Our School Anti-Bullying Plan
OUR SCHOOL ANTI-BULLYING PLAN
Explain how representation from the whole school community has been ensured. Explain how and at what stages you have/you will engage the school community in developing, implementing, evaluating and reviewing this plan.
This plan outlines the processes for preventing and responding to student bullying in our school and reflects the Bullying: Preventing and Responding to Student Bullying in Schools Policy of the New South Wales Department of Education and Communities.
Fairfield High School (FHS) recognizes and believes that students, staff and all other members of the school community have the right to feel safe and secure when at school and that the school itself should be a pleasant environment.
Our Anti-Bullying plan has been generated by a team that represents members from the entire school community. Our plan will be implemented in a manner that ensures consistency and accessibility, and will be revised at regular intervals throughout the school year. The content of the plan will be dispersed in a number of different ways to reach all members of the community, such as: through the curriculum; parent/carer information sessions; assemblies; presentations from our principal and members of the local community such as the Police; student projects aimed at creating a shared view on bullying such as ‘Battle of the Bands’, painting a shared banner to display at the front of the school, creating educational videos uploaded to youtube; SRC run peer education; regular educational/psycho-education groups run by our SSO or trained facilitators from external local agencies; staff training and development; presentations and training for senior executive. This will ensure our entire school is on board which in turn will allow for consistency within our community of our anti-bullying message and approach.
The plan will be formally reviewed by the team at regular meetings as well as informally at fortnightly welfare meetings, fortnightly senior executive meetings, and by our Principal and Deputy Principals as required. We will run surveys to obtain feedback from all members of the school community at the start and end of each term.
STATEMENT OF PURPOSE
Enter a statement of purpose that outlines the key beliefs or principles about bullying behaviour and the aims of the school on which this AB plan is based.
Students, teachers and all other members of the school community at Fairfield High School have the right to work in a safe, secure and pleasant environment. This belief is stated clearly in the school’s welfare policy and discipline code – CARE. The CARE code states ‘At Fairfield High School we aim to be informed, confident, caring, responsible individuals and citizens’. The code stands for the following: C – Community: As citizens in the school community, we take responsibility to attend classes, be on time and dress to the school standard. A – Achievement: As individuals, we will aim to work to the best of our ability so that we and learn and succeed. R – Respect: We will behave in a way that shows respect for ourselves, each other and our laws. E – Environment: To do our best, we must make sure that our school is a safe and pleasant place for all members of the school community.
Fairfield High School aims to:
- Provide an environment where students, staff and members of the school community feel safe and confident to report incidents of bullying and harassment and to break the code of silence.
- Take action to remedy a situation when bullying and harassment occur.
- Procide access for students, staff and other members of the school community, to report incidents of bullying and harassment in a safe and confidential manner, and without fear of recrimination.
- Provide guidelines for students, teachers, parents and other members of the school community to deal with incidents of bullying.
- Educate the school community in an attempt to minimize bullying and harassment.
FHS views Bullying as a serious issue because it can adversely affect the well being and progress of the victim who may suffer from the effects of being bullied even beyond school years and well into adulthood.
FHS recognizes the need for an established and well developed Anti-Bullying Plan in order to reduce the occurrence of bullying in our school. Our policy will promote positive relationships between members of the school community and aims to prevent bullying and harassment. Our plan applies to the entire school community (students, teachers, caregivers and parents, non-teaching staff, school visitors, employers and other adults within the community) and all incidents will be addressed.
PROTECTION
Explain the understandings the school has reached about bullying behaviour that captures all forms of bullying including cyberbullying.
FHS definition is consistent with DEC’s: “Bullying is repeated verbal, physical, social or psychological behaviour that is harmful and involves the misuse of power by an individual or group towards one or more persons. Cyberbullying refers to bullying through information and communication technilogies. Bullying can involve humiliation, domination, intimidation, victimisation and all forms of harassment including that based on sex, race, disability, homosexuality or transgender”.
FHS also recognises the description on the Bullying No Way! Website www.bullyingnoway.com.au
“Bullying often happens out of sight, away from teachers or other adults. Bullying is a behaviour that happens over and over. The person or people who are bullying tend to target other children they have some power over. Bullying can include name-calling, teasing, putdowns, being hit, tripped, pinched, being ignored, having rumours spread about you, nasty gestures, threats or being stalked”
Explain what is considered by the school community to be bullying behaviour, how that behaviour is viewed by the school and what the school will do about it.
FHS has a zero-tolerance stance against bullying.
Our school recognizes Bullying as:
“Bullying is differentiated from other forms of aggressive behaviour in that it involves a more powerful group or individual dominating through violence, aggression and/or intimidation a less powerful group or individual over an extended period of time” (Olweus, 1997).
“Bullying involves a desire to hurt + hurtful action + a power imbalance + (typically) repetition + an unjust use of power + evident enjoyment by the aggressor and generally a sense of being oppressed on the part of the victim.” (Rigby, 2002, p. 51).
See Bullying Response Flow Chart
Explain the understandings the school has developed about the individual and shared responsibilities of students, parents, caregivers and teachers in preventing and responding to bullying behaviour.
CARE code
1. Students:
The Welfare Policy and Discipline Code highlight the fact that all students have the responsibility to help maintain a safe school environment. Students are to be encouraged to report incidents of bullying. Many students are more likely to seek help from students rather than teachers, so all students are to be encouraged to be supportive of each other and encourage others to report incidents of bullying to a teacher or Year Adviser. Students must respect the rights of all students, teachers and other members of the school community.
2. Senior Students/SRC/Peer Support Leaders:
These students should be available to listen to students when they have a complaint about bullying. They should encourage the student to report the incident to a teacher, and accompany the student to do this, whenever possible.
3. Teaching Staff:
It is important for teachers to understand their role in combating bullying in the school. Research has shown that how teachers interact with students has important consequences for the level of bullying in a school. Teachers at Fairfield High School will aim to:
§ Express disapproval of bullying whenever it occurs, both in the classroom and also in the playground
§ Listen sympathetically to students who need support when they are bullied
§ Refer the incident to the head Teacher (via referral form) or to the Year Adviser or Head Teacher Welfare
§ Encourage cooperative learning in the class room
§ Act as a role model by not dominating or being authoritarian
§ Talk with groups of students about bullying and encourage them to include victimised students in their activities
1. Head Teachers:
Head teachers will aim to:
§ Reinforce the anti-bullying policy by including content that highlights abuses of power (Social Sciences, English, History etc.) Here aspects of interpersonal behaviour such as prejudice, discrimination and violence can be examined; perhaps basic skills underlying the practice of pro-social behaviour may be developed.
§ Encourage members of their faculty to implement the objectives in the previous section (3) and to support students who are being victimised.
§ Interview bullies identified in the classes of teachers, and refer the incidents to the Deputy Principal (referral form).
4. Parents and School Community Members:
Parents and other school community members will be informed about the school's Anti-Bullying Policy through parent/teacher contact and publications such as the school diary and newsletters. Parents and encouraged to support The Anti-Bullying Policy and to report incidences if they occur.
Detail the strategies the school will implement to maintain a positive climate of respectful relationships where bullying is less likely to occur
Playground / School CommunityActs assertively to stop the conflict
- Supports the Anti-Bullying Plan
- Abides by the CARE code
- ‘Stop Help Tell’ intervention / Class room
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Dealing with cases of bullying:
When incidents of bullying occur the following procedures will be used:
Counselling:
According to Rigby (1995) “Some form of counselling should occur before sanctions are considered. Changes in relationships between students involved in bullying can often be effected without the use of severe interrogation, blame and punishment. Subtle forms of bullying can often be practiced without detection, and therefore it is extremely difficult to control bullying by strict disciplinary methods.”
All teachers are encouraged to listen sympathetically to students, but members of the Welfare team can play a particular role here. The counsellors and SSO will assist with those students who seek their help or who are referred to them
Sanctions:
When counselling is not successful and the bully does not feel or show concern for the victim, parents will be interviewed, other sanctions imposed and suspension may result. The Deputy Principal and the Principal will impose the appropriate sanctions.
Registration of bullying incidents:
Incidents of bullying should be documented using the school’s referral procedure. After this has been done, they are electronically registered.
Letters to parents/caregivers:
The Principal will send a letter home to the parents/caregiver of the perpetrator and victim of the bullying event explaining the school’s stance on bullying to make the parent aware of the issue and request that they address it at home.
Providing support for victimised students
· The counselors and SSO, supported by the members of the Welfare team, will provide strategies to encourage and help victimised students to become more resilient and to develop assertiveness skills.
· When a student is being bullied, strategies (such as leaving school early) can be put in place so that they avoid further harassment.
· SSO running groups for resilience/relationships/conflict resolution
PREVENTION
Detail the strategies and programs the school will implement for bullying prevention.
See Bullying Response Flow Chart
FHS employs the evidence based intervention from the UWS Bullying in Groups research, ‘Stop Help Tell’.
Detail how the school is embedding anti-bullying messages into each curriculum area and in every year level.
1. PDHPE conduct classes focusing on Bullying and related issues for a full half term every year, in all year groups. These classes are tailored to be year group specific such that they meet the needs and issues of each individual year group.
2. Welfare team have distributed Workbooks for all teaching staff containing lesson plans for all year groups and KLA’s. These lessons are incorporated at the teachers discretion with the aim being that all are covered within a term.
3. The UWS Bullying in Groups Teachers Manual contains lesson plans and ideas that can be implemented across all year groups and KLA’s. Each faculty will be given time in their Faculty Meetings to discuss how to implement these into at least 3 lesson plans per term for each year group.
EARLY INTERVENTION
Detail the early intervention strategies and programs your school will implement for students who are identified as being at risk of developing long-term difficulties with social relationships and those students who are identified at or after enrolment as having previously experienced bullying or engaged in bullying behaviour.
See Bullying Response Flow Chart
Students who are identified as being at risk of developing long term difficulties with social relationships or have previously experienced bullying or engaged in bulling behaviour will be given the opportunity to participate in structured and unstructured interviews, activities and workshops facilitated by various members of the school community, e.g. HT Student Support, Year Advisors, HT Welfare, Counselors, SSO, and trained staff from external agencies. These interviews, activities and workshops will cover areas related to bullying such as:
- Resilience
- Building positive healthy relationships
- Anti-Bullying Awareness
- Conflict Resolution
- Anger Management
- Social skills
- Leadership
Programs such as Rock and Water, the material from Mind Matters, the Sensability Kit from Beyond Blue and relevant youth programs will be implemented also.
Students who are most at risk will be monitored by their year advisor and any incidents of bullying will be referred to the HT Welfare, the DP or the Principal.
RESPONSE:
Detail the strategies your school will implement to empower the whole school community to recognise and respond appropriately to bullying, harassment and victimisation and behave as responsible bystanders.
- UWS Bullying in Groups program will run through the school over 2012 and will be firmly embedded in the school’s policy for years to come. This involves members of the whole school community and the effectiveness will be assessed regularly throughout the year.
- Educational approach: assemblies, curriculum, staff meeting presentations and education, regular review, newsletters, website etc
Detail the procedures for reporting incidents of bullying at your school. Detail how these procedures will be publicised to your school community.