All children at Redwell Primary School have the right to feel safe and respected at school. We believe that bullying of any kind is totally unacceptable and will not be tolerated in our community. All incidents of bullying will be taken seriously.
Bullying and bullying behaviours, particularly if these behaviours are left unaddressed, can have a significant impact on an individual’s emotional well-being. Bullying can have life-long lasting effects on the individual beyond their school years.
What is Bullying?
In the DfE Guidance: Preventing and tackling bullying: Advice for head teachers, staff and governing bodies (2017), bullying is defined as:
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, cyber-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.
Bullying is repeated, unwanted, aggressive behaviour which hurts someone on purpose. Bullying can be social, physical, verbal or “cyber”.
Many experts say that bullying involves an imbalance of power between the perpetrator and the victim. This could involve perpetrators of bullying having control over the relationship which makes it difficult for those they bully to defend themselves. The imbalance of power can manifest itself in several ways, it may be physical, psychological (knowing what upsets someone), derive from an intellectual imbalance, or by having access to the support of a group, or the capacity to socially Nene Education Trust Anti-Bullying Policy V2 isolate. It can result in the intimidation of a person or persons through the threat of violence or by isolating them either physically or online.
The forms that bullying can take include:
- Rude gestures or mimicry of any kind
- Deliberate damage to the victim’s property
- Taking property without permission
- Extortion of money, sweets or other belongings
- Malicious gossip, negative ‘banter’ or the purposeful generation/spread of
rumour (including online / text) - Forcing (coercion) the victim to do something against their will (E.g. see
“Sexual” above) - Gangs or groups of students who gather in large groups with the sole purpose
of intimidation - Holding power over other students by the use of intimidation
What is not bullying?
It is important to understand that bullying is not the odd occasion of falling out with friends, name calling, arguments or when the occasional trick or joke is played on someone. It is bullying if it is done several times on purpose.
Children sometimes fall out and say things because they are upset. When occasional problems of this kind arise it is not classed as bullying but all incidents of relational conflict are investigated and responded to.
Concerns about bullying should be reported at the earliest possible opportunity to a member of school staff. Children should feel confident to report concerns to their teacher, teaching assistant, lunchtime assistant, phase leader or other senior member of staff.
A parent or guardian who is concerned about incidences of bullying are encouraged to ring into the Academy and speak to a phase leader or other senior member of staff.
All concerns will be treated seriously. Unpicking the incident will become an immediate priority, and will happen at the earliest possible time by a member of the senior leadership team.
We believe that:
- children and young people should never experience abuse of any kind
- we have a responsibility to promote the welfare of all children and young people, to keep them safe and operate in a way that protects them.
We recognise that:
- bullying causes real distress and affects a person’s health and development
- in some instances, bullying can cause significant harm
- all children, regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation, have the right to equal protection from all types of harm or abuse
- everyone has a role to play in preventing all forms of bullying (including online) and putting a stop to bullying.
We will seek to prevent bullying by:
- developing a code of behaviour that sets out how everyone involved in our organisation is expected to behave, in face-to-face contact and online, and within and outside of our activities
- holding regular discussions with staff, volunteers, children, young people and families who use our organisation about bullying and how to prevent it
- providing support and training for all staff and volunteers on dealing with all forms of bullying, including racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic and sexual bullying
- putting clear and robust anti-bullying procedures in place.
Our regular discussions with staff, volunteers, children, young people and families will focus on:
- group members’ responsibilities to look after one another and uphold the behaviour code
- practising skills such as listening to each other
- respecting the fact that we are all different
- making sure that no one is without friends
- dealing with problems in a positive way
- checking that our anti-bullying measures are working well.
Responding to bullying
We will make sure our response to incidents of bullying takes into account:
- the needs of the person being bullied
- the needs of the person displaying bullying behaviour
- needs of any bystanders
- our organisation as a whole.
Diversity and inclusion
We recognise that bullying is closely related to how we respect and recognise the value of diversity. We will be proactive about:
- seeking opportunities to learn about and celebrate difference
- increasing diversity within our staff, volunteers, children and young people
- welcoming new members to our organisation.
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