'Instead of each person watching out for their own good, watch out for what is better for others.'
Philippians 2:4
Anti- Bullying
At St Paul's we have a zero tolerance approach to bullying. We react quickly when any bullying is reported. However, we wanted to do more than this. We wanted to ensure that our children and families were aware of what is defined as bullying, so we could identify exactly when it was happening.
During Anti-Bullying Week we worked on a whole school definition of what bullying is, written by our children.
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‘Bullying is when someone is unkind on purpose. They may hurt your feelings or your body, over and over, and it can feel like a long time. It involves an imbalance of power and happens repeatedly.’ |
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Elements were taken from all classes and their origin classes can be seen below. Bullying is when someone is unkind (Y1) on purpose (Y2G). They may hurt (Y2H) your feelings or your body (Y5), over and over (R), and it can feel like a long time (Y3). It involves an imbalance of power (Y6) and happens repeatedly (Y4). |
What is Bullying?
As the children have stated in their anti-bullying statement, bullying is 'Behaviour by an individual or a group, usually repeated over time that intentionally hurts another individual either physically or emotionally'.
Bullying can include: name calling, taunting, mocking, making offensive comments, kicking, hitting, taking belongings, inappropriate text messaging and electronic messaging (including through web-sites, social networking sites and instant messenger), sending offensive or degrading images by phone or via the internet, producing offensive graffiti, gossiping, excluding people from groups and spreading hurtful and untruthful rumours.
Not all unpleasantness between pupils is bulling, some can be regarded as random acts of unkindness such as refusing to talk to a person.
How do we Educate our 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.
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 box for their class teacher to read. Children can talk to an adult they feel comfortable talking to. Children may only feel comfortable telling a parent/carer or someone they can talk to at home.. All of these options are fine, however if a child reports bullying at home, whether this is including themselves or other children, we ask that home tell school immediately, Pupils must be aware that for incidents to be dealt with they must not report anonymously.
Staff
If a member of staff witnesses bullying they must intervene immediately, this should be followed up by an incident report being put on to Cpoms, so that all necessary staff can be informed. In the first instance the class teacher will liaise with parents/carers and try to resolve the matter.
Parents/Carers/Concerned Adults
Parents can report bullying by:
- Speaking to their child's class teacher
- Emailing their child's class teacher. or another member of staff. Click here to see staff email addresses.
- Phoning the school: 0161 764 3788
- E-mailing or phoning the school Family Support Working, Tracey Beswick
- Making an appointment to see Mr Purdey (DHT) or Mrs Morris (HT).
What you Should Expect from School Expect when you Report Bullying
All parents/carers should be reassured that once an incident of bullying has been reported to school, we will begin an investigation into what has been happening.
Definition of Bullying
The Anti-Bullying Alliance (ABA) and its members have a shared definition of bullying based on research from across the world over the last 30 years.
ABA defines bullying as:
"The repetitive, intentional hurting of one person or group by another person or group, where the relationship involves an imbalance of power. It can happen face to face or online."
There are four key elements to this definition:
- Hurtful
- Repetition
- Power imbalance
- Intentional
Bullying behaviour can be:
- Physical – pushing, poking, kicking, hitting, biting, pinching etc.
- Verbal – name calling, sarcasm, spreading rumours, threats, teasing, belittling.
- Emotional – isolating others, tormenting, hiding books, threatening gestures, ridicule, humiliation, intimidating, excluding, manipulation and coercion.
- Sexual – unwanted physical contact, inappropriate touching, abusive comments, homophobic abuse, exposure to inappropriate films etc.
- Online/cyber – posting on social media, sharing photos, sending nasty text messages, social exclusion.
- Indirect – can include the exploitation of individuals.
Bullying is not:
- A one off fight between equals
- A falling out between friends
- Hurting someone accidentally
- Borrowing something and forgetting to return
Click here to read our Anti-Bullying Policy