Bullying
Bullying is any form of behaviour done with the deliberate intention of causing unhappiness for another member of the school. No bullying will be tolerated in our school. We believe it is everyone's responsibility to stop bullying happening.
Our school has adopted the Anti Bullying Alliance definition of bullying which states that bullying is: The repetitive, intentional hurting of one person or group by another person or group, where the relationship involves an imbalance of power.
Many kinds of behaviour can be considered bullying behaviours, and bullying can be related to almost anything. Bullying is acted out through the following mediums:
- Verbal
- Physical
- Emotional
- Online (cyberbullying)
If bullying behaviours are found to target a protected characteristic (such as age, gender, race, disability or religion) we will conduct an Equalities incident review.
We have a really robust bullying investigation and support process. We are really proud of the fact that in the majority of cases where we have used our bullying investigation and support process the bullying stops and doesn't reoccur.
When bullying behaviours have been reported and the process is initiated, the following action will be taken:
- Teachers will carry out an initial investigation to find out more information.
- Parent/Carers of all children involved will be informed of the investigation so that their view point can be included in the process.
- Once the initial investigation is complete, teachers will meet with phase leads to discuss the outcome of the investigation and to decide if (based on the evidence we have collected) this meets the definition of bullying.
- If the incident meets the definition of bullying a bullying support plan will be put in place which will detail support, monitoring and follow up for everyone involved.
We timetable regular check ins with parents/carers throughout the process. Once parent/carers feel that the bullying behaviours have stopped and there has been a month with no incidents then we end the active process.
Our full anti bullying policy is available here and outlines more about our work to prevent, address and monitor bullying incidents.