MILLER ACADEMY ANTI-BULLYING POLICY

AIMS

The school aims to;-

             provide a safe, caring and protective environment for children;

             prevent incidents of bullying through a whole school policy and ethos;

             listen to the children when they have genuine concerns and pay attention to the warning signs of particular children having trouble coping in the playground, even if they have difficulty expressing this;

             strive to develop strong relationships with parents, maintaining good communication and an ‘open door’ policy for parental concerns.

WHAT IS BULLYING

Bullying is anti-social, aggressive behaviour which can take a number of forms.

It can involve;

physical assault when hands, feet or weapons are used;

verbal abuse as in name calling and threats;

 silence when a victim is sent to ‘Coventrv’.

Identifying a bully is not always easy. The typical 'big bully' does, indeed, exist. However, bullies come in many shapes and sizes.  When small they may depend onthreats backed up by others in the 'gang' who may also intimidate the victim.

The victim is generally, though not always, easier to spot than the instigator or perpetrator of a threat. The bullied individual is often solitary, quiet, sometimes small though again not always and he or she may be different in colour, background, accent,  religion, have a disability wear different clothes etc. The one certain characteristic of the victim is that he or she is perceived to be different

Care must be taken to ensure that bullying activity' is properly identified. Rough games, short-lived disagreements of a physical nature and the rough and tumble of everyday school life does occur and its significance should not be exaggerated. Equally, however one should not be blind to the possibility that there is a more deep seated problem. Children can be frightened by such activity and those activities may lead to a situation where certain children are always on the receiving end of what to some may appear to be harmless fun.  Often this harmless fun takes the form of teasing and taunting and this can be much more damaging than hitting kicking, etc.  It is certainly much more difficult to deal with by the victim and by the school.

KEY ELEMENTS IN ACTION AGAINST BULLYING

It is essential that school staff are aware that there will always be a potential for bullying and preventative action must be taken where appropriate. Such action must be set in the context of an active policy and there are certain important elements in an active policy.

There must be;

            a clear lead and active support by the Head Teacher of the policy and required action;

            a belief by the whole school that bullying is a serious issue that needs to be tackled;

            an understanding and feeling of ownership of the policy by everyone;

            open discussion about what counts as bullying;

an ethos that encourages victims and witnesses to speak up;

a readiness to treat incidents seriously however trivial they may appear at first glance;

a willingness to take action, and be seen to take action, when bullying is reported;

a school and classroom ethos which promotes respect for the individual

The School must encourage the development and recognition of role models of ant-bullying behaviour which;

show respect for every child as an individual;

are aware of vulnerable children;

avoid playing favourites, be  seen to be fair and avoid labelling;

have high expectations of pupils; avoid reference to other members of the family (just like your brother');

never give pupils ammunition to use against each other.

REACTING TO BULLYING INCIDENTS

 When bullying incidents are seen, if pupils report such incidents or when parents complain then it is essential that certain actions are taken.

the incident must be taken seriously;

concrete help, advice, support and feedback to victims and their families should be given;

consideration must be given to contacting the bullies' parents;

the bully must be encouraged to see the victim's point of view;

though it is generally desirable to criticise the behaviour rather than the child this should not preclude the possibility of punishment of the bully;

              A  PROACTIVE APPROACH TO BULLYING

The school must not wait until bullying incidents happen and then react to those incidents. The goal should always be to reduce and, if possible, prevent bullying occurring. This may be approached on a number of different levels and in a number of different ways.

children may be observed in the classroom and the playground by teachers and auxiliary staff in an effort to identify bullies and victims;

children can be encouraged to write about, or role play, bullying incidents in language work, health topics, social studies, assembly activities, etc.;

discussions about bullying should be part of the social education programme;

pupil questionnaires can reveal incidents of bullying;

reports of incidents in the media may be discussed;

short stories or novels may provide suitable study and discussion topics;

children can be encouraged to speak up about bullying and it may be useful to have named persons to whom victims and witnesses have the confidence to communicate their worries;

effort should be made to encourage children to participate in constructive breaktime activities which will divert them from getting involved in anti-social behaviour;

bullying should be monitored over the session to identify danger areas, classes and patterns of behaviour;

PROCEDURE FOR DEALING WITH BULLYING

When an incident of bullying is reported by a pupil, parent or staff member is essential that;-

            the Head Teacher is informed at the earliest opportunity;

the class teacher is informed;

the report/complaint is taken seriously and thoroughly investigated;

         details of the report/complaint and investigation are recorded on the Bullying Report Sheet;

a report of the outcome of the investigation is given to the Head Teacher if he has not himself carried out the investigation;

in the case of a complaint by a parent that their child has been bullied the Head Teacher should report to the parent the findings of the investigation and the action taken to prevent a recurrence - it may not be appropriate to report the action taken against the bully;

consideration be given to informing the bully’s parents of the incident and the action taken;

consideration be given to punishment of the bully by way of loss of privileges, reprimand, etc. ;

consideration be given to the steps necessary to prevent similar problems by way of proactive action through the curricular work of the school.