Anti-Bullying guide for students, parents/carers

What is bullying?

There is no legal definition of bullying, but it is usually defined as repeated behaviour which is intended to hurt someone either emotionally or physically, and is often aimed at certain people because of their race, religion, gender or sexual orientation or any other aspect such as appearance or disability.

Bullying is not the same as a disagreement between two people or an isolated incident. Bullying is systematic, repeated behaviour aimed at an individual or group with the intent to cause upset and even harm.

At Bassett Green Primary School, our policy is to have a zero tolerance approach when it comes to bullying.

Our aim

• We want our students to feel safe in school and the community

• We want to educate students, parents/carers and staff on

  • What bullying is

  • How to report it

  • Help everyone understand that bullying is not tolerated

  • What support is available for person being bullied

  • What support is available for the bully

  • What role, we as adults can play in supporting victims of bullying or the bully

We want our students to feel safe and confident in school and understand that they have support and information available to them.

How the school will deal with bullying.

• All bullying, of any sort, is unacceptable.
• Pupils who experience bullying will be supported in a non-judgemental way
• We recognise the effects that bullying can have on pupils’ feelings of worth and on their school work, and as a school, we will actively promote an anti-bullying environment.

How the parent/carer can support their child

Tips to help your child

• Listen without getting angry or upset

• Ask your child: "How do you want me to take this forward?" rather than just taking over so they don’t feel excluded from deciding what to do or end up even more stressed/worried than they were already

• Reassure your child it’s not their fault. There’s still a stigma attached to bullying and some children feel they’ve brought it upon themselves

• Never tell your child to hit or shout names back, It simply doesn’t solve the problem and, if your child is under-confident (and most bullied children are) then it just adds to their stress and anxiety

Please contact someone at school so that we can deal with this situation.

• Before you approach the school, list all the facts: what happened, who was involved, when it occurred, who witnessed it, anything your child did that may have provoked the incident, whether it was a one-off or series of events.
• Aim to work together with us, and support us in finding a solution.
• Avoid accusing the school: Remember that we are usually the last to find out that bullying is happening at school. The sequence is "friends first, then parents, lastly schools".
• Be patient: please allow us time to deal with the problem – we don’t want bullying in our school, and we want to make the situation better.

How the child should  to deal with bullying at school

If you are being bullied at school, tell a friend, tell your teacher or talk to Mrs Kennedy and Mr Ducellier, and please tell your parents. It won't stop unless you tell someone.

It can be hard to do this so if you don't feel you can do it in person it might be easier to write a note to someone explaining how you feel.

It’s important that staff at Bassett Green know what is going on so that we can monitor the classroom and other areas where you feel unsafe.

Never be tempted to respond to any bullying or hit back because you could get hurt or get into trouble.

Who to contact in school

Please speak with your child's class teacher should you have any concerns.