St Patrick’s Catholic Primary School

Anti-bullying policy

TO BE READ WITH “NEIGHBOURHOOD SCHOOLS’ GUIDANCE ON BULLYING”
(see Appendix 1)

Aims

To ensure that the daily experiences of children take place within a safe and caring environment.
To educate children in line with the school Mission Statement and Behaviour
To promote considerate behaviour constantly in speech, actions and
To ensure children are aware of how to seek help and guidance if

A Definition of Bullying

Bullying can be difficult to define (see Network Guidance) however, in its Healthy Schools guidance; the Local Authority suggests this definition:

Bullying is an action or behaviour, often repeated, that is taken by one or more children with the deliberate intention of hurting the other child, either physically or emotionally. Bullying can be physical, verbal, emotional, sexual or digital.

and all the signatories of our Network’s shared guidance agree and accept this as a reasonable definition.

Guidelines and Procedures

All incidents of bullying should be treated seriously and procedures will be implemented as quickly as possible:
- Firstly, the facts should be established as accurately as possible by speaking to all possible
- Alleged victim and perpetrator should be allowed to state their points of view fairly
- An objective record of any incident regarded as bullying (in as far as the facts can be established) must be passed on to a member of Senior Management (see form which accompanies policy)
The victim of bullying should be given protection and
Procedures should include; disciplinary action against the offender/s, support for the victim and counselling for both
If it is established that bullying is suspected, parents will be informed and consulted as quickly as
Bullying should never be condoned, but to prevent it happening we must try to understand why some children are led to display bullying
This statement should be read in conjunction with Local Authority guidance and Network “C”’s Shared Guidance on Bullying, which has been agreed by all Headteachers in our Network of schools.

All members of staff must exercise vigilance and monitor very carefully and objectively any incidents which may develop into bullying. These should be recorded along with other

misdemeanors in the children’s discipline records.

Parents and children are assured that all bullying reports are taken seriously and investigated in a consistent and objective manner. To help us in this task we will record incidents in a clear, commonly agreed format (see attached incident report sheet).
The Headteacher will report regularly to Governors who will be part of discussions regarding revisions to this

Policy written by: J Lewis

Date of policy: September 2018 Ratified by Governors 09.18
Review date: September 2020

Appendix 1; Neighbourhood Schools’ Shared Guidance on Bullying

Introduction

The vision of our schools is of a community publicly committed to tackling the problem of bullying together.

This guidance aims:

To promote a shared approach to bullying across the community
To raise awareness of bullying and
To promote safe, happy and friendly environments

Bullying can affect anyone, anywhere. It can affect children; adults; male; female; black or white. It can happen at school, at work, at home or in the street. It is unacceptable.

We are committed to raising awareness of all types of bullying, but this guidance concentrates on bullying by and towards children.

What is bullying?

The nature and types of bullying are not always easy to define, and may change with access to technology etc. They may be:

Physical – Pushing, kicking, pinching and other forms of
Verbal – Name-calling, sarcasm, spreading rumours, persistent teasing or
Digital intimidation – through the use of mobile phones, internet and email
Emotional – Excluding someone from friendship groups, tormenting, ridicule,
Racist – Racial taunts, graffiti,
Sexual – Unwanted physical contact or abusive
Repeated – Hurtful acts one-against-one or several-against-one.
Homophobic – Homophobic taunts, graffiti,

Isolated hurtful acts may not necessarily constitute bullying – they may be part of children learning to live and play together with each other.

Young people have described bullying as:

Name-calling
Teasing
Pushing, pulling, pinching or
Hitting and
Stealing e.g. money, bags, clothing or
Ignoring and leaving people
Physical or verbal abuse relating to religion, gender/sexuality or

Acknowledging that a child is bullied for a reason may also be seen as justifying the bully’s behaviour. For example, making a child lose weight so bullies will stop calling them ‘Fatty’ may suggest to a child that the bullying is his/her own fault. However, children who persistently skit, ridicule and name-call may be storing up trouble for themselves in the future.

In its Healthy Schools guidance, the Local Authority suggests this definition:

All the signatories of this shared guidance agree and accept this definition.

Are Bystanders bullies?

If people witness bullying and do nothing to intervene or report the incident, they might be regarded as complicit, and as educators, we should ensure that children understand this from the outset, though possible fear of intervention must also be taken into account in judging incidents.

Is racism bullying?

Many children from across the UK are bullied because of the colour of their skin, or the nature of their race or faith.

“I’m bullied at school. They call me ‘paki’ and shout, ‘You don’t belong in this country’. (Reeta, aged 10).

Racial bullying, like all bullying, can be verbal, physical or emotional and can sometimes result in extreme violence and injury.

Children from minority cultural groups can be particularly vulnerable, because they display clear, recognisable differences for other children to pick on. Racist bullying can have a long- lasting effect on a child; sometimes children begin to hate their own culture and colour and lose confidence in themselves. Any form of verbal or physical harassment on the grounds of race or religion is against the law.

Joanne, a 10 year old black girl at boarding school was being bullied by one girl in the class who kept saying she was ‘like poo’. She had a friend who would stand up for her but it was getting her down and she was now not doing well in class.

It should be noted that racism is not always bullying and bullying is not always racism. Institutional racism remains widespread across many sectors of British society. It is always worth mentioning that racist bullying does not always mean ‘white against black ‘, but may be ‘black against white’ or bullying between different cultural groups.

What are the effects of bullying?

Bullying hurts. It is distressing and frightening. Children can become isolated and lonely. Over a period of time, children’s self esteem can be affected. They may begin to feel demoralised and powerless to stop the bullying.

Bullied children may feel that it is their fault, that there must be something wrong with them. Their schoolwork can become affected as they lose concentration and perhaps begin to skip lessons.

Sometimes the thought of going to school is so terrifying that children pretend they are ill or refuse to attend. A very few find life so unbearable that they attempt suicide. The effects of bullying can continue into adult life.

“I was the absolute perfect target for bullying. I was interested in flowers and animals….I kept trying to think of all the ways in which I could commit suicide. It was a measure of my despair and unhappiness. It has given me a life-long aversion to bullies. I actually see it as a responsibility to take them on face-to-

face.”

Sir John Harvey Jones, Industrialist.

There are those who say that bullying is “good” for a child. “It is a challenge,” they say, “it helps children learn how to stand up for themselves. It never did me any harm.” The point here is that neither children or adults should have to stand up for themselves against this sort of anti-social behaviour. On rare occasions,

being bullied may result in children growing up into assertive adults. It will result in many more growing

up into insecure, unconfident and unhappy adults. It is also likely that children who are bullied will grow up into overly aggressive

adults who use bullying tactics themselves, continuing a cycle of anti-social behaviour within our society.

Children can also be affected by witnessing bullying. Children have told of feeling afraid to intervene in case the bully turns on them, but of feeling helpless and guilty for not doing so. They may not want to tell an adult, for fear of being accused of telling tales.

“I don’t think bullies remember who

they

bullied. I think it’s the bullied person who remembers who the bullies were”.

Sir Ranulph Fiennes, Explorer.

“ I used to try and steel myself but it didn’t stop the fact that I used to get jumped on regularly and had to fight back all the time”.

Sir Cliff Richard, Singer.

“Bullies are just dumping all their own unhappiness onto somebody else”.

Jeremy Hardy, Comedian.

It should also be noted that, even bullying which may occur in widely spread incidents over time, can have a dramatic effect on children. In these instances, the ‘waiting’ for the next occurrence may be just as traumatic as the bullying itself.

Persistent and long term bullying can result in:

Depression
Low self-esteem.
Unwillingness to socialise or attend
Poor academic
Self harm or threatened/attempted
Bullying of others; the “cycle of abuse”

What are the signs of bullying?

A child may indicate by their behaviour that he or she is being bullied.

According to the children’s charity KIDSCAPE, if a child shows some of the following signs, bullying may be responsible and you may want to ask if someone is bullying or threatening them.

Children may:

Be frightened of walking to and from school
Change their usual route

o Not want to go on the school bus/beg you to drive them to school

o Be unwilling to go to school / feel ‘ill’ in the mornings

Stop trusting people, including those who care for them
Begin doing poorly in their school work
Come home regularly with clothes or books destroyed
Come home hungry (when dinner money has been stolen)
Become withdrawn / start stuttering / lack of confidence
Become distressed and anxious
Lose appetite / develop eating disorder
Attempt or threaten self-harm / suicide
Cry themselves to sleep / have nightmares
Have their possessions go missing
Ask for money or start stealing (to pay the bully)
Continually ‘lose’ their pocket money
Refuse to talk about what’s wrong
Have unexplained bruises, cuts, scratches
Begin to bully other children, siblings
Become aggressive and unreasonable
Give improbable excuses for any of the above

Why do children bully others?

Research and investigations have found that children and adults may use bullying behaviour because they are insecure themselves. They may have low self-confidence and low self-esteem and are jealous of other people. The jealousy may stem from popularity, money, intelligence or looks. Bullies often feel inadequate and will cover up these feelings by trying to make other people look or feel worse. Other people bully because they are bullied themselves and it is a way of regaining some control in their lives.

Bullying should never be condoned, but to prevent it happening we must try to understand why some children feel the need to bully.

A note about labelling

It is easy to label an anti-social or aggressive child a ‘bully’ but we must remember that labelling a child in this way has its own repercussions. Children who are labelled often rebel by “living up to” that label and the behaviour is perpetuated.

Children who bully others have their own problem and reasons why they do so, and while bullying may be ‘bad’ and an unacceptable mode of behaviour, the child him/herself is not ‘bad’. This implies an inability to change the unacceptable behaviour which is never the case. Children are not born ‘bad’ – they learn by example and, as humans we are all able to modify our behaviour, so we must always be aware of the language we use when dealing with incidents of bullying.

Promoting a shared approach

How can a shared approach help?

A policy and programme of practice shared across the community by all our schools has a number of advantages:

It shows that the community will not tolerate bullying of any kind
It shows that the community is working together to tackle bullying
It provides a network of support throughout the member organisations
It shows parents that schools are working with the community to provide safer schools
It helps the problem be tackled rather than moved from school to school or street to street
It is a positive action against bullying aiming for a safer, happier and friendlier environment

When a parent seeks to enrol their child in any school in the area, that parent can be assured that the organisation has a clear and shared approach to tackle bullying. The parents of children being bullied will know that positive action is taken. The parents of children who bully will know it is not tolerated and that the problem will be addressed, not ignored. Children themselves, can be assured that there is a strong commitment to tackling and preventing bullying.

Monitoring and Evaluation

The Schools in our Network will carry out annual consultations with each other for monitoring and evaluation purposes. This consultation will include:

Monitoring the take-up of the policy and “Best Practice” procedures within our schools
Monitoring existing anti-bullying activity carried out by our organisations
Monitoring statistics relating to incidents of bullying (these are confidential and for monitoring purposes only)
Monitor the effectiveness of support activities available within our network and through outside
Provide an opportunity for discussion and suggestions relating to the effective management and minimization of bullying within our network

Which organisations have agreed this shared approach?

Hugh’s
Hilda’s
Greenways
Cleopas’
Anne’s
Clare’s
Shorefields
Our Lady of Mount Carmel
Malachy’s
Margaret of Antioch
Pleasant Street
Smithdown Primary
Princes Primary
Nicholas
Windsor Street
Kingsley
Finbar’s

Schools Against Bullying:

Aims

Our Shared Principles

To promote a secure, safe, happy and friendly environment free from threat, harassment and any other type of bullying behaviour
To take positive action to prevent bullying occurring
To show commitment to bullying by practising zero tolerance
To inform children and parents of this policy and to develop a positive partnership to help maintain a bully-free environment
To make staff aware of their role in fostering the knowledge and attitudes required to achieve the above aims
To share good practice

Responsibilities

It is the responsibility of the organisation (including staff, governors or management):

To implement procedures to confront bullying in any form
To investigate instances of bullying as fully as possible
To take appropriate action or refer the incident to an appropriate person
To promote the use of teaching and learning styles and strategies which challenge bullying behaviour
To promote open management styles which facilitate communication throughout the organisation
To foster, by example, the values we believe in as an organisation
To promote the use of interventions which are least intrusive and most effective
To retain records of bullying and action taken for monitoring purposes as appropriate It is the responsibility of children to:
Refuse to accept that bullying is a normal part of life
Speak out about incidents of bullying wherever possible
Take some responsibility for the well-being of yourself and other children
Report incidents of bullying

It is the responsibility of parents to:

Be aware of the school’s anti-bullying policy and procedures
Provide positive role models for the children to aspire to
Encourage non-violent behaviour and resolution of conflict
Take allegations of bullying seriously
Maintain a sense of proportion, trust the school and understand that these situations can be complicated to resolve
Take steps to assure a bullied child that it is not his/her fault
Try to accept, understand and help solve the problem if it is your child who is bullying
Work together with the staff at the school to solve the problem
Be aware that bullying can re-occur and if it does so it will be dealt with thoroughly
Be aware that external conflicts are not the responsibility of the school, though we might try to help

Appendix 2

St. Patrick’s Catholic Primary School

Bullying Incident Report

Date:

Time & place:

Alleged perpetrators (initials only):

Victim (initials only):

Details of incident:

Action:

Resolution:

Staff member’s signature:

Head/Deputy Head’s signature:

APPENDIX 3

St. Patrick’s Catholic Primary School

Upper Hill Street

Liverpool L8 5UX

Tel: 0151 709 1062

Fax: 0151 707 9367

Head Teacher: Mrs. J Lewis

Dear

I am sorry to have to inform you that was involved in a bullying incident today.

I am sure that, you will agree with us that bullying is unacceptable and that you will want to talk to me to make sure he understands the seriousness of such behaviour.

I would appreciate it if you would make an appointment to see me as soon as possible so that, working together, we may resolve this matter.

Please sign and return the slip below to confirm that you have received this letter. Yours sincerely,

Mrs J Lewis Headteacher

…………………………………………………………………………………….

I have received you letter and would like to see you on:

…………………………………….at …………………………

or…………………………………..at…………………………….

Signed…………………………………………….

APPENDIX 4 St. Patrick’s Catholic Primary School

Upper Hill Street

Liverpool L8 5UX

Tel: 0151 709 1062

Fax: 0151 707 9367

Head Teacher: Mrs J Lewis

Dear

There was an incident in school which we regard as bullying.

may have been upset by what was said and, we would like you to know that we are dealing with the matter in school.

If you would like to come into school, I will explain what happened and what action we are taking. Please contact Mrs. Brown to arrange an appointment.

Yours sincerely,

Mrs J Lewis Headteacher

Prejudice-related incident reporting form

A prejudice-related incident refers to an incident where a person has been targeted for unjust and discriminative reasons, such as race or gender. Schools should monitor the number of prejudice-related incidents which occur in order to assess whether any further action is required, such as the implementation of an Equal Opportunities Policy. To assist in this monitoring, schools can complete this form in the event of a prejudice-related incident, noting details of what occurred, and any action taken. A new document should be completed per offender. Once completed, the form should be passed over to the headteacher or another relevant senior leader as soon as possible.

Details of prejudice-related incident
Name of the person reporting the incident:
Date of incident:
Victim’s name:
Victim’s date of birth:
Type of incident: (Tick applicable category/ categories)	Homophobia:☐	Sexism:☐
	Transphobia: ☐	Disability or health condition:☐
	Racism:☐	Family circumstance:☐
	Other (specify):☐
Names of people who have been informed:	·
Person who committed the offence: (Include their name and date of birth)	Pupil:☐	Teaching staff:☐
	Visitor:☐	Parent:☐
	Other staff:☐	Governor: ☐
	Other (specify):☐
Location of the incident:
Description of the incident:
Was this a physical or a verbal incident? Verbal
Were physical injuries sustained? If yes, specify the extent and to whom:
Names of other people involved, including bystanders:	·
Has the offender been involved in previous prejudice- related incidents? If yes, please provide details:
Has damage been done to school property? If yes, specify the extent:
What action will be/has been taken?
Have the police been informed?
What measures are in place to prevent a similar incident from occurring again?

Signed by: Date: