Why Schools should be concerned about Bullying

Head teachers must have, by law, a policy to prevent all forms of bullying among pupils. Challenging bullying effectively will improve the safety, happiness and performance of pupils, show the school cares and make clear that bullying behaviour is unacceptable.
Head teachers will need to satisfy themselves that their policies comply with the Human Rights Act 1998. - Bullying-Don’t Suffer in Silence-DfES
A school which does not have in place an effective anti-bullying policy that incorporates consequences for bullying behaviour may be failed in an OFSTED inspection.
Challenging bullying improves confidence, performance and attendance of vulnerable pupils, and provides guidelines and controls for pupils whose behaviour is a concern.

Kidscape have an example anti-bullying policy, complying with Government requirements available for download or in printed format. You are welcome to use this as a guideline, but you will obviously need to personalise it to ensure your establishment feels “ownership” of it.

Here are some stages you may wish to consider during this process.

Overview

An effective anti-bullying policy acts on two levels

Firstly, it is preventative, i.e.

Raises awareness of bullying throughout the school/ institution/ community addressing all pupils, parents and staff teaching and non-teaching.
Publicly acknowledges that the school/institution considers bullying to be unacceptable, and is committed to dealing with it.
Helps to create and support a culture of care and consideration for others.

Secondly, it should be designed to challenge and stop incidents of bullying. It should support the student who has been bullied and address the behaviour of the perpetrators by:

Setting out clear procedures for dealing with incidents when they are reported.
Ensuring all members of the school community are aware of the procedures involved
Having built-in monitoring and evaluation mechanisms to ensure the policy is consistently applied.

Steps to help you develop a new anti-bullying policy, or revise an existing one

Assess your establishment’s needs and goals

Ensure a named member of staff has responsibility for co-ordinating work towards producing the anti-bullying policy, and that they are fully supported by senior staff.
Circulate appropriate questionnaires to all stakeholders to ascertain the extent of the problem and to provide a needs analysis. This should include pupils, teachers, support staff, governors, parents and any other involved agencies. This needs analysis should inform the construction of the policy.

See Kidscape Training guide How to Stop Bullying for examples.

Develop the anti-bullying policy

The anti-bullying co-ordinator should be supported in putting together a team of people representing the interests of the whole school/ institution. In order to have the greatest chance of success, the students must play a leading role in developing the policy. (Key words: ownership and relevancy).
Review current policy ensuring whole school community have input, and an opportunity to offer their perspective via questionnaire or discussion with team.

Practical suggestions towards formulating a new anti-bullying policy

Re-phrase negative instructions in positive terms (i.e. Avoid using DON’T…)
Ensure current advice on cyber bullying is included.
Re-evaluate record-keeping procedures.Remember to choose a format that can be used by the whole school community

Kidscape provides a simple computer package called KSS to help with recording and evaluating bullying incidents. You can also download an anti-bullying log for use by pupils and parents.

Look at strategies currently in place to empower pupils, e.g. Peer group mentoring buddy schemes, etc. Consider any training required.

Kidscape can arrange training for your staff on any of these areas

Identify problem areas around the building – e.g. bike sheds, toilet blocks, stairwells, changing rooms. Arrange close monitoring of these areas.
Consider positive changes that need to be made, e.g. playground developments, supervision on buses, after- school activities, and their cost implications.
Can movement of pupils at break times be staggered?
Identify fund-raising activities for parents.
Arrange supportive liaisons with outside agencies, e.g. other phase schools.
Decide how the concept of a “telling” school can be integrated into the curriculum.
Look at curriculum policies of other relevant organisations.
Set up a whole school project to launch the new policy e.g. a “kindness” week.
Review “Bullying at Work” policy and procedures for dealing with complaints against staff.

Aims to achieve

A clear and agreed definition of bullying, giving examples.
A clear statement that the policy applies to the whole school/ institution.
A clear and detailed guide to how the bullying will be dealt with by the school/institution. Rewards and sanctions to be properly understood by all participants in the school community.
Aims and objectives- immediate and long-term. Agreed review process.
Strategies to encourage pupils and other stakeholders to report incidents of bullying
Initiatives written into the Institutional Development Plan with costs, dates for review and training.
An efficient pro-active method of assessing the effects of previous bullying experiences on new arrivals at the school.
A way of disseminating information to relevant staff without breaching the trust/confidentiality of the bullied pupil.

Provide training and support for all staff

It is essential to the operation of an effective anti-bullying policy that all staff receives adequate training to enable them to apply the policy consistently and responsibly.
A consistent way of dealing with complaints without the necessity of making the vulnerable target confront the bullies must be agreed. Staff must have an opportunity to discuss their own concerns and previous difficult experiences.
Initial training to launch the policy should be followed up with top-up training at regular intervals. (To take account of on-going cycles of evaluation and review).
Full training on the use of the policy must be a key feature in the induction of new members of the school community.

Involving pupils

Involve pupils fully in the implementation, operation, monitoring and evaluation of the policy.
Investigate the range of peer support options that are available, and train suitable pupils accordingly.
All students newly attending the school should be made fully aware of the anti-bullying policy operated.
All members of the school community must understand that “bystander apathy” is totally unacceptable, and will be sanctioned accordingly.

Involve parents/carers

Establish communication channels that are easy to access, and allow issues to be dealt with pro-actively and tactfully.
Make sure that parents are given clear information as to their rights- and responsibilities in the anti-bullying policy.