Anti-bullying Policy

This policy has the school vision, values, and shared aims at its heart. It is based on current research and evidence and reference is made to key documents, papers, and expert views throughout the document. It is also written in conjunction with the following policies:

Behaviour Policy
Exclusion Policy
Safeguarding policy
Staff Code of conduct
Acceptable Use of Technology Policy

Vision

Our vision is used across all policies and guides our work it states:

Like a lighthouse, St Michael’s is a beacon of safety and stability. It takes courage to learn and remember knowledge, develop new skills and allow your own light to shine in the world. We respect our differences and know that working peacefully together allows our lights to shine more brightly.

‘Let your light shine’ Matthew 5:16

School Values

Our school values are peace, courage, and respect

Aims

We have simplified our vision and values into our school aims listed below:

For our children to:

Learn and remember the skills and knowledge they need for the next phase of education

Love and enjoy books and reading

For school to be:

A place of safety and stability

A place where we nurture a Christian character

For Staff and children to:

Respect differences and live and work peacefully with each other

How our vision relates to this policy

We aim for St Michael’s to be a place of safety where staff and children can learn, play and interact without fear. This is also a school where we nurture and develop individuals to show respect for the other faiths and nationalities that they will encounter in their classroom and playground. As our population is transitory and mobility is high, we feel it is very important that children learn to live peacefully and respectfully in the vibrant community of our school.

Our third value of courage is also reflected in this policy and in the day to day life of the school. There will be times when we would expect children to be courageous and speak out against bullying in whatever form. Children should feel that they are listened to and that their concerns will be acted upon.

Purpose of this policy

Bullying, especially if left unaddressed, can have a harmful impact on individuals. It can be a barrier to their learning and have serious consequences for mental health. By effectively preventing and tacking bullying, we aim to create a safe, disciplined environment where pupils are excited to learn and can be the best that they can be.

This policy is for all staff at St Michael’s CE Primary School, governors and parents to ensure a consistent approach to preventing bullying and dealing with any incidents of bullying.

What does current research say about bullying in schools?

In 2018, the Education Policy Institute produced a research overview of national and international findings on bullying in schools. Their summary of key points is included below is listed below:

While there are no official statistics on the prevalence of bullying in England, research suggests that at least two in five young people have experienced bullying in some form in the previous year (2017-2018), including cyber-bullying.

Bullying has deeply negative and long-lasting consequences for those who experience it, including mental and physical health difficulties, lower attainment and lower income in adulthood. Young people who bully others are also more likely to have mental health difficulties.

Different social groups experience bullying differently, with girls, ethnic minority pupils, those with special educational needs and disabilities, and LGBTQ pupils more likely to face discriminatory bullying.

Some approaches to tackling bullying are better evidenced than others. Interventions that create empathy and understanding of harm caused appear to be more effective than punitive action. Existing research suggests that resources should be focused on anti-bias and bystander intervention training, peer support programmes, and restorative justice approaches rather than zero tolerance policies.

1. What is bullying?

A. Bullying is behaviour by an individual or group, repeated over time, that intentionally hurts another individual or group, either physically or emotionally. Bullying can take many forms (for instance, online bullying via text messages, social media or gaming, which can include the use of images and video) and is often motivated by prejudice against particular groups, for example on grounds of race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, special educational needs or disabilities, or because a child is adopted, in care or has caring responsibilities.

B. Bullying can take many forms, including:

Type of Bullying	Definition
Emotional	Being unfriendly, excluding, tormenting
Physical	Hitting, kicking, pushing, taking another's belongings, any use of violence
Prejudice-based and discriminatory, including: Racial Faith-based Gendered (sexist) Homophobic/biphobic Transphobic Disability-based	Taunts, gestures, graffiti or physical abuse focused on a particular characteristic (e.g. gender, race, sexuality)
Sexual	Explicit sexual remarks, display of sexual material, sexual gestures, unwanted physical attention, comments about sexual reputation or performance, or inappropriate touching
Direct or indirect verbal	Name-calling, sarcasm, spreading rumours, teasing
Cyber-bullying	Bullying that takes place online, such as through social networking sites, messaging apps or gaming sites

C. Although bullying itself is not a criminal offence in the UK, some types of threatening behaviour could fall under the category of a criminal offence. The Equality Act of 2010 set out a series of protected characteristics. Harassment is unlawful if it is connected to any of these characteristics:

Age
Disability
Gender or sex
Marriage and civil partnership
Pregnancy and maternity
Race Religion or belief
Sexual orientation

D. Some children may have one or more of these protected characteristics. Some children’s parents may have one or more of these protected characteristics.

2. Creating an anti-bullying culture

Bullying does not just take the form of physical violence; emotional bullying can be just as or more damaging than physical violence. Early intervention can help to set clear expectations of behaviour that is and is not acceptable and help to stop negative behaviours escalating.

At St Michael’s, we aim to create an environment where all members of our school community look to prevent bullying through creating a culture where we all treat each other with dignity and respect. This includes:

Organising our school community around our Christian values of peace, courage and respect. Modelling these values as staff, discussing these values as the core of our behaviour management and centring our worship around them, including the use of bible stories and role models.
Through our RSHE curriculum and Collective Worship, we will discuss what healthy relationships are and look like.
Ensuring that children know what bullying is and how to respond to incidents appropriately.
Displaying ‘key adults’ poster in all classrooms.

Recognising appropriate social behaviour through rewarding children for showing behaviour that lives up to our Christian values of peace, courage & respect.

3. Signs and symptoms of bullying

A. A child may indicate through their behaviour that they are being bullied. Adults should be aware of these possible signs and that they should investigate if a child:

Is frightened of walking to or from school;

Does not want to go on the school/public bus;
Begs to be driven to school;
Changes their usual routine;
Is unwilling to go to school (school phobic);
Begins truanting;
Becomes withdrawn, anxious, or lacking in confidence;
Starts stammering;
Attempts or threatens running away;
Cries themselves to sleep at night or has nightmares;
Feels ill in the mornings;
Begins to do poorly in school work;
Comes home with clothes torn or books damaged;
Has possessions that go ‘missing’;
Has unexplained cuts or bruises;
Comes home hungry (money/lunch has been stolen);
Becomes aggressive, disruptive or unreasonable;
Is bullying other children or siblings;
Stops eating;
Is frightened to say what’s wrong;
Gives improbable excuses for any of the above.

4. Roles and Responsibilities

The role of all staff

A. The School use Circle Time, RSHE/ Discovery sessions and Collective Worship as a forum to discuss issues involving bullying. Teachers also use time in class to support pupils in managing relationship conflict.

B. Teachers promote assertive behaviour strategies and discuss with children how to respond to verbal, physical and online attacks.

C. Teachers discuss online safety pro-actively, making it a regular part of computing sessions.

D. Staff in our school take all forms of bullying seriously and intervene to prevent incidents from taking place.

E. Staff develop a secure and safe environment within their classrooms by encouraging pupils to follow the expectations set out in the behaviour policy and to live out the three school values of courage, respect and peace

F. By praising, rewarding and celebrating the success of all children, we aim to prevent incidents of bullying.

G. Follow and jointly review individual behaviour plans that have been created for children with

H. Bullying is often a result of prejudice. Teachers ensure that their classrooms are places where prejudice, whether in the form of racism, sexism, homophobia or on the basis of faith, is unacceptable.

The role of governors

H. The governing body of St Michael’s CE Primary School supports the Headteacher and staff in all attempts to eliminate bullying from our school. This policy statement makes it very clear that the governing body does not allow bullying to take place in our school, and that any accusations of bullying or incidents of bullying that do occur are taken very seriously and dealt with appropriately.

I. The governing body reviews the effectiveness of the school policy regularly. The governors require the Headteacher to report to them, on request, about the effectiveness of school anti-bullying strategies.

J. The Governing body recognises that children can abuse their peers. This may include bullying (including cyber bullying), gender-based violence/sexual assaults (including being sexually touched or being subject to initiation/hazing type violence) and sexting. These forms of abuse should never be tolerated or passed off as ‘banter’ or ‘part of growing up’ and will be investigated in line with the school’s anti-bullying policy, behaviour policy and/or safeguarding policy.

The role of the Headteacher

A. It is the responsibility of the Headteacher to implement and monitor the school anti-bullying policy and to ensure that all staff (both teaching and non-teaching) are aware of the school policy and know how to deal with incidents of bullying.

B. The Headteacher reports to the governing body about the effectiveness of the anti-bullying policy on request.

C. The Headteacher ensures that all children know that bullying is wrong, and that it is unacceptable behaviour in our school. The Headteacher draws the attention of children to this fact at suitable moments. For example, if an incident occurs, the Headteacher may decide to use Class Worship as a forum in which to discuss with other children why this behaviour was wrong, and why a pupil is being punished.

D. The Headteacher ensures that all staff receive sufficient training to be equipped to deal with all incidents of bullying.

E. The Headteacher will ensure that a log of bullying incidents is maintained in the school.

F. The Headteacher sets the school climate of mutual support and praise for success, so making bullying less likely. When children feel they are important and belong to a friendly and welcoming school, bullying is far less likely to be part of their behaviour.

G. The Headteacher will work with the Governors and wider school community, including The Church, to communicate positive behaviours in order to prevent bullying.

5. Dealing with bullying

A. Staff may be made aware of bullying incidences either by a child or parent. If a parent raises a concern, staff record these concerns onto the Child Protection Online Management System (CPOMS).

B. If staff witness or become aware of (either via a child or parent/carer) an act of bullying, they will inform the class teacher and the class teacher will:

Discuss the child’s concerns
Record the concern or respond to the recorded concern on CPOMS
Investigate the concern by talking to all parties involved

C. Speak to parents or carers

On the basis of what is uncovered, the class teacher will work with relevant members of the senior and pastoral team to agree next steps and responses. This will be dependent on the nature of the incident(s) and this could involve:

The designated safeguarding lead
Online safety champion
Anti-bullying champion
Senior leadership team

6. Consequences, sanctions and responses

A. Teachers and leaders will make decisions on the appropriate sanctions following incidents of bullying. These will be proportionate and fit the nature, frequency and circumstance of the bullying. Sanctions can include the withdrawal of activities in school, internal exclusions from class or external exclusions from school if the incident is serious enough to warrant longer term reflection on behaviour.

B. Those investigating will look at the behaviour of those bullying, but also those who have stood by and given tacit or verbal encouragement of complicit behaviour

C. Where bullying has been occurring over time, involves significant physical harm to other children or staff or is classed as sexual harassment then parents of children will be invited in to meet with a senior leader to discuss the incident, prior to the issuing of a sanction

D. In more extreme cases, for example where these initial discussions have proven ineffective, the Headteacher may contact external support agencies such as the social services.

Support

A. The pastoral team will give support to those that have been victims of bullying and work with the SENCO to devise a programme to help amend the behaviours of the child or children who were involved in bullying.

B. Teachers, leaders and the pastoral team will work to restore relationships and build empathy and understanding across all parties involved. This may take time and need to be revisited over time.

7. Reporting

A. All incidents of bullying including low level concerns are recorded on the school CPOMS system for analysis and to track actions and responses.

B. Reporting will include statements from all parties and the outcome of any meetings with parents and a record of sanctions and follow up.

C. Reports will be reviewed frequently to identify trends and patterns of behaviour

8. Bullying outside of school, including online bullying

A. School staff have the power to discipline pupils for misbehaving outside of the school premises.

B. If bullying that has occurred outside of school is reported to staff, it will be acted upon in line with this policy.

C. The Headteacher will decide whether this incident should be reported to the police or not.

9. Parents’ responsibilities

A. Preventing and dealing with bullying is something that needs to be done as a community. Because of this, we ask that parents:

Report any concerns to their child’s class teacher immediately.
Support the school’s anti-bullying policy and actively encourage their child to be a positive member of the school community.

B. Parents have a responsibility to ensure that children are using the internet and mobile devices safely and with consideration outside of school. We encourage parents to check their children’s phones regularly.

C. Parents have a responsibility to meet with their child’s class teacher or member of the Senior Leadership Team if there are concerns about their child’s behaviour.

E. It is important that the person to whom the child discloses recognises that the child has placed them in a position of trust. They should be supportive and respectful of the child;

• recognising that an initial disclosure to a trusted adult may only be the first incident

reported, rather than representative of a singular incident and that trauma can impact memory and so children may not be able to recall all details or timeline of abuse;

• keeping in mind that certain children may face additional barriers to telling someone because of their vulnerability, disability, sex, ethnicity and/or sexual orientation;

• listening carefully to the child, reflecting back, using the child’s language, being non-judgmental, being clear about boundaries and how the report will be progressed, not asking leading questions and only prompting the child where necessary with open questions – where, when, what, etc. It is important to note that whilst leading questions should be avoided, staff can ask children if they have been harmed and what the nature of that harm was.

F. Best practice is to wait until the end of the report for staff to immediately write up a thorough summary. This allows the staff member to devote their full attention to the child and to listen to what they are saying. It may be appropriate to make notes during the report (if a second member of staff is present).

G. However, if making notes, staff should be conscious of the need to remain engaged with the child and not appear distracted by the note taking. Either way, it is essential a written record is made; only recording the facts as the child presents them.

H. Notes should not reflect the personal opinion of the note taker as they could become part of a statutory assessment by children’s social care and/or part of a criminal investigation.

I. Not promising confidentiality at this initial stage as it is very likely a concern will have to be shared further (for example, with the designated safeguarding lead or children’s social care) to discuss next steps. Staff should only share the report with those people who are necessary in order to progress it. It is important that the victim understands what the next steps will be and who the report will be passed to.

J. If the member of staff who takes the disclosure is not the designated safeguarding lead (DSL), or a deputy DSL, the DSL or deputy should be informed as soon as possible.

10. Dealing with Sexism and sexual harassment

What does this cover?

A. Sexual violence, such as rape, assault by penetration and sexual assault (this may include and online element which facilitates, threatens and/or encourages physical abuse), sexual harassment, such as sexual comments, remarks, jokes and online sexual harassment, which may be stand alone or part of a broader pattern of abuse, causing someone to engage in sexual activity without consent, such as forcing someone to strip, touch themselves sexually, or to engage in sexual activity with a third party, consensual and non-consensual sharing of nudes and semi nudes images and or videos (also known as sexting or youth produced sexual imagery), up-skirting , which typically involves taking a picture under a person’s clothing (not necessarily a skirt) without their permission, with the intention of viewing their genitals or buttocks(with or without underwear) to obtain sexual gratification, or cause the victim humiliation, distress or alarm (it is a criminal offence and could happen to anyone of any sex) and initiation/hazing type violence and rituals (this could include activities involving harassment, abuse or humiliation used as a way of initiating a person into a group and may also include an online element).

The role of staff and governors

B. Staff and Governors understand the importance of challenging inappropriate behaviours between peers, making clear that sexual violence and sexual harassment is not acceptable, will never be tolerated or dismissed and is not an inevitable part of growing up. These forms of abuse will never be tolerated (regardless of gender) or passed off as ‘just banter’, ‘just having a laugh’, ‘boys being boys’ or ‘part of growing up’. Challenging behaviours (potentially criminal in nature) such as grabbing bottoms, breasts and genitalia, flicking bras and lifting up skirts will not be dismissed, tolerated or normalised to prevent a culture of unacceptable behaviours, an unsafe environment for children and in worst case scenarios a culture that normalises abuse leading to children accepting it as normal and not coming forward to report it.

Responding immediately to concerns and disclosures

C. Staff at St Michael’s know not to wait for a disclosure. If staff have concerns about a child’s welfare, they should act on these immediately. Indicators could include:

A conversation suggesting a child may have been harmed (this may be a conversation the staff member overhears rather than is part of)
A child’s behaviour

D. Staff recognise however, that a child is likely to disclose to someone they trust: this could be anyone in school.

E. It is important that the person to whom the child discloses recognises that the child has placed them in a position of trust. They should be supportive and respectful of the child;

• recognising that an initial disclosure to a trusted adult may only be the first incident

reported, rather than representative of a singular incident and that trauma can impact memory and so children may not be able to recall all details or timeline of abuse;

• keeping in mind that certain children may face additional barriers to telling someone because of their vulnerability, disability, sex, ethnicity and/or sexual orientation;

H. Notes should not reflect the personal opinion of the note taker as they could become part of a statutory assessment by children’s social care and/or part of a criminal investigation.

J. If the member of staff who takes the disclosure is not the designated safeguarding lead (DSL), or a deputy DSL, the DSL or deputy should be informed as soon as possible.

Determining how to manage and/or escalate the report

K. School will respond appropriately, to all reports and concerns about sexual violence and/or harassment both online and offline, including those that have happened outside of school.

L. The DSL (or a deputy) will decide how to manage the report, including when to inform the alleged perpetrator(s). This depends on a number of important considerations, including:

The wishes of the victim and how they want to proceed - you should balance these against your responsibility to protect other children
The nature of the alleged incident(s), including whether a crime may have been committed and consideration of harmful sexual behaviour
The ages and developmental stages of the children involved
Any power imbalance between the children. For example, is the alleged perpetrator(s) significantly older, more mature or more confident? Does the victim have a disability or learning difficulty?
Whether the alleged incident is a one-off or part of a sustained pattern of abuse
That sexual violence and sexual harassment can take place within intimate personal relationships between peers
Whether there are ongoing risks to the victim (or anyone else)
Any related issues and wider context, including links to child sexual exploitation and child criminal exploitation

M. As always when concerned about the welfare of a child, all staff should act in the best interests of the child.

N. There are 4 likely scenarios for the next steps:

Manage internally, where this is considered appropriate in the circumstances, and early help or statutory interventions aren't required
Early help, as outlined in chapter 1 of Working Together to Safeguard Children, where statutory interventions aren't required.
Referrals to children's social care*, where a child has been harmed, is at risk of harm, or is in immediate danger
Report to the police** (usually in parallel with a referral to children's social care), where a report of rape, assault by penetration or sexual assault is made. Police will consider what action to take to manage the assessed risk of harm, which could include the use of police or court bail.

*Where scenarios involve working with children's social care, school shouldn't wait for the outcome of an investigation before protecting the victim and other children – DSL (or a deputy) should work closely with children's social care to make sure the school's actions don't jeopardise a statutory investigation. There should be immediate consideration for safeguarding the victim, alleged perpetrator(s) and all other children.

Where a report is going to be made to children's social care and/or the police, the school should speak to the relevant agency to discuss next steps and how the alleged perpetrator(s) will be informed.

**Staff may confiscate devices for evidence to hand to the police, if the report includes an online element.

Sanctions

O. School will always seek/follow advice from external agencies involved e.g. Police, CSC regarding proportionate sanctioning.

P. Different sanctions at school (internal) level will be appropriate for different ‘levels’ of sexual harassment, for example:

A verbal warning
Keeping the pupil behind after class to apologise to their peer
A phone call or meeting with parents (regardless of level of incident)
Detention
Community service, for example litter picking
A period of internal exclusion (length dependent on incident)
Fixed-term (length dependent on incident) or permanent exclusion

How to decide what sanction is appropriate

Q. The response to each incident should be proportionate, for example, school may address a ‘lower-level’ incident such as a sexist comment through education, the curriculum and the school value of ‘respect’.

R. ‘Calling out’ behaviour as it happens, shows all pupils what is and isn’t appropriate. If the incident is very ‘low level’ – for example, a pupil making a comment that staff have reason to believe they don’t fully understand – it may be appropriate to explain why it wasn’t appropriate and ask the pupil to apologise to the victim. Teachers may also use any occurrences as an opportunity to encourage a class discussion about appropriate and inappropriate language. Staff will monitor using CPOMS any recurrence from a particular pupil.

S. If a pupil refuses to apologise, the incident may will be escalated to a more serious sanction where parents will be contacted (where this will not put the pupil at greater risk). Parents will be informed of what their child has said or done, and that teachers would like them to talk about it as a family. This will enable staff to:

Get the parents on board in condemning the behaviour
Start an important conversation between the pupil and their parents about acceptable and unacceptable sexual behaviour
Work towards a solution together
This can just be a phone call or brief meeting, but it’s important that it happens immediately and every time staff have concerns about their child’s behaviour.

T. School will use exclusion only in the most severe cases, for example if the police recommend to exclude a pupil after an incident of sexual assault. If this happens and school still wish to keep the pupil in school, mitigations will be put in place to protect other pupils, such as keeping that child in isolation.

11. Monitoring of this policy

A. This policy is monitored on a day-to-day basis by the Headteacher, who reports to the governors about the effectiveness of the policy on request.

B. This anti-bullying policy is the governors’ responsibility and they will review this annually. Governors analyse information with regard to gender, age and ethnic background of all the children involved in bullying incidents.

12. Reviewing this policy

A. This policy will be reviewed every year.

B. Parents are most welcome to request copies of reviews and comments are invited from all members of the school community.

13. Sources

The following sources have been used to develop this policy.

The education Policy Institute review of Bullying in Schools research 2018 https://epi.org.uk/publications-and-research/bullying-a-review-of-the-evidence/

Department for Education: Keeping children safe in education. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/keeping-children-safe-in-education--2

Department for Education: Preventing and tackling bullying. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/preventing-and-tackling-bullying

The Anti-Bullying Alliance: Definition of bullying. https://www.anti-bullyingalliance.org.uk/tools-information/all-about-bullying/what-bullying/aba-definition-bullying

NSPCC exemplar Anti-bullying template. https://learning.nspcc.org.uk/research-resources/templates/anti-bullying-policy-statement

Valuing All God’s Children https://www.churchofengland.org/sites/default/files/2019-07/Valuing%20All%20God%27s%20Children%20July%202019_0.pdf

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St Michael's Church of England Primary School

Anti-bullying Policy

CONTENTS

Introduction. 3

What does current research say about bullying in schools? .. 5

1. What is bullying? ................................................................. 6

2. Creating an anti-bullying culture ...................................... 7

3. Signs and symptoms of bullying ........................................8

4. Roles and Responsibilities ...................................................9

5. Dealing with bullying ..........................................................10

6. Consequences, sanctions and responses ............................11

7. Reporting ...............................................................................12

8. Bullying outside of school, including online bullying .......12

9. Parents’ responsibilities ........................................................12

10. Dealing with Sexism and Sexual Harassment ....................12

11. Monitoring of this policy .......................................................17

12. Reviewing this policy ..............................................................17