Lyndhurst Avenue, Hazel Grove, Stockport SK7 5HP
MOORFIELD’S BEHAVIOUR and ANTI-BULLYING POLICY
1. Introduction
Our School Vision –
Moorfield Primary School will be a safe and happy place where children, staff, parents and governors all work together to give every child the best possible education for life – “we will be the best school we can possibly be”
Our School Values –
· We will value each child as an individual and encourage them to love one another, learn together, laugh together and look after each other and our World.
· We will encourage the development of self-worth, mutual respect and a commitment to each other.
· We will create a safe yet challenging, stimulating yet nurturing environment to help each individual child to achieve her/his full potential.
· We will provide opportunities for the whole school community to thrive emotionally, spiritually, socially and culturally.
· We will promote the self worth of each individual child through provision of opportunities to develop self-confidence, independence, responsibility and personal intellectual growth.
Our School Aims –
· Our School should be a fun place to be where children are given every opportunity to succeed.
· All the children should be encouraged to work together as a team.
· The learning environment should be challenging and a pleasant place to be.
· All the children should be taught to respect the thoughts and belongings of others.
· All the children should be taught to be kind to one another.
· School should prepare children to have a successful future.
We believe:
Education is a preparation for life and our aim is to teach the children the relevant skills and knowledge which, allied to a variety of opportunity and experience, will help them to understand our present way of life and enable them to adapt to the new ways of the future.
Our School is working to create an environment in which each individual girl and boy of primary school age will find the personal challenge, satisfaction and encouragement to enable him or her to develop his or her potential to the full. We expect our children to become happy, caring and well-motivated members of the community. The creation of a good self-image and an understanding of the needs of others will be basic ingredients of life at Moorfield Primary School.
2. Principles at Moorfield Primary School
Our statements of principles are our “The Golden Thoughts.” These are written in children’s terms that we introduce to the children when they start school in the Reception classes and these are revisited at the start of every year. These thoughts underpin the way we work with our children:-
1. We are kind, helpful and friendly to everyone.
2. We listen carefully.
3. We work hard and do our best.
4. We look after our school.
5. We are calm and gentle in school.
6. We are well mannered and polite.
3. Expectations
At Moorfield we expect all children to do their best at all times. In behavioural terms, we particularly expect them to:-
· Develop sensitivity to the needs, belongings and way of life of others, and development of tolerance and respect for these.
· Develop moral values, and the self-confidence to make moral judgements.
· Develop self-discipline and responsibility for their own well-being and good health.
· Develop consideration for others when the need arises.
These will be achieved by following the schools 3 Cs: Care, Courtesy and Consideration
· We will treat everyone as well as we would want to be treated ourselves.
· We will work to the best of our ability and not to waste our time or the time of those around us
· We will show respect for other people irrespective of sex, race, religion or disability/ ability
· We will treat other people's belongings as though they are our own treasured possessions.
· We will make every effort to support and help those who are finding things difficult.
· We will show respect for, and value, the thoughts and beliefs of others, even though they may be very different from our own.
· We will make every effort to avoid causing hurt or distress to others.
4. Acceptable and unacceptable behaviour
We define acceptable behaviour as that which promotes the 3Cs: care, courtesy and consideration from all pupils in terms of their relationships with other pupils within/outside the school, teachers and other school staff, and with visitors or other persons at the school.
We have identified examples of unacceptable behaviour as that which includes:-
· Disruptive behaviour, and behaviour which threatens the teaching and learning of others
· Name-calling, verbal abuse, swearing
· Threatening language/behaviour and intimidation; verbal, non-verbal, written
· Physical abuse
· Bullying and harassment, including racist, sexist and homophobic abuse
· Damage of property; school and personal
· Drug and alcohol related incidents
· Spitting
· Stealing
· Unkindness due to disability, race, gender, size, appearance, sexual orientation etc.
· Intimidation, unkindness, bullying by phone or Internet
· Behaviour which puts the health and safety of any member of the school at risk.
We regularly communicate the standards of acceptable and unacceptable behaviour to pupils and parents/carers through the published school rules, prospectus, home-school agreement, assemblies, school VLE, newsletters and letters to parents/carers.
5. Restorative Approaches
Moorfield is a Restorative Approaches school. Two members of the Senior team are trained as RA trainers. Restorative Approaches is a solution based coaching approach that evolved from restorative justice. The fundamental premise of restorative practices is that people are happier, more cooperative and productive, and more likely to make positive changes when those in positions of authority do things with them, rather than to them or for them. For example, in schools, the use of restorative practices has been shown to improve the overall climate for learning and reliably reduce mis-behaviour, bullying, violence and risky behaviour. It supports the creation of a happy working environment that then underpins effective learning and emotional wellbeing.
Evidence shows that the benefits are that Restorative Approaches:
• involves the whole school community
• encourages better relationships
• encourages everyone to take responsibility for their own actions
• results in fewer exclusions both internal and external so less teaching and learning days are lost
• supports a decrease in sanctions
• results in fewer staff absences
• provides a long term solution to building relationships
• supports the school community in developing skills for life
6. Rewards
Our rewards are underpinned by our 3Cs and our Golden thoughts. We believe all pupils should be encouraged to do their best and have their success recognised. We will strive to create a climate where the use of praise and encouragement is commonplace. Staff recognise positive behaviour with praise and encouraging language and gestures in the classroom and around the school. Pupils’ success and achievements both inside and outside of school will also be celebrated.
We will reward good work and behaviour with:-
· Smiling and other non-verbal signals, and praise - verbal and written
· Smiley faces
· Stickers
· Nice notes
· Within class rewards
· Golden time
· Contacting parents/carers by telephone or face to face
· Displays of good work in classrooms and around school
· Positive comments in marking
· Positive highlights in work
· Work shown to other staff and Headteacher
· Praise on class page of VLE
· Name on the Wall of Fame on the VLE
· Golden Certificates and Awards
· Recognition in assembly
· Golden assemblies and Celebration Assemblies
6. Sanctions
We are extremely proud of our children’s behaviour, though we recognise we must have sanctions that can be used in response to occasional inappropriate behaviour. When an incident occurs, we will endeavour to establish the facts of the case before applying a sanction. Following serious incidents, we will undertake a full investigation of events before agreeing on a sanction. In all cases, sanctions will be applied consistently and fairly within a context of positive reinforcement of good behaviour. Our school will take account of the individual circumstances of the case, including the seriousness of the incident, and the age and previous conduct of the pupils involved. The sanctions employed by our school are intended to promote positive behaviour, rather than punish pupils.
As a consequence of inappropriate behaviour choices we may apply the following sanctions in response to inappropriate or challenging behaviour (these are not sequential):-
· Thinking time
· Change of seat/ group
· Sad faces
· RA Meeting
· Short time out
· Loss of Golden time
· Time out: playtime
· Time out: class
· Internal exclusion
· Phone calls home
· Face to Face meetings with Parents/Carers
· Letters to parents
· Monitoring and report
· Referral to Head or Deputy and/or a letter to parents
· Withdrawal from classroom / involvement of senior management
· Fixed term exclusion
Permanent exclusion will only be considered as an absolute final resort where the safety of the child or other children is at very serious risk.
Children who are unable to show self-control and restraint in School, or while on educational visits outside School may be sent back or may remain in School on subsequent occasions when educational visits take place.
7. Additional Strategies
Some children need a little more support than others when managing their behaviour.
Additional Strategies we use include:
· Class based targets agreed with teacher
· Personal reward schemes
· Use of Buddies and Play leaders
· Alert with Breaktime Buddy team
· RA meetings and conversation
· Circle time
· Targets on an Individual Education Plan (IEP) or Personal Education Plan (PEP for Looked after children)
· Access to Kaleidoscope
· Access to Nurture group
· Forest schools approach
· Use of Chill out rooms
· Lunch club
· Pastoral Care Planning with Parents and Class teacher
· Small group support with Trained Assistant
· Referral to outside agencies such as BSS (Behaviour Support Service), CAMHS/ Primary Jigsaw and Kite, EHPS (Early help and Prevention Service)
· 1:1 work with BSS
We also take part in Anti-bullying week each year with themed assemblies. We use SEAL material to support our PHSE teaching including the Say No to Bullying SEAL material. Staff also have access to a range of supplementary material.
8. Anti- bullying
At Moorfield Primary School we understand that physical and verbal bullying causes misery to children, and in some cases has life-long effects. We consider bullying to be unacceptable behaviour, and it will not be tolerated.
We attempt to minimise bullying by:-
· creating a climate of trust and confidence so that children can talk about their own problems to staff
· creating a climate of trust and confidence so that children feel able to tell staff about difficulties being experienced by other children who may be too frightened to tell
· supporting all children by providing them with a mentor, a friend who is there to support them
· supporting the victim by taking the incident seriously
· using Restorative approaches so that children understand the harm their actions have caused
· using Restorative Approaches to repair relationships
· taking steps to minimise the chances of repeated bullying by being extra vigilant
· By recruiting a team of Peer / RA Ambassadors / Breaktime Buddies) to support play and friendship in the playground
· Having available an Anti-bullying questionnaire every 2 years and using the outcomes to support Anti-Bullying
· understanding the levels of frequency and the location of the bullying
· working in partnership, teachers, children and parents working together
· encouraging children to speak out against any form of bullying
We will involve parents of victims and children who have been bullying by:
· publishing our policies and strategies which deal with poor behaviour and bullying
· seeking the views of parents about these issues on a regular basis
· providing parents with strategies they can use with their children if they have been bullied, or have been bullying
· informing parents of both victim and perpetrator about all reported incidents, and seeking their support in reaching a suitable outcome
The Staff of the School will:
· treat all allegations of bullying seriously
· ensure that the head teacher, and the class teacher of both victim and bully are aware of any incidence of bullying
· work with all children to develop a school environment where bullying becomes an increasingly rare occurrence.
· encourage all children to treat each other with respect and courtesy
· seek the support and expert advice of appropriate outside agencies (Education Psychology Service, Education Welfare Service, Health Authorities etc.)
The Governing Body of Moorfield Primary School will:
· receive monitoring feedback information on behaviour to the Governing Body through the Headteachers’ termly report
· support the children and staff of the School through the working of the Behaviour and Anti-Bullying Policy and through the Behaviour Strategy
· review this policy on an annual basis.
9. Cyber Bullying
All class teachers are responsible for delivering lessons which support children’s understanding of the need to be safe whilst using the internet with the aim that all children understand that cyber bullying issues must be discussed with a member of staff at school.
The password and username that allow access to VLE and Internet are only given once the Responsible User Policy has been signed by the child and a parent. Each classroom displays the STAY SAFE ONLINE Internet Rules. Internet safety is covered annually by all class teachers.
We take part in the annual e-safety week, promoting safe working online.
10. Roles and Responsibilities
The promotion of positive behaviour is the responsibility of everyone involved with the school. There are however specific roles for different members of the school community: