Anti-bullying

At St Joseph's, we have high expectations of how the children treat each other. We take all reports of bullying very seriously.

Roles and responsibilities  

The Senior Leadership team lead on anti-bullying across the school:

• following the school's policy in line with good practice 
• ensuring that agreed protocols are followed  
• evaluating the progress the school is making in relation to the anti-bullying agenda  
   

Class teachers are responsible for the day-to-day implementation of practices and they will: 

• support the development of an appropriate culture within school  
• support children who have experienced bullying  
• respond to children who have bullied  
• model appropriate, respectful behaviour 

Children in this school will: 

• embrace a culture that respects difference 
• support children who have experienced bullying behaviours.  
• model appropriate, respectful behaviour 
   

Governors are responsible for monitoring the above.

Defining Bullying 

Our school asked children to define bullying and they responded that bullying is: 

• ‘People being nasty or doing nasty things to you’ 
• ‘People picking on you and when you feel like the joke has gone too far’ 
• ‘When someone has more power over you’

In generic terms (and as stated in the DfE document 2011 “Preventing and Tackling Bullying – Advice for School Leaders, Staff and Governing bodies”) bullying is described as ‘behaviour by an individual or group, repeated over time, that intentionally hurts another individual or group either physically or emotionally.’   

The school defines bullying as: 

• Behaviour which is deliberately harmful 
• Behaviour which is repeated over a period of time 
• Behaviour which makes it difficult for those being bullied to defend themselves 
  
  There are four main types of bullying. They are: 

• Physical for example, hitting, kicking, taking belongings 
• Verbal for example, name calling, insulting, racist remarks 
• Indirect for example, spreading unpleasant and hurtful remarks about someone 
• Exclusion for example, excluding children form their friendship groups 
  
  This school recognises the harm caused by bullying ‘beyond the school gates’. This may include cyber-bullying, which the school takes very seriously. St. Joseph's has links with the Anti-Bullying Alliance, of which several resources are below and can be accessed here: www.anti-bullyingalliance.org.uk
   

Prevention

Our community is developing a culture that embraces differences and never tolerates bullying. We are doing this through: 

• a whole school emphasis on care for individuals, love of one another and respect for each other. 
• every member of staff will listen to any child who has a problem, showing sensitivity and giving support and counselling to the bullied and bully to help prevent further incidents. 
• the delivery of an appropriate curriculum, through PSHE following the Rainbow scheme of work, RE through God Matters, ensuring positive role models with protected characteristics in history, science and literature are included in curriculum planning 
• talking to pupils about difference in assemblies, dedicated events and lessons. 
• training for staff to ensure a knowledge about diversity and issues associated with bullying  
• the modelling of appropriate respectful behaviour by staff, pupils and other members of the school community.  

More information can be found in our school Behaviour Policy.