At Phil and Jim, our core values are Love, Compassion and Community. As a consequence, our values aim to provide a safe, caring and friendly environment for all pupils so they can learn in a relaxed and secure atmosphere.
We believe that all bullying behaviour is unacceptable.
We expect pupils to feel safe in school and on school related journeys. We want them to understand issues relating to safety, such as bullying, and how to seek support from school should they feel unsafe.
We also want parents/carers to feel confident that their children are safe and cared for in school and that incidents, when they do arise, are dealt with promptly and well.
Definition of Bullying
The repetitive, intentional hurting of one person or group by another person or group, where the relationship involves an imbalance of power. Bullying can be physical, verbal or psychological. It can happen face-to-face or through cyberspace.
How does bullying differ from teasing/falling out between friends or other types of aggressive behaviour?
- There is a deliberate intention to hurt or humiliate.
- There is a power imbalance that makes it hard for the victim to defend themselves.
- It is usually persistent.
What is bullying behaviour?
Bullying behaviour can be physical, verbal or emotional and includes:
- verbal abuse, such as name calling and gossiping
- non-verbal abuse, such as hand signs or text messages
- emotional abuse, such as threatening, intimidating or humiliating someone
- exclusion, such as ignoring or isolating someone
- undermining, by constant criticism or spreading rumours
- controlling or manipulating someone
- racial, sexual, homophobic, bi-phobic, transphobic or gender based bullying
- physical assaults, such as hitting and pushing
- making silent, hoax or abusive calls
- online or cyberbullying.
Why are children bullied?
Specific types of bullying include:
- race including colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin including Gypsy Roma, Travellers
- religion, belief or lack of religion/belief
- sex / gender
- sexual orientation
- home circumstances
Why is it important to respond to bullying?
- Bullying hurts and makes people unhappy.
- No one deserves to be a victim of bullying. Everybody has the right to be treated with respect.
- Pupils who are being bullied are unlikely to concentrate fully on their school work.
- Some pupils avoid being bullied by not going to school.
- Pupils who observe unchallenged bullying behaviour are likely to copy this anti-social behaviour.
- Pupils who are bullying need to learn different ways of behaving.
- Schools have a responsibility to respond promptly and effectively to issues of bullying.
A Shared Understanding
- All governors, teaching and non-teaching staff, pupils and parents should have an understanding of what bullying is.
- All governors and teaching and non-teaching staff 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.
Information for Children
If you are being bullied:
- 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 straight away what has happened.
After you have been bullied:
- Tell a teacher or another adult in your school.
- Tell your family.
- If you are worried about telling a teacher or an adult on your own, ask a friend to go with you.
- Keep on speaking up until someone listens.
- Don’t blame yourself for what has happened.
When you are talking about bullying with an adult, 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 have you done about it already?
- In cases of bullying, the incidents will be recorded by staff.
- Parents will be informed and asked to come in to a meeting to discuss the problem.
- The bullying behaviour or threats of bullying will be investigated and the bullying stopped quickly.
- Help will be given to the victim to help them deal with the bullying.
- Help will be given to the bully (bullies) to help them change their behaviour.
- The bully (bullies) may be asked to apologise. Other consequences may take place in line with our behaviour policy.
- The behaviour policy will be followed.
- After the incident/incidents have been investigated and dealt with, each case will be monitored to ensure repeated bullying does not take place. If bullying continues then the behaviour policy will be followed.
We will use a variety of methods for helping children to prevent bullying. As and when appropriate, these may include:
- Developing the PSHCE curriculum throughout the school
- Online Safety taught through the Computing curriculum
- Involving the whole school community in writing and reviewing the policy
- Circle time on bullying issues.
- Assemblies at targeted times during the year and in response to any issues
- Raising awareness of Bullying for all stakeholders during initiatives such as Anti-Bullying Week
- Raising awareness of Bullying through the website
- Publishing useful links on the school website focussing on anti-bullying and how to deal with bullying effectively
- Establishing Online Safety rules
- Using drama activities and role play to help children become assertive in dealing with bullying situations
- Promotion of a positive playground ethos led by Playground Leaders as a proactive strategy to anti-bullying
- Everyone in the school community to model positive behaviour to each other
- Providing Anti-Bullying training for all staff
- The use of restorative practices across the school to ensure empathetic proactive approaches
Advice for Parents
If you think your child has been bullied:
- Calmly talk with your child about his/her experience.
- Make a note of what your child says – particularly who was said to have been involved; how often the bullying has occurred; where it happened and what has happened.
- Reassure your child that he/she has done the right thing to tell you about the bullying.
- Explain to your child that should any further incidents occur he/she should report them to the teacher immediately.
- Make an appointment to see your child’s class teacher.
- Explain to the teacher the problem your child is experiencing.
Talking with 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 about an incident.
- Be as specific as possible about what your child says has happened – give dates, places and names of other children involved.
- Make a note of what action the school intends to take.
- Ask if there is anything you can do to help your child or the school.
- Stay in touch with the school; let them know if things improve as well as if problems continue.
Families who feel that their concerns are not being addressed appropriately by the school might like to consider the following steps:
- Make an appointment to discuss the matter with the Headteacher.
- In the last resort, follow the Complaints Procedure.
If your child is bullying other children:
Many children may be involved in bullying other pupils at some time or another. Often parents are not aware that their child is involved in bullying.
Children sometimes bully others because:
- They don’t know it is wrong.
- They are copying older brothers or sisters or other people in the family whom they admire.
- They haven’t learnt other, better ways of mixing with their school friends.
- Their friends encourage them to bully.
- They are going through a difficult time and are acting out aggressive feelings.
To support your child if they have bullied someone:
- Talk with your child; explain that what he/she is doing is unacceptable and makes other children 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 he/she can join in with other children without bullying.
- Make an appointment to see your child’s class teacher; explain to the teacher the problems your child is experiencing; discuss with the teacher how you and the school can stop him/her bullying others.
- Regularly check with your child how things are going at school.
- Give your child lots of praise and encouragement when he/she is co-operative or kind to other people.