Warrenroadprimary School

WARRENROADPRIMARY SCHOOL

Anti- Bullying Policy

This policy is an extension of our school’s behaviour policy and shares our aim in creating a safe, caring environment at Warren Road. As is stated in our bullying charter for action: ‘We are working with staff, pupils and parents to create a school community where bullying is not tolerated’.

This policy should be read in conjunction with the Safeguarding policy.

What is Bullying?

There are many different definitions of bullying; Warren Road uses those given by the DfES and Kidscape:

Bullying is the use of aggression with the intention of hurting another person. Bullying results in pain and distress to the victim. It is repeated often over a period of time (with one proviso, that on some occasions, an isolated incident of bullying can occur).

Bullying can take many forms:

Emotional: being unfriendly, excluding or tormenting (e.g. hidingpossessions, threatening gestures). This can include bullying by mobile phone messages out of school.
Physical: pushing, kicking, hitting, theft,punching or any use of violence.
Racist:racial taunts, graffiti or gestures
Verbal:name-calling(including homophobic name-calling),sarcasm, spreading rumours, teasing or taunting,

(From ‘Bullying – Don’t suffer in Silence’ DfES publication 2000 and Kidscape bullying policy guidelines 2000)

Why is it Important to Respond to Bullying?

All our pupils have the right to feel safe and happy at Warren Road.

Bullying hurts. No one deserves to be a victim of bullying. Everybody has the right to be treated with respect. Pupils who are bullying need to learn different ways of behaving.

Schools have a responsibility to respond promptly and effectively to issues of bullying.

Objectives of this Policy

All governors, teaching and non-teaching staff, pupils and parents should have an understanding of what bullying is, including training on dealing with mobile texting and internet bullying..
All governors, teaching and non-teaching staff, and parents should know what the school policy is on bullying, and follow it when bullying is reported.
All pupils and parents should know what the school policy is on bullying, and what they should do if bullying arises.
As a school we take bullying seriously. Pupils and parents should be assured that they will be supported when bullying is reported.
Bullying will not be tolerated at Warren Road.
If a child is consistently exhibiting bullying behaviour, staff should investigate the reasons behind this behaviour and if necessary, through the SENCO and Child Protection officer, organise behavioural counselling.

Detecting Bullying:

A child may indicate by signs or behaviour that he / she is being bullied. Both parents and teachers should be aware of these possible signs and report any concerns to the Child Protection officer.

Physical signs, such as: / Emotional signs, such as:
Is unwilling to go to school.
Cries themselves to sleep at night or has nightmares.
Feels ill in the morning and / reluctant to come to school.
Has possessions go missing or frequently lost / damaged.
Has unexplained injuries.
Starts stammering.
Begins to do poorly in schoolwork. / Becomes withdrawn or anxious, or lacking in confidence.
A desire to remain with adults.
Flinching, distracted or jumpy.
Isolation within the class or from friends.
Becomes aggressive, disruptive or unreasonable.
Is frightened to say what’s wrong.
A change in usual patterns / routines of behaviour.
Gives improbable excuses for any of the above.

Reasons for Bullying

Bullies are often unhappy children. In dealing with the bully, steps should be taken to seek out the underlying reasons for the behaviour.

Lack of individual confidence, family difficulties, parental behaviour and other factors, may contribute to creating a child who needs to bully others. All staff involved in the above procedures should take these factors into account during the process. It is often difficult to pinpoint the exact reasons for bullying but children who become bullies tend to:

Have poor self esteem
Feel insecure in some way
Have been bullied themselves
Have been taught to succeed at all costs
Have few controls over their behaviour

Not all bullies have some or any of these characteristics, but understanding why a child bullies can be very helpful.

Prevention of Bullying

Teachers will deal with suspected cases of bullying sensitively and effectively.

The quality of relationship between teacher and child is of great significance in children’s development. Teachers provide models for their pupils. A positive relationship between teacher and child encourages the child to develop self-esteem and self-confidence.

Teachers will utilise the curriculum through PSHE & C, RE, Art (posters) and assemblies to provide opportunities for discussion, circle times and role-play centred on the issues of bullying. These opportunities will allow pupils to understand the consequences of their actions and encourage the issues of bullying to be discussed openly.

Teaching and non-teaching staff are developing a culture within the school where it is easy for a child to tell an adult if they are being bullied. Parents are encouraged to support this approach through discussions with the staff. Anti-bullying weeks are held regularly to ensure pupils know how to access help.

Facilities provided in the school such as the counselling service ‘Listening Ear’ and peer support initiative - Playground Pals are made available to all pupils. The children will be encouraged to approach them if they are troubled by any issues relating to bullying.

Anti-bullying weeks are promoted as part of the prevention programme. These are tied into national promotion campaigns, for example the wrist band scheme.

E – safety

As with all forms of harm or abuse, there is no exhaustive list of signs or indicators to watch out for. But these can include: changes in children’s behaviour, demeanour, physical appearance and presentation, language or progress.

If you are concerned that a child’s safety is at risk because you suspect someone is using communication technologies (such as social networking sites) to make inappropriate contactwith the child

Report to and discuss with the named child protection officer in school and contact parents
Advise the child on how to terminate the communication and save all evidence
Contact CEOP
Consider the involvement police and social services
Inform LA e-safety officer

Children should be confident in a no-blame culture when it comes to reporting inappropriate incidents involving the internet or mobile technology: they must be able to do this without fear.

6. For further guidance please see related policy document ‘ICT e-safety’and ‘Safeguarding.’

Actions for Dealing with Reported Incidents of Bullying

First Stage:

Any member of staff with a concern should report that concern to the child’s class teacher.

Class teachers will deal with reported incidents immediately by…

Talking to both the victim and the reported bully, taking written notes of both conversations.
By re-iterating the schools code of conduct, emphasising that bullying will not be tolerated.
By increasing PSHE opportunities to discuss general issues around the situation, making sure not to pinpoint the children involved.
By checking with the victim regularly to see if the situation has improved.
Separate meetings are held informally with the parents of the victim and the bully for initial discussions and / information that may improve the situation.

If these actions have no effect we will move onto the second stage.

Second Stage:

The class teacher will inform the Deputy Headteacher; a meeting will be arranged between the victim’s parents, the victim, the class teacher and the Deputy Headteacher. Notes will be recorded formally from this meeting using the school’s incident form and some target actions will be agreed and noted.
Meeting to be arranged with the bully’s parents, the bully, the class teacher and the Deputy Headteacher to discuss the completed incident form. A copy of the form will then be signed by both sets of parents and given to both for reference.
A review date of one week later will be agreed to repeat these meetings to review the situation.
The situation will be monitored on two or three occasions before an agreement is made for the monitoring to stop.

If the above action has not been effective in stopping the bullying the following further action may be taken:

To call in a behaviour specialist and /or counsellors from the LEA’s Behavioural Support Team for their advice & support.
Final Action would be for the Headteacher to recommend to the Governors that they agree to exclude the bully.

Dealing with the Victims of Bullying

To stop the actions of bullying, but not to help the victim, is to solve only half the problem. How to deal with a victim depends very much on how they responded to being bullied.

The main aim of any action taken to help victims must be to restore their self-esteem and their self-confidence. They should be made to see that there is nothing wrong with them. At Warren Road we want all our children to feel valued and respected as individuals regardless of their differences. Our children should have a sense of belonging within their peer group as well as part of the wider school community.

All children must be taught simple strategies to safeguard themselves against bullying. These include:

learning to walk away from situations quietly and confidently
speaking clearly, calmly and firmly (being assertive not aggressive /passive)
learning to ignore name-calling or taunting
leaving personal belongings at home or with their class teacher

Most importantly tell their class teacher or another adult that they trust straight away and tell their family.

Dealing with Bullies

The school will put into place a programme to support a child who has bullied. This may include opportunities to role play scenarios, join social nurture groups, and receive support from trained counsellors or behaviour experts.

T. Fletcher

Amended March 2011