Blackfriars Primary School Anti Bullying Policy
Introduction
Bullying behaviour is never acceptable within Glasgow City Council’s schools and
early learning centres.
At Blackfriars we believe that all children and young people have an entitlement to work and play in a learning environment in which they feel valued, respected and safe and are free from all forms of abuse, bullying or discrimination.
Our Anti Bullying Policy is guided by and sits within the context of National and International Legislation. In particular the Equality Act 2010 and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). It is also guided by Scotland’s Getting it Right for Every Child (GIRFEC) Guidance, by Respect Me (Scotland’s Ant-Bullying Service) and by Glasgow City Council’s newly updated Anti-Bullying Policy 2019.
This policy complements our broader Relationships Policy and our work in this area is guided by our School Values: Respect, Included, Honest, Safe, Achieving.
The aim of our work in school is to
- Develop in children and parents the values, skills and resilience to prevent and manage bullying behaviour as it arises
- Ensure that children know who can help and will know what support is in place
- Ensure that all of the adults in school will have a consistent and coherent approach to managing instances of bullying behaviour
Definition
We use the definition provided by Respect Me and endorsed by the Scottish Government in 2017. It states that
Bullying is both behaviour and impact; what someone does and the impact it has on the other person’s capacity to feel in control of themselves. We call this their sense of ‘agency’. Bullying takes place in the context of relationships. It is behaviour that can make people feel hurt, threatened, frightened and left out and it can happen face to face and online.
Bullying behaviour can include:
- Being called names, teased, put down or threatened
- Being hit, tripped, pushed or kicked
- Having belongings taken or damaged
- Being ignored, left out or having rumours spread about you
- Receiving abusive messages electronically
- Behaviour which makes people feel like they are not in control of themselves
- Being targeted because of who you are or who you are perceived to be
Cyberbullying
We recognise that all of the behaviours mentioned here can happen face to face and that they can happen online. We have a school Acceptable Use Policy for ICT and a Mobile Phones Policy. We teach the children about how to stay safe in school through our progressive Health and Wellbeing Curriculum and through a particular focus during Internet Safety Week. We encourage parents and carers to be alert to the possibility of cyberbullying, to monitor their children’s internet use, to use parental controls as appropriate and to speak with children in an open way about how to stay safe online.
Labels
We do not label individual children as “bullies” or as “victims” of bullying because these can feed into negative self-perceptions, can entrench the behaviour and make it self-perpetuating. We refer instead to “persons demonstrating bullying behaviour” and “persons experiencing bullying behaviour”. This provides everyone with the opportunity to learn, to grow and to move forward.
Our Approach
- Develop in children and parents the values, skills and resilience to prevent and manage bullying behaviour as it arises.
Our starting point in preventing bullying behaviour is our school ethos. Our School Values (Respect, Safe, Honest, Caring, Achieving), which were developed in consultation with pupils and parents in 2018, guide all of our work in school. We place an emphasis on respect in particular in all of our interactions in school and we talk with the children in class and in the wider school about what respect looks like. We encourage children to show respect to all members of our school community. Class Charters are produced in collaboration with children based on children’s rights and we reward children who demonstrate our school values. Children receive Above and Beyond notes home, they receive values bands, they earn House Points and they receive certificates at School Assemblies for demonstrating the school values.
We are a Nurturing School and our whole school staff share an understanding of how to model positive interactions and how to support changes to any negative behaviours displayed. Our stance on preventing bullying behaviour and hitting back is shared with parents through Meet the teacher, parent leaflets, communication through Seesaw and the school app.
The Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE) and Sexual Health and Relationships Education (SHRE) components of our Health and Wellbeing curriculum teach the children how to maintain positive relationships, how to develop their resilience and how to challenge negative behaviours. In addition to Anti-Bullying Week, we incorporate anti-bullying messages across the curriculum at regular intervals. To support work in class, preventative strategies are reinforced in termly School Assemblies. Posters are displayed throughout the school which contain key messages related to Anti-Bullying and promote a shared language to express feelings (‘STOP, I don’t like that’). Teachers are encouraged to use our bank of social stories to support whole class and individuals to prevent instances of bullying behaviour.
We do not encourage children to ‘hit back’ because this dilutes our key messages relating to safety and respect. We aspire to create an environment in which everyone is safe at all times. For this reason we say to all children ‘we don’t hurt each other at Blackfriars.’
We need parental support in reinforcing this message and are always happy to talk about instances in which things go wrong.
- Ensure that children know who can help and will know what support is in place
Time to Talk is used as a way of giving children a voice in school. Children are asked to contribute their ideas and suggestions around Anti-Bullying and around Safety in School. These sessions give teachers opportunities to speak with children about supports that are available to them in school.
All classes use an Emotions Check In which allows children to communicate in a visual way any concerns they may be having. In addition, upper school classes use Worry Boxes to allow children to share any concerns with their class teacher.
Children are encouraged to speak to the nearest adult if they are worried about bullying behaviour. Bubble Time gives children the chance to speak to an adult privately during break times about any worries they may be having.
In addition to these universal supports we also have targeted supports to develop resilience in children. These include our Rainforest Room (P1-P3), Afternoon Nurture Groups, Kit Bag group and counselling.
- Ensure that all of the adults in school will have a consistent and coherent approach to managing instances of bullying behaviour.
Our Relationships Policy provides guidance for all staff in how to manage negative behaviours including bullying behaviour. This is revisited with the whole staff annually at the beginning of each academic session. It is made available to any new members of staff as they arrive over the course of the year.
When a child makes a disclosure to an adult about bullying behaviour the adult will listen carefully and we recommend that they ask the following five questions
- What was the behaviour?
- What impact did it have?
- What does the child or young person want to happen?
- What do I need to do about it?
- What attitudes, prejudices or other factors have influenced the behaviour?
(Respect Me)
Where relationships are damaged and when the person experiencing bullying behaviour agrees then the adult will have a restorative conversation with the people involved. This is based on the following questions.
- What happened?
- How did this make you feel?
- What needs to happen now to fix things and move forward?
These conversations may be facilitated by a Support for Learning Worker, by a Class Teacher or by a member of the Senior Leadership Team (SLT).
Where teachers and Support for Learning Workers feel that there is evidence of bullying behaviour then a referral slip would be completed and sent to a member of the SLT. All instances of bullying behaviour are recorded on SEEMIS in accordance with Glasgow City Councils Guidelines and parents informed.
In cases where prejudice is a factor in the bullying behaviour then these are recorded with reference to Protected Characteristics under the Equality Act 2010. Protected Characteristics under the law are
- Age 2. Disability 3. Race 4. Sex (Gender) 5. Pregnancy/Maternity 6. Religion/Belief 7. Sexual Orientation 8. Marriage/Civil Partnership 9. Gender Reassignment.
Members of the SLT review instances of bullying behaviour and record the outcome on SEEMIS. The SLT also sample instances of bullying behaviour as part of the school Quality Assurance calendar.
No hitting back policy
It is natural for young children to want to retaliate when they are wronged. However, part of our responsibility as parents, carers and teachers is to help the young people in our care to regulate their feelings, manage conflict and prepare them for adult life. This is where our ‘no hitting back’ policy is grounded. Rather than by complicating matters for children by saying that there are occasions when it is OK to hit, we feel that a more helpful message is that at Blackfriars we don’t hurt anyone.
We understand that pupils will find themselves in situations which are difficult to manage and that parents want to be reassured that their children are safe and have agency in school. To that end we have developed strategies to help children manage conflict and to promote both justice and a sense of resilience, when aggressive interactions occur.
- Recognise what is happening. Is the perceived act of aggression intentional or accidental? We spend time helping children to recognise that there is a difference between an accidental interaction through over stimulated and often noisy active play and a deliberate interaction designed to intimidate.
- Respond appropriately. We encourage all our pupils to say Stop! I don’t like that! loudly and clearly whenever they encounter a situation which is making them uncomfortable. By doing this any potential aggressor is unable to say that they didn’t know they were causing a problem. It also allows pupils who have accidently caused a difficulty, the opportunity to stop and apologise.
- Remove from the situation. We encourage pupils who are in a situation that they find difficult to leave that situation as soon as possible and seek sanctuary with a person they consider trustworthy.
- Report Pupils should report incidences which they have found threatening as quickly as possible. There are many avenues available to your child to do this both in school and in the playground and a range of people from school staff to playground buddies who will listen to their concerns.
By outlining the steps in place to support children, we hope that you will see the ways we are seeking to promote safety, justice and resilience for all of our pupils. Our policy of ‘no hitting back’ is in place because we believe we can better prepare the pupils of our school to manage aggression and conflict in positive and empowering ways.
Useful Links
www.respectme.org.uk
The following websites are particularly useful where there are concerns around prejudice based bullying behaviour.
www.lgbtyouth.org.uk
www.children1st.org.uk
www.childline.org.uk
www.youthscotland.org.uk
www.samh.org.uk
www.zerotolerance.org.uk
www.enquire.org.uk
www.enable.org.uk
www.scottishtravellered.org.uk
www.changingfaces.org.uk
www.theredcardscotland.org.uk
www.pinscotland.org.uk
www.cypcs.org.uk
www.childrensparliament.org.uk
Respect Me publish a Guidance Booklet on Bullying Behaviour for Parents and Carers. This is available to parents through the Respect Me website or an request at the school office.