Anti Bullying

When someone repeatedly and deliberately says or does mean or hurtful things to another person.

There are three components of bullying:

• Repeated
• Intentional
• Power Imbalance

Traditional bullying can be:

• Physical – hitting, kicking, shoving, prodding, gesturing, taking another’s property
• Emotional  – intimidation, social exclusion, degrading, demeaning, controlling or humiliating
• Verbal – teasing, name calling, insulting, threatening or taunting
• Social – using friendships as a way to hurt someone else, gossiping, spreading rumours, leaving others out, refusing to speak to a friend, cyber bullying (see below).

Cyberbullying is similar to traditional bullying in that it is repeated, intentional and based on a power imbalance but it has the following differences:

• Anonymity – victims are often unaware who is bullying them
• Disinhibition – ‘you can’t see me, I can’t see you’
• Accessibility – bullying behaviours can take place all day every day.
• Punitive Fears – victims don’t report what is happening because they fear having their computer / phone privileges taken away
• Bystanders – peers to not actually witness face to face confrontation.

Below are some useful links to information leaflets. Our Anti-Bullying Policy is included in our Behaviour Management Policy. It can be found on our Policies and Documents Page.   

• Children’s Bullying Leaflet
• Parents’ Bullying Leaflet
• KS1 Anti-Bullying Poster
• KS2 Anti-Bullying Poster

All children are entitled to courteous and respectful treatment by other pupils and staff whilst at school. As a school we have the responsibility to ensure your child has a safe learning environment. With this aim, we will:

• Listen to what you / your child has to say
• We will support your child within the framework of our anti-bullying policy
• We will investigate what you have said and then report to you what we have found out and what we have done to help your child
• Engage pupils in prevention through the creation of tip sheets, poster contests, surveys, have older pupils talk with younger pupils, classroom competitions, make a video, list the consequences of cyberbullying.

For cyberbullying we will:

• Teach empathy
  • Revisit rules for online behaviour
  • Engage pupils in prevention.
  • Teach children about cyberbullying as part of our e-safety and PSHE curriculum

Rules for online behaviour

• Think before you send
• Treat all people with respect – face to face and on line
• Don’t use language you wouldn’t want your parents/teachers etc to read
• Don’t send messages when you are angry.
• Remember things aren’t private on the internet – you can’t erase of take back anything once it is online.
• There are consequences
• Make cyberbullying uncool at school.

Internet safety tips for parents

• Keep the family computer in a common room – NOT a child’s bedroom
• Establish rules for internet use such as identifying what sites your child can visit, who are their ‘friends’, who can they talk too, how long can they be online and when can they use the computer.
• Know your child’s passwords, ‘friend’ or follow your child on social networking sites
• Google your child – search images, photos, videos, newsgroups. Use quotation marks around the name. Set google alerts for your child’s name.
• Introduce Parental controls for smart phones such as restrict camera use, restrict voice calls, restrict time of day the phone will work, block content, establish the parental controls available from your internet provider.
• Social networking – cyber bullying violates the terms of service agreement and should be reported to the site and the Internet Service Provider who can close the account. Facebook and Instagram will remove entries from children under the age of 13.