Anti-Bullying | Shiney Row Primary School

Anti-Bullying

At Shiney Row Primary bullying is unacceptable and can damage children’s individual and educational needs. We therefore do all we can to prevent it, by developing a school ethos in which bullying is not tolerated under any circumstances (see behaviour policy). This policy aims to produce a consistent school response to any bullying incidents that may occur. We aim to make all those connected with the school aware of our opposition to bullying, and we make clear each person’s responsibilities with regard to the eradication of bullying in our school.

What is bullying?

In Shiney Row Primary School we define bullying as follows:

Bullying is when an individual or group deliberately hurts another or makes them feel unhappy. Bullying behaviour will be repeated over a period of time and is difficult for the victim 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 for example.

Bullying is a blight on the lives of our children which inhibits full participation in education and learning, cultural, social and leisure activities. Whatever the reason, bullying is never acceptable and will not be tolerated in Shiney Row Primary School.

Bullying can take many forms, but three main types are:

Physical– hitting, kicking, spitting, demanding money or belongings.
Verbal– name calling, insults making racist, sexist, homophobic or offensive remarks.
Indirect– excluding or ‘blanking’, spreading gossip, damaging property, offensive or abusive emails, text messages or posts on websites – known as ‘cyber bullying’. We believe that bullying someone by email or text messages is still hurtful and will be dealt with in the same manner.

Restorative Approach

At Shiney Row Primary School, we use restorative approaches to help develop a happier school where the focus is on learning not conflict. Every member of our school community should feel safe and respected and will know that when things go wrong we will do everything we can to help put it right.

Restorative approaches encourage people to think about how their behaviour has affected others. This approach helps children to develop respect, responsibility and truth telling.

All our restorative conversations are built on 6 questions:

What has happened?
What was I thinking at the time?
How was I feeling?
Who has been affected?
How will I repair the harm that has been caused?
How can I make sure that this won't happen again?

For more information please see the attached document:(Requires Microsoft Powerpoint)

Basic Introduction to Restorative Approaches

How do we educate the children about bullying?

Each year, we as a school take part in Anti-Bullying Week (held in the month of November). Anti-Bullying Week shines a spotlight on bullying and encourages all children, teachers and parents to take action against bullying. Over the course of Anti-Bullying Week, we hold a number of school assemblies and each class completes a number of activities designed at educating the children about what bullying is and how to deal with its different forms effectively. However, as a school we believe that anti- bullying is not just one week of the school year. Therefore we participate in whole school activities every term each with a different focus to strengthen the children’s understanding.

The Anti- Bullying Team meet most weeks to talk about the effectiveness of what we offer and they are there to chat to any pupils who come to our well- being session. They work alongside our Change4Life Champions during playtimes and lunch time to offer well-structured games on the yard.

Please find below links to our Anti- Bullying Weeks:

Anti Bullying Week 2021

Anti Bullying Week 2020

Anti Bullying Week 2019

To read our latest Anti-Bullying Newsletter please click here.

Ways of reporting bullying:

Pupils:

If pupils witness bullying or feel they are being bullied they can tell any member of staff who must pass the information on to the victim's and alleged bully's class teachers.

Pupils may also write down any worries they have about bullying and put theses into a worry monster for Miss Taylor or one of the team to read and pass onto class teachers. Pupils must be aware that for incidents to be dealt with they must not report anonymously.

What should staff do?

If a member of staff witnesses bullying they must record this onto an incident report form and give copies to the class teachers of the children involved.

What should parents/ members of the public do?

Parents can report bullying by: