Introduction

This policy was formulated and introduced in 1996. The 1998 guidancehas been updated.

Bullying, as most people know is a universal problem. In every school, of every county, in every country in the world there will be or have been at least one bully, and most probably many many more. Most people will know or will have known a bully or victim, or indeed have been one themselves. Near enough every single person in the world will come into contact with a form of bullying at one time or another, usually at sometime during their school life. At Highsted, we believe that every pupil has the right to enjoy learning, free from intimidation of any kind both from within the school and the surrounding area, however, the problem was finding a way to ensure that pupils did not feel intimidated and that they were free to enjoy their school lives.

The initial idea was to get as many people involved on the project as possible. Elections were held to nominate anti-bullying representatives from each form group, someone whom the entire form felt that they could trust to go to with a problem regarding bullying of any kind. Year representatives were next elected out of the four or five from each year. These year representatives were to be the pupils link with the anti-bullying working party. Meetings were held to find willing volunteers from the staff to be involved and letters were sent out to the governors and parents asking for support where possible. Overall the response was exceptional. Once finalised the Anti Bullying Working Party consisted of seven members of staff, four parents, six student representatives, overseen by Linda Wybar (Evaluation and Pastoral Manager) and chaired by Sinéad Gillespie (Head of Year 8).

Anti Bullying Policy

Every pupil in school has the right to enjoy learning, free from intimidation, both in school and the surrounding community. Our school community will not tolerate bullying behaviour of any kind including unkind actions or remarks, verbal taunting and exclusion from groups.

This ethos is communicated throughout the school by the attitudes and actions of all members of the school community and throughout the Personal and Social Education (PSE) programmes in each year group.

Aims

To be aware of the quantity and particular nature of bullying that takes place in our school

To be aware of areas of the school that pose a threat to pupils and to take appropriate action to reduce those threats

To effect all changes to the school community which may be necessary to negate bullying

To create a caring community where no pupil need fear intimidation by promoting an open listening ethos and encouraging pupils to support one another by reporting all instances of bullying.

To further the social, moral, spiritual and cultural development of the individual and the community.

The PSE programmes address anti bullying issues both directly and indirectly. The content of the programmes covers specific bullying behaviour and associated areas, such as self assertiveness and responsibility towards others.

Furthermore, the teaching and learning styles employed in PSE lessons such as group work, role play and interactive learning enable pupils to develop their self awareness, responsibility towards others and respect for others. The development of these skills is crucial to the anti-bullying ethos of the school and the creation of a stronger community atmosphere.

Anyone can and should report any bullying incident - whether a passer-by, a victim or a bully.

Pupils will be informed that someone wishing to report an incident can approach any member of staff with whom they feel comfortable. If the matter is urgent - a pupil should approach the first adult they encounter.

All staff will be ready and willing to deal with any incident that is brought to their attention. If appropriate a member of staff will handle the situation individually. If circumstances dictate, Assistant Heads Of School or Heads Of School will be consulted. The latter will decide who is best equipped to handle the problem.

When consulted about a bullying incident the member of staff handling the matter will interview separately the victim, the bully and any witnesses in order to establish an accurate account of events. Written reports by those involved may be made.

Sanctions for bullying will remain at the discretion of staff members. There will be a uniform but flexible approach to the decisions which will usually involve up to three members of staff e.g. form tutor, or teacher approached, Assistant/ Head of School, Deputy Head Pastoral. All factors will be considered including the nature of the incident and any previous involvement in similar offensive acts. It is to be emphasised that whilst sanctions will be seriously imposed, at times counselling for the bully may be the more appropriate response.

A body of student counsellors selected with the assistance of the school counsellor from Volunteers from Year 11 and Year 12 (ages 16-17), will be made available for pupils who are initially reluctant to approach a member of staff. The primary role of the student counsellor is to encourage the pupils to speak to staff. In the event of a less serious bullying incident the counsellor may be able to give advice on assertiveness so that the pupil is empowered to deal with the situation. The counsellor cannot offer confidentiality and must report all incidents to a member of staff.

All of the Student Counsellors were trained before they were expected to do any work with younger members of the school. The training took only one day to complete and at the end of it all of the students involved felt a lot more confident towards helping other people with their problems.

The response to the plea for help from older members of the school was overwhelming, so much so that people were actually turned away. A process was set up through teachers and form tutors to eliminate the less appropriate candidates and allow those with the potential to be of great help to the campaign to be given the training that would allow them to do this.

The training day was organised such that both the selected students and the teachers that were vital to the scheme could all attend. Not only did both groups attend, but they all worked well together. The day started with an introduction by a visiting counsellor (whose task would be to pass his knowledge in the field onto us) stating briefly the general situations under which bullies and victims would originate. It was explained to everyone present that bullying was not always the initial problem, this was just the end result of someone having a problem that they cannot cope with. This is the area that needs attention, and by dealing with this, the person may be able to deal with the bullying.

The next stage of the training was to teach the counsellors how to help people with their main problem. Some exercises were given to both students and teachers to teach them how to deal with counselling different situations (bereavement, abuse, lack of self confidence, etc.), then situations were set up and acted out in groups of three, one person playing the role of the victim, one of the counsellor and the third to observe and note any mistakes or problems with the 'counsellor's' approach. After each of these trial situations, however, the members of the group playing the councillor and the victim had to undergo a positive thinking session stating their own name, the fact that they are not a counsellor/ victim and three good things about their life at the moment. After further training, another one of these sessions was set up and the improvements in the attitudes and approaches were obvious.

The students then reassembled in their groups of three and two members of the group had to listen to the other talk for five minutes on a hobby of theirs, while maintaining a look of interest and understanding. This enables people to look interested in what a person is saying and listen, no matter how boring they find it, if a person comes to you for counselling, they will not want to feel that they are boring the counsellor.

At the end of the day both students and teachers alike felt that it had been a very successful day giving them the confidence to be able to go and help the younger members of the school with their problems.

For details of the PSE programmes, or more information on the anti-bullying working party and the policy please e-mail the school and we will be happy to give you whatever assistance we can.
1998 guidance