Developing a whole school anti-bullying policy
Bullying is just one aspect of the wider issue of school discipline and the
management of pupil behaviour. An anti-bullying policy should be linked to
other school policies such as those that cover behaviour, harassment, ICT
acceptable use, your staff policy on bullying/conduct and equal
opportunities. Remember that all your policies should be in line with
Islington’s ‘Dignity For All’ policy, which is available on the LBI website.
There are four steps to producing a policy:
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Whole school understanding of the issues
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Consultation with the whole school community
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Implementation (of proactive and reactive strategies)
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Monitoring, evaluation and review
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Whole school understanding
The first step is to discuss the need to develop or review the anti-bullying
policy with the whole school community. Debating the issue should include
discussions on the extent of the bullying, how children and teachers want to
be treated, what is or is not bullying, hotspots for bullying in the school,
and the role of all of those involved in tackling bullying. Make sure you
also address staff bullying – remember that staff cannot keep children safe if
they do not feel safe themselves.
CEA@Islington understand bullying as follows:
Bullying is when someone deliberately hurts another or makes them feel
unhappy. Bullying behaviour will be repeated and be difficult to defend
against. Bullying may be racist, sexist or homophobic. People can be bullied
for any reason; because of the way they look, because of their religion, their
age, because of a learning or physical disability, where they live, their
family or how well they are doing at school for example.
Racist, sexist and homophobic bullying is common and should be identified and
recorded using your termly harassment monitoring returns.. The Islington and
You survey found that some ethnic groups experience more bullying than others,
although few racial insults are used; suggesting covert racism.
Homophobic bullying is alarmingly common. Young people report that unlike
racist bullying, which tends to be quickly challenged by adult staff,
homophobic bullying is ignored at best and supported and colluded with at
worst.
Bullying is not limited to physical actions, and girls and boys may use
different forms of bullying.
Bullying can take many forms, it can be racist, sexist or homophobic
It includes:
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Physical hitting, kicking, stealing or hiding belongings, sexual assault
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Verbal name calling, insults, offensive or sexual remarks, threatening language
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Indirect "excluding" children, spreading gossip, graffiti, defacing property,
offensive or abusive text or email messages.
The bullying policy will need to make it clear that all bullying is
unacceptable and that no incident of reported bullying will be ignored. Some
forms of bullying may include physical assault requiring police involvement
and you should work closely with your School Based Officer on prevention as
well as response to specific incidents.
Consultation
ChildLine and the DfES strongly recommend that schools develop the
participation of young people in formulating and implementing anti-bullying
strategies.
Consultation will also need to involve parents/carers and governors as well as
teaching and support staff.
Consulting widely demonstrates that the school believes in partnership and
means all views are valued. Each member of the school community, including
pupils, parents and governors, has a responsibility to work towards creating
such a safe and open environment.
Implementation
The school's bullying policy should be available to all members of the school
community. It should define bullying, make clear that it will not be tolerated
and identify how it will be dealt with.
Both proactive and reactive strategies will need to be developed.
Proactive strategies
These will include:
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Ensuring a positive learning environment.
Bullying is thought to be
more prevalent where a learning environment is overly competitive and some
pupils made to feel inadequate or inferior. Good classroom management and
group dynamics can be effective in reducing ridicule and a climate that
enables bullies to operate.
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Developing a whole school approach to tackling bullying.
Ideas include
encouraging a listening and telling ethos, developing a play policy,
integrating anti-bullying work as part of the curriculum through creative
writing, drama or discussion, refurbishing toilet and playground areas,
holding whole school anti-bullying assemblies.
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Staff training.
On classroom and playground management, understanding
of bullying and its effects, supporting, listening to and involving pupils.
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Support for students.
A number of approaches can be used including
peer support, circle of friends, mediation or befriending projects.
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Publicity and awareness raising.
Research shows that if a policy has a
high profile it will quickly produce significant change. Schools will need to
agree ways in which they will maintain momentum and enthusiasm for tackling
bullying with all members of the school community.
Guidance from Ofsted suggests that prevention work can include:
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Efficient patrolling by staff and prefects of the school site, focusing on
identified bullying hot spots
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Organisational changes to reduce the possibilities for bullying such as one
way traffic in corridors, staggering lunch breaks or changes to the time-table
which ensure that teachers are able to arrive at lessons on time.
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Safe play areas or quiet rooms for younger pupils or those who feel threatened
at break times
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Providing children and young people with different ways of telling someone
about the bullying, and publicising this around the school.
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Ways of breaking down age-group stratification, for example through "buddy
systems", mixed age tutor groups, and out-of -school clubs run for younger
pupils by older ones
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Independent listeners, including older pupils and adults other than school
staff
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The involvement of pupils in procedures dealing with instances of bullying
through "circles of friends" peer mediation and other schemes
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Provision for follow-up with victims of bullying and the bullies themselves.
Parents should also be involved. Bullying does not happen in isolation and may
be an indicator of a situation at home that parents can be supported to
resolve.
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Using the curriculum to explore relationships, violence and bullying. There
are opportunities as part of literature and creative writing, drama, music,
art, history, citizenship, RE and PSHE.
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A system to record incidents of bullying so that analysis of patterns, whether
pupils involved, type, location or time, can inform policy or practice
Reactive strategies
The way in which a school manages bullying behaviour gives a clear message and
must be consistent with other elements of the anti-bullying policy. It is
important that all members of the school community, including playground
supervisors, pupils and teachers are clear about their role in tackling
bullying. Bullying the bully only gives credibility to bullying behaviour.
The policy will need to set out agreed procedures for addressing bullying
incidents, along with clear lines of responsibility. The class teacher and
head teacher should be informed as a matter of course. It may also be useful
to take written statements from the victim, bully and observers. All the
children involved should be allowed to talk through the incident with an adult.
Depending on the nature of the bullying it will be important to involve
parents, carers and others outside the school (particularly if the bullying
extends beyond the school gates), and to keep them up to date at all stages.
They will be able to support the school in providing further information and
identifying solutions so that the bullying does not continue. Any peer support
schemes operating within the school will also need to be involved.
The policy will also need to state what support is available to those who have
been bullied, and the range of sanctions and support for perpetrators. Many
schools and local authorities have adapted the No Blame Approach, which
involves the bully, victim and bystanders in identifying solutions to bullying
behaviour.
The way in which bullying incidents will be recorded will need to be stated.
It is good practice to record all incidents in an incident record book.
Serious incidents will need to be recorded on the CEA@Islington incident
record form.
Monitoring, evaluation and review
A school that is serious about tackling inclusion and maximising opportunities
for all its pupils will want to have strong policies in place to promote this.
But unless a policy is supported by monitoring and audit information, it may
not meet children's needs.
Schools may find it useful establish a baseline so that improvements, or
otherwise, in rates of bullying can be monitored, and the effectiveness of
interventions can be measured. Schools will also want to institute a variety
of methods through which pupils may report bullying anonymously throughout the
year. These could include bullying boxes or anonymous surveys.
All survey work will need to include questions about where bullying takes
place to allow schools to tackle hotspots through their whole-school work. The
secretive nature of bullying means that locations where bullying takes place
may not be immediately obvious. Crowded corridors and dinner queues are common
trouble spots, as are toilets, playgrounds and bus stops. Surveys may yield
some surprises.
Schools will also be able to monitor levels and nature of recorded incidents
through referring to the incident record book. Similarly attendance and
truancy figures can be monitored and any absence as a result of bullying
identified.
Data gathered through the various monitoring and evaluation mechanisms that
are implemented will need to be reviewed regularly (ideally annually), and the
school policy adapted if necessary. It is valuable to remember, however, that
research has shown that when a policy is first introduced, or its profile is
raised, people feel free to come forward and rates appear to go up.
It is also important to ensure that pupils and parents/carers are kept
informed of progress and involved in consideration of further strategies.
The Anti-Bullying Co-ordinator can provide support and guidance on planning,
consulting, producing and implementing your whole-school anti-bullying policy.
For more information please contact:
Ms Finn Mackay
Tel: 0207 527 5778
Finn.mackay.cea@islington.gov.uk
Other Agencies and Services
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The Police Safer Schools Partnership
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Islington Victim Support
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Child and Family Consultation Service
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CAMHS in Education Team
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Children's Support Service
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Islington Women's Aid Children's Service - for children affected by domestic
violence
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ChildLine in Partnership with Schools (CHIPS) - 020 7650 3230
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Lucky Duck Publishing www.luckyduck.co.uk
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Kidscape www.kidscape.org.uk
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Young Voice www.youngvoice.org.uk
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NSPCC www.nspcc.org.uk
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Anti Bullying Alliance www.ncb.org.uk/aba
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Beatbullying www.bbclic.com/islington