Counter Bullying Policy

Author	Nadia Guglieri (Counter Bullying Lead) School Council
Date:	September 2020
Date reviewed:	February 2023

As a Rights Respecting School our philosophy and ambition for our pupils is underpinned by our four Core Values and the values and principles of the United Nation’s Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).

Article 2: The convention applies to every child without discrimination, whatever their ethnicity, gender, religion, language, abilities or any other status, whatever they think or say, whatever their family background. No child should be treated unfairly for any reason.

Article 3: Everyone who works with children should do what is best for each child.

Article 19: You should not be harmed and should be looked after and kept safe.

Article 37: If you do the wrong thing, you have a right to be treated fairly.

Introduction

This policy is intended to support Jersey College in countering bullying. It is recognised that bullying can occur in all schools and that activity to counter any bullying is not an indicator that a school has a particular problem with bullying; rather, it is an indicator that the school takes the responsibility of countering bullying seriously.

All teachers have a duty of care towards our pupils, taking reasonable steps to protect the welfare, health and safety of pupils and to act with reasonable skill and care.

The staff carry the responsibility for making the school a safe and positive place for the whole school community. If a pupil takes part in a serious campaign of victimisation, abuse and intimidation, or episode of physical bullying against any other person belonging to the school community, they will be instantly suspended from coming to school whilst the behaviour is investigated and they may well be excluded.

Definition of Bullying

‘Bullying is a subjective experience and can take many forms. To be classed as a bullying act the perpetrator needs to have a social and premeditated awareness that the act is malicious and will cause physical and or emotional harm.’ Accounts of children and young people, backed up by research, identify bullying as any behaviour that is:

Emotionally and physically harmful, carried out by an individual or a group
Deliberate and wilful with a premeditated intent to harm
Occurs more than once An imbalance of power, leaving the person being bullied feeling threatened. Children and young people or adults can instigate bullying, and each can be bullied, in any combination.

Research shows that two-thirds of children who bully others do so because they themselves are being bullied elsewhere. Hence educational establishments need to consider potential bullying in relation to child-child; adult-child; child-adult and adult-adult scenarios. JCP is committed to challenging any form of bullying within the staff team and any incidents will be addressed in line with Government of Jersey Policies.

Types of Bullying

Bullying generally takes the form of emotionally or physically harmful behaviour. It can include any of the following: name calling, taunting, threats, mocking, making offensive comments, kicking, hitting, pushing, taking and damaging belongings, malicious gossiping, excluding people from groups, and spreading hurtful and untrue rumours. It may include homophobic, transphobic or biphobic bullying. These activities can take place face to face, via third parties, or via other means such as text messages, emails, blogs, gaming websites, internet chatrooms, instant messaging and camera facilities. The nature of bullying is changing and evolving as technology develops.

There are two forms of Bullying: Direct and Indirect.

Direct bullying is classed as the process of carrying out an act of bullying as described above. A person can be accused of direct bullying if they proactively engage in acts that involve ‘actual’ harm of another person emotionally, socially and/or physically.

Indirect bullying is by means of incitement and other forms of the ‘encouraging and supporting’ of others to harm or bully another person. Examples of this include passing on messages, liking on Facebook or other media; watching physical acts without action and any other means of facilitating acts of aggression and harm.

Different types of bullying include:

Physical – hitting, kicking, tripping someone up, stealing/damaging someone’s belongings

Verbal – name-calling, insulting a person’s family, threats of physical violence, spreading rumours, constantly putting a person down

Emotional/Psychological – excluding someone from a group, humiliation, encouraging hate, highlighting differences and highlighting weaknesses

Racist – insulting language / gestures based on a person’s actual or perceived ethnic origin or faith, name calling, graffiti, racially motivated violence, use of racial motived imagery

Sexual – sexually insulting language / gestures, name-calling, graffiti, unwanted physical contact, encouragement of posting inappropriate photographs and other material

Homophobic – insulting language / gestures, name-calling based on a person’s actual or perceived sexuality, name-calling, graffiti and homophobic violence

Electronic/Cyber – bullying by text message, bullying on the internet (in chat rooms, on bulletin boards and through instant messaging services), hate websites, using photographs, happy slapping etc.

Our Core Principles

We believe that all within our community have the right to be respected and not to be bullied.
Pupils should be able to tell someone if they are being bullied.
We all have the right to work in an environment without harassment, intimidation or fear.
We believe that bullying in any form is wrong and should not be tolerated, and that any environment that encourages bullying, prejudice or discrimination is unacceptable.
We respect difference and welcome diversity in our children, young people and in society in general, and believe our work should be inclusive of all.
We believe that everyone should have the right to feel safe, secure and valued, and that creating a safe environment and dealing with bullying is everyone’s responsibility.
We believe children and young people should actively participate in decisions that affect them and should be supported in taking responsibility for their choices and subsequent actions.

Pupils should be encouraged:

To know, understand and accept the principle that any form of bullying, including online bullying, is unacceptable and they should be encouraged to tell their parents, a member of staff or someone they trust should bullying occur
To contribute to an atmosphere in which positive relationships can be nurtured
To contribute ideas through JCP Voice and school council to reduce bullying

Pupils who are bullying

Bullying behaviour has no place in our school. If pupils are involved in bullying, they can expect that:

Their bullying behaviour will be challenged
They will be treated fairly
They will be given the opportunity to change their behaviour and will be encouraged and supported in doing so

This means:

They will be expected to work with staff to look at the reasons why they have been bullying and to find and put into practice other ways of behaving.
They will be offered the chance to work with the Wellbeing Team who can help them to stop bullying.
Their class teacher will let parent(s)/carer(s) know what is going on and offer them the chance to help support their child in changing their behaviour.
Pupils will have regular meetings with staff to review their behaviour.
In the case of serious incidents, the Head teacher may decide to take more serious action, e.g. to suspend the pupil and involve parents.

Online bullying procedures

Reassure the victim that online bullying is the same as other types of bullying and it is unacceptable Investigate and gather evidence
Refer to the e-safety policy and acceptable use policy
Seek assistance from IT specialists
Follow the normal counter-bullying procedures
Advise parents regarding their child’s responsible usage of online technology

t is important to note that research shows that two-thirds of bullying goes unreported in school and the majority of the bullying incidences occur within the school building. Staff should not underestimate the effects of bullying on the individual from emotional distress to poor concentration and disruptive behaviours. Warning signs like an unwillingness to participate, social isolation and oversensitivity to comments and praise can all be possible indicators of bullying (as well as other matters). A key indicator of bullying can be seen as a significant rise in pupil distress within the last ten minutes of a lesson. All staff need to be aware of the possible signs of distress, particularly when there has been a sudden change in behaviours and presentation in a pupil.

Bullying occurs in every school and in every year group. Disregarding this fact facilitates bullying in your school and attitudes of it being ‘normal’ or ‘healthy’ are forms of indirect bullying and should not be tolerated.

What to do if you are bullied or if you see others being bullied

Tell your parents, a friend or a teacher (This may be teacher or a teacher that you wish to tell. You may wish to take a friend with you to help you to explain what has happened.
Tell a member of the School Council
The pupil/ parental complaint will be followed up as outlined in this policy. Pupils and parents will be informed of action taken where appropriate

The Deputy Head teacher (Counter Bullying Lead) has responsibility for:

Gathering information from class teacher/Key Stage Leaders and recording and filing any serious incident of bullying and informing parents
Supporting the Key Stage Leader in dealing with any incidents and in serious cases of bullying supporting the Key Stage Leader and pupils during the consultation process
Informing the Head teacher if there is a serious incident
Referring a pupil to the School/CYPES Wellbeing Team with parental permission

The Counter Bullying Lead will monitor the SIMS behaviour log regularly and report figures termly to the CYPES from January 2020. The findings will be taken into consideration when prioritising whole school developments.

Class teachers/Teaching assistants/Lunchtime supervisors have responsibility for:

Knowing, understanding and accepting the principle that any form of bullying is unacceptable and following the school policy on Counter-bullying
Developing and monitoring an atmosphere in which positive relationships are developed
Building positive relationships with pupils, creating a positive environment in which issues, such as bullying are discussed and addressed in an age appropriate manner
Providing pupils with the opportunity to raise issues such as bullying or friendship issues in circle time or at any time during the school day when they are feeling concerned or worried
Ensuring pupils know that they will be listened to and taken seriously and that action will be taken to stop the bullying, explaining to them that they might be involved in the process of deciding what action to take to help stop the bullying and any worries that they have will be listened to and respected
Explaining that they will be given the opportunity to talk about the way that the bullying has made them feel and to find practical strategies to deal with these feelings and to understand and cope with bullying behaviour with support
Close daily monitoring initially of pupils who have expressed concern, by the class teachers and encouraging them to meet the Counter Bullying Lead or School Wellbeing Team for further support if deemed necessary
Recording serious incidents of bullying and speaking to the Counter Bullying Lead, Key Stage Leader, Deputy Head teacher and Head teacher
Informing parents if agreed with Senior Staff it is appropriate to do so
Immediately reporting to the Head teacher if there are serious concerns about a pupil’s welfare
Dealing with any incidents of bullying, should they occur in the class room or on the playground
Following up incidents, reporting their concerns to the Class teacher, Year group leader or Key Stage Leader

The Head of Personal Social and Health Education has responsibility for:

Ensuring that pupils learn about bullying issues and that counter bullying techniques are included in the Personal, Social and Health Education Scheme of Work.
Liaising with the IT coordinator to ensure pupils learn about the effects of online bullying
Supporting Playground friends in their role

Key Stage Leaders have responsibility for:

Supporting the class teacher in dealing with incidents
Gathering information and recording serious incidents (Appendix 3), placing in pupil’s files and informing parents if appropriate
Supporting the year group leaders in dealing with any incidents and pupils during the consultation process
Liaising with the Head teacher, Deputy Head teacher, regarding any incidents of bullying
Referring to Head teacher for advice and action concerning serious incidents

The Head teacher has responsibility for:

Ensuring the counter bullying policy is implemented and that all staff are aware of the policy and know how to deal with incidents of bullying
Reporting to the governing body about the effectiveness of the counter bullying policy on request

The Governors have responsibility for:

Supporting the Senior Leadership Team in the oversight of this policy and that the procedures of this policy are implemented
Ensuring that when incidents of bullying do occur they are taken very seriously and are dealt with appropriately in line with the procedures set out in this policy

Parents have responsibility for:

Supporting the Staff in promoting that any bullying, including online bullying, is unacceptable
Monitoring their children and communicating promptly with the school if they believe bullying is taking place
Engaging in information evenings where bullying issues and strategies for managing bullying behaviour, including online bullying, are discussed
Supporting the School in following the counter-bullying procedures outlined in this policy

If pupils ever fear for their physical safety, staff will take immediate action to keep them safe with the help of staff at the school, parents/carers and if necessary outside agencies such as the police.

This policy should be read in conjunction with CYPES Counter Bullying Policy https://www.gov.je/SiteCollectionDocuments/Education/P%20Counter%20Bullying%20Policy%2020190722%20MV.pdf