ANTI-BULLYING POLICY
This anti-bullying policy was developed by the Principal, staff and representatives of the wider school community including the student council.
At Hurst Lodge our community is based upon respect, good manners and fair play. We are committed to providing a safe and caring environment that is free from disruption, violence and any form of harassment so that every one of our pupils can develop his/her full potential. We expect our pupils to treat members of staff and each other with courtesy and co-operation so that they can learn in a relaxed but orderly, atmosphere. All pupils should care for and support each other.
Hurst Lodge prides itself on its high levels of respect and mutual tolerance. Parents/guardians have an important role in supporting the school in maintaining high standards of behaviour. It is expected that school and homes have consistent expectations of behaviour and that they co operate closely together. Acceptance of this policy forms part of our standard terms and conditions.
Bullying, harassment, victimization and discrimination will not be tolerated. We endeavour to treat all our pupils and their parents fairly and with consideration and we expect them to reciprocate. Any kind of bullying is unacceptable.
What Is Bullying?
Bullying is the repeated harming of another individual or group. Bullying can take many forms. Children, young people and adults can instigate bullying and be bullied in schools. The nature of bullying is changing and evolving as technology develops. Bullying is harmful to all involved, not just to the person who is bullied, but to those who do the bullying and those who stand by. It can lead to self doubt, lack of confidence, low self esteem, depression, anxiety, self harm and sometimes even suicide. Bullying generally fits into one of two categories: emotional and physically harmful behaviour.
Methods of bullying can include the following:
name calling; taunting; mocking; making offensive comments; kicking; hitting; pushing; taking belongings; text messaging; emailing; gossiping; excluding people from groups; and spreading hurtful and untruthful rumours.
Definitions are different and individuals have different experiences. A definition compatible with the developing experiences and accounts of children and young people, and with much research in the area, is:
▪ repetitive, wilful or persistent
▪ harmful, carried out by an individual or a group
▪ an imbalance of power, leaving the victim feeling defenceless
It is important to recognise a person’s perception of whether they are bullied, especially when the other person says they did not mean to bully them and was ‘only teasing’ or ‘just joking’.
Bullying is often motivated by prejudice against particular groups, for example, on grounds of race, religion, culture, sex, gender, homophobia, special educational needs and disability, or because a child is adopted or is a carer - it may occur directly or through cyber-technology (social websites, mobile ’phones, text messages, photographs and email);
Statement of Principle
The policy for our school community’s behaviour includes the following statements:
· The whole school community has a collective responsibility to try and prevent and/or deal with bullying.
· It is the duty of each member of the school community to deal with incidents according to the policy and procedures, and to never let an incident pass by unreported.
· Everyone should be treated with respect.
· No-one should engage in name calling, back-chat, pointed sarcasm, etc.
· We will not tolerate harassment, racism or bullying of any kind.
· No one has the right to interrupt the learning of other pupils or interfere with anyone else's property.
· There should be no areas where pupils are afraid to go because of threats by others.
The Aims of this Policy are:
· to provide a clear statement regarding Hurst Lodge's stance on bullying
· to prevent bullying as far as is possible
· to provide strategies for dealing with any bullying which occurs
· to provide training for staff
· to support those who experience bullying
· to help prevent bullies repeating the behaviour
Definition
Bullying may be defined as the intentional hurting, harming or humiliating of another person by physical (including sexual), verbal (including: sexism, sexual language, chat room and SMS messages), and emotional means (by excluding, tormenting or spreading malicious rumours). It can involve manipulating a third party to tease or torment someone. It can involve complicity that falls short of direct participation. Bullying can be hidden and subtle or overt and intimidatory.
Bullying may involve actions or comments that are racist, cultural, homophobic, sexist/sexual or sexually charged or which focus on disabilities or other physical attributes.
Bullying can happen anywhere and at any time and where the relationship involves an imbalance of power.
We always treat bullying seriously. It conflicts sharply with the school’s policy on equal opportunities as well as with its social and moral principles.
The school recognises that bullying causes great unhappiness with a range of consequences
· The unwillingness to return to school, frequent absence, erratic attendance, late arrival to class
· Choosing the company of adults
· Failure to produce work or producing unusually bad work, work that appears to have been copied or interfered with or spoilt by others
· Belongings that suddenly go missing
· Change to established habits such as giving up lessons or changing accents and vocabulary
· Displays of anxiety, such as being unusually quiet and diminished levels of self-confidence. Displaying repressed body language and poor eye contact
· Frequent visits to the office or sick bay with symptoms such as stomach pains, headaches
· Unexplained cuts and bruises, weight loss and crying
· Difficulty in sleeping and/or experiences of nightmares
· Talking of suicide or running away
Although there may be other causes for some of the above symptoms, a repetition or a combination of these possible signs of bullying should be investigated by parents and teachers.
It is the responsibility of all staff to be vigilant and to identify possible cases of bullying.
All pupils are responsible for reporting cases of bullying whether they themselves or a peer is being bullied.
If students prefer, they may speak to a 6th Former or older student who must report to a member of staff. All reports will be treated sensitively and with appropriate levels of confidentiality.
All cases of alleged bullying will be treated seriously. Depending on the severity in the first incidence a range of actions may be taken in line with the school discipline policy.
Preventing Bullying.
To be effective in preventing bullying a whole school, long term approach needs to be considered which works to create an environment in which tolerance is the norm and prejudice and bullying are seen as unacceptable behaviours.
To prevent bullying it is important that, as a school, we understand what causes bullying. Research recognises societal factors as having an influence however, the school climate and quality of teacher and pupil relationships can have powerful effects. It is also important that individual factors are recognised such as appearance, personal hygiene, temperament, special educational needs, ability to empathise, personal self-esteem, and popularity can be factors in predicting bullying roles. Often bullying children are popular whereas victims may have few friends. When designing strategy it is important that every aspect possible is considered.
It is also essential that everyone in the school community recognises that they have a responsibility to be proactive in preventing bullying and in reporting any incidents or suspicions of bullying that they become aware of.
To prevent bullying at Hurst Lodge we need to:
Ensure that the whole school community understands what is meant by bullying.
Make it clear that bullying of any kind will not be tolerated.
Create an environment in which tolerance is the norm.
Interweave a culture of tolerance to others and anti-bullying into our curriculum.
Ensure that staff lead by example in the way that they interact with children and other adults.
Identify when and where bullying is likely to take place and examine how we can alter our practices accordingly.
Create a culture and systems that enables children to report bullying incidents without feeling that they are ‘telling’ and possibly making the situation worse
Ensure that all incidents and allegations are seen to be taken seriously, investigated and if necessary, acted upon, with clearly defined procedures and consistently applied sanctions
Provide a thorough and systematic recording procedure for incidents, so that their nature, prevalence, investigation and outcome can reliably inform review and evaluation of the policy.
Facilitate participation in peer support for those involved in bullying incidents.
We will address the topic of bullying within school assemblies and explain the school’s policy on bullying. We discuss bullying in subject classes and form time as appropriate to the curriculum and current form issues.
PSHCE and form times in years 1 – 11 and Circle time in the Early Years will include work on settling into the Hurst Lodge community, making friends, friendship problems, working as part of a form group, supporting each other and dealing with bullying. We aim to give pupils an awareness of their social and moral responsibilities as they progress through the school. The PSHCE programme is structured to enforce the message about community involvement and taking care of each other.
Lessons particularly PSHCE, RE, English and Drama highlight the issue of bullying and reinforce this message by teaching moral and spiritual values that show bullying to be unacceptable.
Guidelines for action
Sanctions for bullying are intended to hold pupils who bully to account for their behaviour and ensure that they face up to the harm they have caused and to learn from it. They also provide an opportunity for the pupil to put right the harm they have caused. We also want to ensure that the needs of the pupil who has experienced bullying are addressed.
All our pupils are encouraged to tell a member of staff at once if they know that bullying is taking place.
All victims of suspected bullying should report instances directly to a member of staff. Pupils should not respond to bullying with violence. If students prefer, they may speak to a 6th Former or older student who will report to a member of staff.
If a child is suspected of bullying another child or children we intervene to stop the child harming the other child or children. We explain to the child doing the bullying why his or her behaviour is inappropriate. We offer re-assurance to the child or children who have been bullied and help the child who has done the bullying to say sorry for his or her actions. We make sure that children who bully receive praise when they display acceptable behaviour, we do not label children who bully. When children bully we may discuss what has happened with their parents and work out with them a plan for handling the child’s behaviour. When children have been bullied we share what has happened with their parents explaining that the child who did the bullying is being helped to adopt more acceptable ways of behaving. We will monitor reported incidents.
When students are not in class, the staff patrol the school site, particularly areas where bullying might occur.
All students have access to a telephone enabling them to call for support in private.
Posters displaying details of help lines are displayed in the school
Sixth form students are encouraged to offer advice and support to younger pupils. Senior pupils given positions of responsibility over other pupils, on appropriate action to take should they receive any allegations or abuse or bullying.
Any form of initiation ceremony but especially those designed to cause pain, anxiety or humiliation is prohibited.
We reserve the right to investigate incidents that take place outside school hours, on school visits and trips and that occur in the vicinity of the school, involving our pupils.
The alleged perpetrator will be interviewed and all circumstances fully investigated. Verbal witness statements may be taken.
Parents are encouraged to take a positive approach in educating pupils to combat bullying. They should report any concerns that they have to their child’s form tutor and should be encouraged to permit the school to deal with the incident. Parents are advised that it is extremely difficult to investigate incidents of bullying where the staff are not permitted to identify the victim. Parents are requested not to tackle other parents, but to let the school deal with the problem.
Cyber bullying – definition
Cyber bullying involves the use of information and communication technologies to support deliberate, repeated, and hostile behaviour by an individual or group that is intended to harm others.
Cyber bullying can involve Social Networking Sites, like Facebook and twitter emails and mobile phones, used for SMS messages and as cameras.
Cyber bullying – preventative measures
In addition to the preventative measures described above, Hurst Lodge:
Expects all pupils to adhere to its charter for the safe use of the internet. Certain sites are blocked by our filtering system and our IT department monitors pupils’ use.
We may impose sanctions for the misuse or attempted misuse of the internet and where students’ actions bring themselves or the school into disrepute.
We will issue all pupils in year 6 and above with their own personal school email address and a code of conduct is agreed to. Access to any other email sites is not allowed.
We adhere to the BECTA guidelines regarding E-Teaching and the internet.
We offer guidance on the safe use of social networking sites and cyber bullying in IT lessons which covers keeping personal information private and the use of contact lists.
We offer guidance on keeping names, addresses, passwords, mobile phone numbers and other personal details safe.
Mobile phones are not permitted in classrooms, public areas of the school or where they may cause annoyance to others.
The use of cameras on mobile phones is not allowed in washing and changing areas of the school or in the bedrooms of the boarding house.
Parents are advised that the school cannot be held responsible for unfiltered internet connection on mobile phones.