to members of the Senior Leadership Team, the Principal or Governors.

The Parentlineplus ( is recommended as a source of information and advice.

Supportive measures for students, parents, staff.

Providing an opportunity to review and respond to The Charter for Action (See Appendix) for the whole Hodgson Community.

The Behaviour for Learning Policy, including rewards for positive behaviour towards others.

Sanctions

All bullying is dealt with according to The Behaviour for Learning Policy and a range of sanctions appropriately applied. Steps are taken to support both victim and bully following the incident.

Preventative Measuresinclude:

Extra curricular clubs and activities for mixed age groups.

Team work days across the age groups.

Rewarding supportive behaviour.

6-2-7 Transition Project.

Peer mentoring between age groups

Assemblies and Tutor time.

Questionnaires to Staff, Parents and Students.

Analysis of SIMS data.

Anti-bullying week.

PSHE, Drama, English

Supervised areas in unstructured time, including named safe havens.

Safer Travel Plan

Prefects

Intervention Strategies

Early identification of students at risk.

One-to-one mentoring with trained student mentors.

Advice and support from external agencies as appropriate.

Time Out cards in agreement with Senior Members of Staff.

Audits of bullying hotspots.

Implementation and Monitoring of the Policy

The policy is reviewed by staff on an annual basis during Anti-Bullying week.

Staff training is provided during the same week on an annual basis.

Peer Mentors are trained every July ready to support students in year 6.

The Policy is always a working document and aspects of it are on view at all times around the school.

Information about Bullying appears in the student planner.

Evaluation of the Policy

Annual training and review by staff during Anti-bullying Week: 18th -22nd November, 2013: The Future is ours; Safe, Fun and Connected.

Bi-annual report to governors.

Approved by Governors Standards and Effectiveness Committee – July 2013

Satisfaction survey for parents

(This could be sent to parents two months after a bullying enquiry has taken place at the school to test out satisfaction with school systems. It should not be used if there is an on-going complaints procedure.)

Dear Parent/Carer

Two months ago your child was the subject of bullying behaviour. I am writing to seek your views on how well the school dealt with the problem. We will use this information confidentially within the school to inform our review of policy and practice. The individual details will not have any wider use unless we ask, and you give, your specific permission.

1) How easy was it for your child/you to report the bullying? (circle one)

1 2 3 4 5

(Not easy) (Very easy)

Comment if we could improve:

2) How satisfied are you with what we did to make your child feel safe? (circle one)

1 2 3 4 5

(Not satisfied) (Very satisfied)

Comment if we could improve:

3) How satisfied are you with the support your child has had from the school since the bullying incident? (circle one)

1 2 3 4 5

(Not satisfied) (Very satisfied)

Comment if we could improve:

4) Overall how satisfied are you with the way in which HodgsonSchool deals with bullying incidents?

1 2 3 4 5

(Not satisfied) (Very satisfied)

Comment if we could improve:

Thank you for your help in completing this. We will use this information to think about what we do to tackle bullying and make Hodgson School one where pupils and parents are confident that we are honest about problems which happen, confident that we do not tolerate bullying behaviour and confident that our systems support children.

Yours sincerely

Principal

Guidance is found in the DFE Documents:

Putting Learners First: Preventing and Tackling Bullying; June 2013

Safe to Learn (Safe to Learn: Embedding anti-bullying work in schools) DCSF-00656-2007

Cyberbullying (Safe to Learn: Embedding anti-bullying work in schools) DCSF-00658-2007