Benton Park School works with our school values to promote an ethos where students are compassionate, resilient and collaborative. We recognise that students learn best in a safe and calm community that is free from disruption and in which education is the primary focus. Our behaviour and anti- bullying policy is designed to support students in reporting bullying and all students being supported to ensure that we are a zero tolerance school to all forms of bullying and discrimination. Staff, students and parents have a responsibility to report bullying as soon as possible.
What Is Bullying
‘Bullying is the persistent wilful, conscious desire to hurt, threaten or frighten someone else’
There are different types of bullying:
-Psychological (being excluded from groups and rumours etc.)
-Cyber (abusive text messages, internet messages etc.)
-Verbal (threats, name calling, racism, homophobia etc.)
-Physical (punching, kicking, scratching, pushing, throwing objects at someone etc.)
Bullying invariably undermines self-confidence and initiative and can create a cycle of poor performance and further criticism, potentially causing depression, stress, mental or physical ill-health, with consequent absence from school or work.
Some forms of bullying may break the law (hate crimes) and may be reported to the police by the school:
-Violence or assault
-Theft;
Repeated harassment or intimidation, e.g. name calling, threats and abusive phone calls, emails or text messages, sexual harassment and peer on peer abuse;
-Hate crimes – any incident which the victim, or anyone else, thinks is based on someone’s prejudice towards them because of their race, religion, sexual orientation, disability or because they are transgender.
Prevention
“A school’s response to bullying should not start at the point at which a child has been bullied. The best schools develop a more sophisticated approach in which school staff proactively gather intelligence about issues between pupils which might provoke conflict and develop strategies to prevent bullying occurring in the first place.
(Department for Education – Preventing and tackling bullying, July 2017)
Preventing bullying behaviours can be possible through a range of proactive measures. At Benton Park School, we look for every opportunity to prevent bullying type behaviours from happening. Some of the actions the school takes to prevent bullying include:
-The issue of bullying is included in the curriculum and classwork e.g. Drama, English.
-Bullying is addressed through the PD programme through citizenship and PSHE lessons and is aligned with the standards of the PSHE Association.
-Morning meeting and Assembly programmes reinforce British Values and the ethos of the school.
-Anti-bullying week is dedicated to raising awareness of bullying and reminding staff and students of their responsibilities to report it.
-Students are not permitted to use their mobile phones around the school. This is partly to prevent cyber-bullying.
-Duty staff have been trained to be vigilant and to watch and listen for any bullying type behaviours, no matter how small.
Duty points have been carefully considered to ensure there are no ‘dead spaces’ where bullying can take place undisturbed.
-Seating plans in lessons are carefully considered using any relevant information about the relationships between specific pupils.
-External organisations and speakers to raise awareness of issues such as racism and homophobia.
-Posters around the school emphasise the importance of diversity in the school community, particularly around protected characteristics.
-Working with the wider community such as the police and our Safer schools oficer where bullying is particularly serious or persistent to send a strong message that bullying is unacceptable within our school.
Benton Park School recognises that specific groups of students are particularly vulnerable to bullying. These include children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), young carers, Black and Minority Ethnic (BME), those who are, or thought to be lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersexual, asexual or pansexual (LGBTQ+). As such, prevention of bullying considers the specific patterns of discrimination these groups face.
Tackling Bullying
Benton Park School has clear strategies for responding to bullying incidents. These may include outcomes from the school sanction system as detailed within the school behaviour policy. The consequences of bullying will reflect the seriousness of the incident. All sanctions will be applied fairly, consistently and reasonably – after careful consideration of possible contributing factors such as special educational needs, disabilities or other vulnerabilities of both the victim and perpetrator.
The school will support the victim upon finding out about bullying, but will also seek to work with the perpetrator of the bullying in order prevent further incidents in the future.
Reporting Bullying
Students can report bullying of themselves or someone else in the following ways:
Speaking to their head of year.
Speaking to any pastoral member.
Speaking to a member of the safeguarding team.
Year 12/13: contact their tutor.
Speaking to any member of the duty team at break or lunches or members of staff on zone.
Importantly, students are reminded that they can speak to any member of staff in school they trust.
Speaking to your parent and asking them to pass on the information to the school.
Parents/Carers can report bullying of their child or someone else’s in the following ways:
Contacting their child’s year lead by email or phone.
Contacting their child’s key stage lead.
Year 12/13: contact the Head of Sixth Form or Sixth Form Student Support Officer
Importantly, parents/carers are reminded that they can speak to any member of staff in school regarding this. Staff will pass this on to the Pastoral Team.
Links to support with bullying
The websites listed below offer direct links to other sources of information for parents and young people.
Stonewall: www.stonewall.org.uk
Useful information and links on LGBTQ issues.
Advisory Centre for Education: www.ace-ed.org.uk
Registered charity independent of central or local government giving free advice and support to parents of children in state schools.
Anti-Bullying Network: www.antibullying.net
Established by the Scottish Executive. Useful links and reviews for teachers, parents and students on bullying and related issues.
BBC Schools: www.bbc.co.uk/schools
Includes information about bullying.
Bully OnLine: www.bullyonline.org
Information on bullying for teachers, children and schools which details the legal procedures available. This site also lists support groups for teachers.
Bullying Online: www.bullying.co.uk
Useful information and links on bullying and related issues for parents, children and teachers.
ChildLine: www.childline.org.uk
Primarily a helpline for children but has useful information and links on bullying. Chips (Childline in Partnership with Schools) encourages schools to support students in setting up anti-bullying projects.
The Children’s Society: www-the-childrens-society.org.uk
‘Bullying! Information for parents on how to help your child’ – leaflet giving information and practical guidance.
Kidscape: www.kidscape.org.uk
Advice for children, parents and teachers as well as training and sample policies.
Schools Out!: www.schools-out.org.uk
Campaigns for better support networks for gay and lesbian students and clearer guidance for teachers on issues of sexuality.
Topmarks: www.topmarks.co.uk
Aims to provide easy access to the best educational websites including information on bullying for teachers, parents and young people.
