Anti-Bullying Policy

Children and young people at Ashmount enjoy many rights. These include the right to be safe, enjoy and achieve and make a positive contribution to school life. Ashmount maintains a caring approach to children and any form of bullying, physical, verbal, racial, homophobic, sexist or other type of harassment will not be tolerated.

What is bullying?

Bullying can be defined as a physical, psychological or verbal attack against an individual or group of individuals by a person or group of persons, causing physical or psychological harm to the victim. It is usually conscious and wilful and commonly consists of repeated acts of aggression and/or manipulation. It can take a number of forms – both physical and non-physical, either in combination or in isolation. Any bullying, whether physical or non-physical, may result in lasting psychological damage to the individual.

Bullying generally falls into one or a combination of the following categories:

Physical Bullying – Unprovoked assault on a person or group which can range from a ‘prod’ to grievous bodily harm.
Psychological – Reduction of a person’s self-esteem or confidence through threatening behaviour, taunting or teasing about race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, disability, family circumstances, appearance, or any other feature of their lives which can be used to wound or humiliate them.
Social- Ostracism/rejection by peer group.
Verbal – The use of language in a derogatory or offensive manner, such as swearing, racist or sexist abuse, sexual innuendo, spreading rumours, etc.
Cyber bullying – Using mobile phones or the internet to deliberately upset someone.
Homophobic – Any hostile or offensive action against lesbians, gay males, bisexuals or trans-gender people, or those perceived to be lesbian, gay, bisexual or trans-gender.

Objectives of this Policy

To ensure that everyone in the school community have an understanding of what bullying is and how the school will deal with incidences of bullying
To develop a listening caring ethos at Ashmount where any form of bullying is not tolerated and dealt with in the appropriate manner
To encourage discussion and not make premature assumptions and to foster a problem solving approach
The staff is made aware of the anti-bullying policy by the Senior Leadership Team and has access to where the policy is kept.
Explore issues through the curriculum by PSHE, assemblies and Anti-bullying week.
Support the bully and the victim in modifying behaviour

Procedures

Children should report bullying incidents to available staff or someone who they can trust. In cases of serious bullying, the incidents will be recorded by staff on a behaviour log sheet and investigated initially by the class teacher, followed by the following individuals if an incident is not resolved team leader, inclusion leader, deputy Headteacher and ultimately the Headteacher. Any incident will be logged and passed immediately to the team leader who will ensure this matter has been resolved.
Parents must report any bullying incidences using the attached form – also available in the school office.
In serious cases parents will be informed and will be asked to come in to a meeting to discuss the problem.
The bullying behaviour or threats of bullying will be investigated and the bullying addressed.
Appropriate feedback will be given to the parent reporting the bullying in a timely manner.
The school accepts that any child could display bullying behaviour and as a school we have a moral imperative to help those doing so to change their behaviour.
If necessary and appropriate, external agencies will be consulted to provide support.

Outcomes

The school will investigate the incident.
The child displaying bullying behaviour will be asked to genuinely apologise. Other consequences such as (a) an apology letter or (b) a written contract may be required.
The school will aim to sort out differences and encourage the pupils to reconcile.
In serious cases, parents will be informed in writing and suspension or even exclusion will be considered.
After the incident / incidents have been investigated and dealt with, each case will be monitored to ensure repeated bullying does not take place and it will be considered that the incident/incidents are closed. The school strongly believes that all children can be bullied or a bully and as such all parties once an issue has been addressed should be allowed to move on from the issue at hand.

Prevention

We will use various methods for helping children to prevent bullying. This will include:

Have a listening and caring ethos
Encourage discussion and don’t make premature assumptions
Adopt a problem solving approach
The staff are made aware of the anti-bullying policy by Senior Leadership Team and has access to where the policy is kept.
Explore issues through the curriculum by PSHCE, assemblies and Anti-bullying week.
Support the bully and the victim in modifying behaviour
Provide information through notice boards, posters and Child line.
Provide support through playground buddies, friendship group and peer support.
The anti-bullying policy works alongside the behaviour policy. This is discussed with the children in class so they are informed of the procedures

REPORT ON A BULLYING INCIDENT BY PARENTS/CARERS.

PART ONE – to be completed by the person reporting the incident.

Full name and address of the person reporting the incident
Date, time and place of the breach
Please provide a full description of the incident (specific details rather than general comments are required in order to deal with the reported incident) Please use the other side or a separate sheet if required…
Signature:		Date:

PART TWO – To be completed by the person investigating the incident

Names of investigator(s)	Date the investigation took place
Main finding(s)
Actions taken and support for the subject
Signature:	Date:

Supporting Organisations and Guidance

Anti-Bullying Alliance: www.anti-bullyingalliance.org.uk
Beat Bullying: www.beatbullying.org
Childline: www.childline.org.uk
DfE: “Preventing and Tackling Bullying. Advice for headteachers, staff and governing bodies”, and “Supporting children and young people who are bullied: advice for schools” March 2014: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/preventing-and-tackling-bullying
DfE: “No health without mental health”: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/no-health-without-mental-health-a-cross-government-outcomes-strategy
Family Lives: www.familylives.org.uk
Kidscape: www.kidscape.org.uk
MindEd: www.minded.org.uk
NSPCC: www.nspcc.org.uk
PSHE Association: www.pshe-association.org.uk
Restorative Justice Council: www.restorativejustice.org.uk
The Diana Award: www.diana-award.org.uk
Victim Support: www.victimsupport.org.uk
Young Minds: www.youngminds.org.uk
Young Carers: www.youngcarers.net

Cyberbullying

Childnet International: www.childnet.com
Digizen: www.digizen.org
Internet Watch Foundation: www.iwf.org.uk
Think U Know: www.thinkuknow.co.uk
UK Safer Internet Centre: www.saferinternet.org.uk

LGBT

EACH: www.eachaction.org.uk
Pace: www.pacehealth.org.uk
Schools Out: www.schools-out.org.uk
Stonewall: www.stonewall.org.uk

SEND

Changing Faces: www.changingfaces.org.uk
Mencap: www.mencap.org.uk
DfE: SEND code of practice: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/send-code-of-practice-0-to-25

Racism and Hate

Anne Frank Trust: www.annefrank.org.uk
Kick it Out: www.kickitout.org
Report it: www.report-it.org.uk
Stop Hate: www.stophateuk.org
Show Racism the Red Card: www.srtrc.org/educational