Rationale

Bullying is a wilful, conscious desire to hurt, threaten or frighten someone. This can be verbal or physical and includes hitting, name calling, teasing and any form of harassment. Bullying can prevent a student from achieving his/her full potential and can often have a detrimental effect on the victim. Cases of bullying should therefore always be taken seriously and acted on promptly.

Purposes

Fred Longworth High School has a responsibility to create and maintain a secure and safe environment at school for all students who are in our care, so that parents may send their children to school in the confident knowledge that they will be protected from any possible bullying.

Guidelines

We ALL have a responsibility to reduce bullying.

Students have a duty to themselves and others in preventing bullying and taking action should it occur. Bullying is unacceptable and we aim to ensure that students are not afraid to say so should it occur in their presence. Both victims and bystanders of a bullying incident are expected to tell a member of staff. Students who tolerate bullies are supporting them. Pressure from other students can stop bullying.

Parents can help identify the early signs of possible bullying. If parents think that their child, or any other child, is being bullied or is bullying, then they are expected to contact school as soon as possible. Parents of a bully must work in co-operation with the Pastoral Team at Fred Longworth High School to help change their son’s/daughter’s unacceptable behaviour.

Staff at Fred Longworth High School will endeavour to create a climate within our community which does not sustain bullying. Staff will listen to victims of bullying sympathetically and will respect the confidence of any students or parents reporting a bullying incident. All discovered bullying will be acted on.

The Pastoral Care Team will deal with all known cases of bullying and will often adopt the ‘no blame approach’.

The ‘no blame approach’

Step one – interview with the victim
When the teacher finds out that bullying has happened he/she starts by talking to the victim about his/her feelings. The teacher does not question the victim about the incidents but does need to know who was involved.

Step two – convene a meeting with the people involved
The teacher arranged to meet with the group of students who have been involved. This will include some bystanders or colluders who joined in but did not initiate any bullying. A group of six to eight young people works well.

Step three – explain the problem
The teacher tells them about the way the victim is feeling and might use a poem, piece of writing or a drawing to emphasise the victim’s distress. At no time does the teacher discuss the details of the incidents or allocate blame to the group.

Step four – share responsibility
The teacher does not attribute blame but states that he/she knows that the group are responsible and can do something about it.

Step five – ask the group for their ideas
Each member of the group is encouraged to suggest a way in which the victim could be helped to feel happier. The teacher gives some positive responses but does not go on to extract a promise of improved behaviour.

Step six – leave it up to them
The member of staff ends the meeting by passing over the responsibility to the group to solve the problem and arranges to meet with them again to see how things are going.

Step seven – meet them again
About a week later the member of staff discusses with each student individually, including the victim, how things have been going. This allows the teacher to monitor the bullying and keeps the young people involved in the process.
If, after counselling, a bully continues to behave unacceptably, the student will be dealt with according to the School Discipline Policy. This may result in exclusion.