Charles Williams Church in Wales Primary School Bullying Prevention Policy June 2014 Review date June 2016 This Bullying Prevention Policy acknowledges the Welsh Government s Respecting Others: Anti- Bullying Guidance 2011 and it complies with the Equality Act 2010. The policy provides guidance on preventing and responding to incidents of bullying in the school and should be read in conjunction with the Behaviour Policy and Strategic Equality Plan. At Charles Williams Church in Wales Primary School we have a duty of care to protect our pupils from bullying as part of our responsibility to provide a safe, secure, caring and friendly school environment for all the children in order to protect them from those who wish to deliberately hurt them either physically or emotionally. Our safeguarding procedures are in line with the Safeguarding Children in Education Guidance 2008. We promote the welfare of all children in our care. Under no circumstances will we tolerate any form of bullying, including bullying around race, religion and culture, special educational needs and disabilities, cyberbullying, homophobic bullying, sexist, sexual and transphobic bullying, and all incidents of bullying will be dealt with promptly and effectively. It will be made explicit and clear to all those involved with Charles Williams CIW Primary School that we expect both children and adults to respect each other as members of our school family. To this end, we will aim to foster a sense of belonging and mutual support that extends to all in our school. We wish to work closely with the School Council to hear their views and opinions as we acknowledge and support Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child that children should be encouraged to form and to express their views. A Definition Of Bullying Bullying is a persistent, deliberate attempt to hurt or humiliate someone and often involves an imbalance of power where a person or group of people repeatedly and intentionally cause emotional and/or physical harm to another person or group of people. Bullying can take many forms, but the three main types are: Physical hitting, kicking, taking belongings, sexual harassment or aggression Verbal name calling, insulting, making offensive remarks Emotional spreading nasty stories about someone, exclusion from social groups, being made the subject of malicious rumours, sending malicious e-mails or text messages on mobile phones (through social networking sites) There are many important categories of bullying, including: Socio-Economic Status Gender Based Sexual Orientation Homophobic Faith-based SEN/Disability 2014 1
Gifted/Talented Cyber Racist Racist Incidents and Racist Bullying A racist incident is any incident which is perceived to be racist by the victim or any other person. All incidents of racist bullying are racist incidents and will be reported to the Local Authority in accordance with the LA E Form. Not all racist incidents, however, are necessarily instances of racist bullying. Racist bullying is included in the general definition of bullying, see above, because of a persons colour, ethnicity, culture, language, faith community, national origin or national status. Aims and Objectives To develop a school environment that is both safe and secure for all pupils. To have in place established systems that will deal with incidents of bullying. To develop confident children who will notify staff of any incident of bullying. To enable parents and pupils to feel confident that bullying in any of its forms will not be tolerated but will be dealt with firmly but fairly within the school. Roles and Responsibilities Role of the Governing Body The Governing Body will not condone any bullying and will ensure that every pupil has the right to learn, free from the fear of bullying or discrimination. The GB has: delegated powers and responsibilities to the Headteacher to eliminate all forms of bullying and to keep records of all incidents of bullying; delegated powers and responsibilities to the Headteacher to ensure all school personnel and visitors to the school are aware of and comply with this policy; responsibility for ensuring funding is in place to support this policy; responsibility for ensuring policies are made available to parents; nominated a link governor to visit the school, to liaise with the Personal, Social & Wellbeing Team to report back to the Governing Body; responsibility for the effective implementation, monitoring and evaluation of this policy Role of the Headteacher The Headteacher has a duty to encourage good behaviour, the respect for others and to prevent all forms of bullying among pupils. Therefore, the Headteacher will: implement this policy; ensure that all school personnel are aware of the policy; work to create a safe, secure, caring and friendly school environment for all the children; ensure that all pupils understand that bullying is wrong through curriculum provision and school assemblies; ensure that all parents aware of this policy and that we do not tolerate bullying; respond and deal with all incidents of bullying; ensure that incidents are recorded, monitored and reported to the LA and inform the schools self-evaluation process; monitor incidents and analyze patterns / repeated incidents and ensure that preventative strategies are based around data collection; monitor the effectiveness of this policy; report to the Governing Body on the success and development of this policy 2014 2
Role of the Personal, Social & Wellbeing Team The Personal, Social & Wellbeing Team will: lead the development of this policy throughout the school; work closely with the Headteacher and the nominated Personal, Social & Wellbeing Team Governors; provide guidance and support to all school personnel to understand the signs or behaviour of someone being bullied; work with children to determine those parts of the school where they do not feel safe; (through listening to learner forums and through anonymous questionnaires) consider best practice and plan prevention around each aspect of bullying (cyber, transphobic, homophobic, sexual, sexist, etc) keep up to date with new developments and resources; provide training for all staff on induction and when the need arises; ensure that there is suitable and sufficient opportunity in the curriculum and non-curriculum time through the school s PSE programme to explore issues relating to all types of bullying and discriminating incidents; monitor the provision for PSE, SEAL, Values for Life and work undertaken during annual Friendship Week. help counsel children who have been bullied and those who use bullying behaviour; review and monitor policy and practice; annually report to the Headteacher and GB on the success of this policy; ensure that the schools anti bullying policy and plan is communicated to the whole school community. Role of School Personnel School personnel will: be alert and challenge any form of bullying, including intimidation, physical and verbal abuse, cyberbullying, exclusion, persistent name calling and racism or other forms of prejudice. regularly discuss the definition of bullying with pupils (including being a bystander) be aware of the signs of bullying in order to prevent bullying taking place; take all forms of bullying seriously; encourage pupils to report any incidents of bullying to any member of the school personnel; report all incidents of bullying; raise awareness of the wrongs of bullying through PSHE, SEAL, Values for Life, Friendship Week, Internet Safety Day and School Assemblies; use preventative strategies such as circle time, circle of friends and buddy systems; undertake the appropriate training; comply with this policy. Role of Pupils Pupils must: report if they are being bullied; report if they see someone being bullied; discuss ways of preventing bullying. The School Council will be involved in: monitoring playgrounds, being alert to any form of bullying; promoting and supporting positive relationships between pupils; determining this policy with the Governing Body; discussing improvements to this policy during the school year; reviewing the effectiveness of this policy with the Governing Body 2014 3
Role of Parents Parents must: be aware of and support this policy; report to the school any concerns they have of their child being bullied; be assured that the school will deal with all incidents of bullying; be assured that they will be informed of incidents and will be involved in discussions; work with the school to draw up ideas that will help to support a child. follow the school s complaints procedure if they are not happy with the outcome. Practice and Procedures Training for School Personnel School personnel will undertake training in: What is bullying? Types of bullying such as cyberbullying, bullying, bullying of children with special educational needs, homophobic bullying and bullying around race, religion and culture; Recognising bullying; Understanding the problems with being a bystander Anti-bullying strategies; for each type of bullying How to deal with a bullying incident; Counselling the bullied and the bullies; Working and co-operating with parents and carers. Incidents & Investigation All reported incidents are investigated and dealt with. Parents are informed of events and what actions have been taken (where appropriate). Records will be kept of all incidents and their outcomes. See Incident Management Flow Chart & Bullying Assessment Flow Chart Incidents outside of School A good deal of bullying can take place outside of school, to and from school, on school transport, school trips or on mobile phones and social networking sites. All pupils are expected to comply with the School Travel Code 2010 (see school Behaviour Policy and Acceptable Use of ICT Policy). The school may take reasonable steps, at the discretion of the head teacher, to investigate incidents that have a negative impact on the orderly running of the school and/or might pose a threat to another pupil during school time or member of staff. Working with the Police The school will cooperate with the police if a pupil or parent/carer has reported an incident. Some forms of bullying behaviour may involve criminal offences and in these cases the school will contact the Schools Community Police Officer (SCPO). If the matter is urgent and the SCPO is unavailable, the school will contact the police directly in order to protect the person experiencing the bullying and to respond appropriately to the incident (see All Wales School Crime Beat Policy). The school will also work in partnership with the SCPO as part of the schools bullying prevention work (see www.schoolbeat.org). 2014 4
Incident Management Flow Chart Initial Response Incident is reported Treat incident seriously Listen and offer support in a confidential setting Keep a record while it is still fresh Respond Investigate Interview and take statements from those involved and bystanders Complete school incident report Follow school procedures, including use of sanctions, engagement with parents/ carers, safeguarding Resolve Provide feedback to person harmed Resolve next steps (e.g. sanctions, restorative work, mediation etc.) Provide feedback to appropriate others (parents/carers, staff, pupils) Report Complete LA E Form/SIMS Monitor Monitor relationships (e.g. in 4 weeks, one term, two terms) Monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of school policy and practice 2014 5
Bullying Assessment Flowchart Investigate the allegations When there is an incident of bullying reported it is necessary to investigate the problem. The children concerned will be interviewed to ascertain if a case of bullying has taken place. Was there aggression? Physical aggression - hitting, shoving or threatening injury. Verbal aggression name-calling, spreading rumours or exclusion. Yes Was there dominance? Was the aggressor stronger? Was one side outnumbered by the other? Yes Was there persistence? Was there more than one incident? Did the aggressor fail to stop when asked? Yes No No No Not Bullying Consider another solution to the problem. Not Bullying Consider another solution to the problem. Not Bullying Consider another solution to the problem. If Bullying has Occurred These steps can be followed but not necessarily in the set order. If the incident warrants then any of the following procedures can be used. Inform the parent/guardian and child undertakes sanctions in school. Circle time lessons used to educate children about bullying. Encourage the bully to apologise and find a way to improve his/her behaviour. Discuss with the pupils how to stop incidents occurring. Monitor and follow up to make sure bullying does not reoccur. Use peer support to assist on the yard and be available for children to talk to. If the act of bullying warrants it then fixed term exclusion can be instituted. Which if continues can eventually lead to expulsion. 2014 6
All reported incidents are investigated and dealt with. Parents are informed of events and what actions have been taken (where appropriate). Records will be kept of all incidents and their outcomes. If a complaint of bullying is made to a member of staff this is investigated by the Headteacher or in their absence, the Deputy Headteacher. If the complaint has any foundation then the following sanctions will apply. 1. The pupil/pupils involved will be verbally warned and the incident logged and dated. The situation is monitored regularly to ensure that there is no reoccurrence. 2. If the bullying is continued their parents are notified and invited to an interview in school to seek their support, co-operation and an agreement on the appropriate course of action Counselling Counselling and support mechanisms are in place to help those who have been bullied. All perpetrators of bullying are given time to discuss why they have bullied and why their actions were wrong. Raising Awareness of this Policy We will raise awareness of this policy via: the School Prospectus the School Website the Staff Folders meetings with parents such as introductory, transition, parent-teacher consultations and periodic curriculum workshops school events meetings with school personnel communications with home such as newsletters reports such annual report to parents and Headteacher reports to the Governing Body Monitoring and Evaluation The school will monitor incidents of bullying and racism in order to identify patterns of behaviour and the extent of the bullying. The school will then use this data to review the effectiveness of current policy and practice and identify priorities as part of the schools self-evaluation process. The school will also take into consideration any findings or recommendations from Estyn Inspections, independent reviews or the LA annual report to Head teachers. The views of pupils will be monitored through surveys and School Council Meetings. Arrangements for reviewing the policy This policy will be reviewed every two years or in light of new guidance or recommendations. Signed Signed Headteacher Chair of Governors Date 2014 7