Anti-Bullying Statement
- Bullying is unacceptable and will not be tolerated.
- Bullying is not in keeping with the values of our school.
- Bullying is anti-social behaviour and affects everyone, children and adults
- Bullying is defined as deliberately hurtful behaviour towards an individual or group, repeated over a period of time, where it is difficult for those being bullied to defend themselves.
- Bullying can be physical (e.g. hitting, kicking, theft, damage to property).
- Bullying can be verbal (e.g. name calling, racist remarks, threats, nasty teasing).
- Bullying can be psychological (e.g. spreading rumours, excluding someone from social groups).
- Bullying can be cyber-bullying (e.g. using mobile phones and social media to spread rumours, unkind images or insults).
- Bullying can take many forms, including: racial, religion, cultural, SEN or disability, appearance and health, home circumstances, homophobic, bi-phobic, transphobic, sexual).
- Bullying is not confined to children and young people; we recognise adults and children can be both bully and victim.
- Bullying is not confined to the school site, and we take of equal importance any reported bullying outside the school day that affects any member of our school community.
- Bullying is not playground squabble, disagreements and conflicts; it is a repetitive, intentional hurtful behaviour focused on one individual or group.
Reporting and Recording Bullying
- Any child who feels bullied is encouraged to report to a trusted adult, or to one of the school’s school council representatives who will then report it to a member of staff.
- Children are encouraged to ‘tell, tell and tell again’.
- Any parent who feels their child is being bullied is encouraged to report to the class teacher or a member of the school leadership team.
- Adults who feel they are bullied are encouraged to report this to the headteacher, or if this is not possible to the lead governor for anti-bullying.
- All members of the school community are expected to report and must not ignore any bullying they have witnessed.
- All reported allegations of bullying will be recorded in the schools reporting system, together with any evidence of substantiation that is available.
- The school will record actions taken and the outcomes of these actions.
- Incidents of bullying are reported termly to the Full Governing Body in anonymised form, through the headteacher’s report.
Responding to Allegations
On receiving an allegation related to bullying, a senior member of staff will:
- Take accounts from all involved (victim, bully, bystander witnesses).
- Inform parents where there is substantiating evidence of bullying.
- Apply sanctions according to the severity of the bullying.
- Loss of break times (in blocks of five minutes);
- Removal of pupil from class/activity;
- Formal letter home/meeting with parents;
- Exclusions from areas (e.g. playground) or activities (e.g. clubs);
- Lunchtime exclusion;
- Fixed term exclusion;
- Permanent exclusion.
In addition:
Bullies may be helped by:
- Opportunities to hear from the victim about how they felt;
- Close working with parents;
- Daily report card to modify behaviour;
- Referral if appropriate to other agencies.
Victims may be helped by:
- Opportunities to tell the bully how they felt and why;
- Allocation of a named adult for them to confide in.
- Referral if appropriate to other agencies for support.
Anti-Bullying Code
| A | Always tell someone Tell a responsible adult or a friend, someone to resolve the situation. You WILL be taken seriously. |
| B | Be positive Try not to let the bully see that you are upset. Say no and walk away confidently. |
| C | Care for each other You have a responsibility to tell an adult if you know someone is being bullied. Don’t be a bystander. |