Anti-bullying

All children at Headley Park have the right to feel safe and respected at school. We believe that bullying of any kind is totally unacceptable and will not be tolerated in our community. All incidents of bullying will be taken seriously.

What is bullying?

At Headley Park Primary School we use the Anti-Bullying Alliance definition of bullying, which is:

‘Bullying is the repetitive, intentional hurting of one person or group by another person or group, where the relationship involves an imbalance of power. It can happen face to face or online.’

We refer to this as STOPP for short and when discussing bullying with children. STOPP refers to ‘several times on purpose for power’.

Bullying can include: name calling, taunting, mocking, making offensive comments, kicking, hitting, taking belongings, inappropriate text messaging and online messaging (including through websites, social networking sites, online gaming and instant messaging), sending offensive or degrading images by phone or online, producing offensive graffiti, gossiping, excluding people from groups and spreading hurtful and untruthful rumours.

What bullying is not

It is important to understand that bullying is not the odd occasion of falling out with friends, name calling, arguments or when the occasional trick or joke is played on someone. It is bullying if it is done several times on purpose.

Children sometimes fall out and say things because they are upset. When occasional problems of this kind arise it is not classed as bullying but all incidents of relational conflict are investigated and responded to.

Ways of reporting bullying

Members of the safeguarding team are responsible for anti-bullying work. These individuals are key points of contact for pupils, staff or parents who may have a concern about bullying.

Pupils

If pupils witness bullying or feel they are being bullied they can tell any member of staff who must pass the information on to the appropriate class teachers.

Children can also write down any worries they have about bullying and put these into 'Worry Monsters' in EYFS and KS1 and 'Worry Boxes' in KS2.

Parents

If you have a concern or worry that your child is being bullied, please contact your child's class teacher in the first instance. Alternatively, you can email the school office or speak to a member of the safeguarding team directly.

Responding to bullying

All concerns will be investigated initially by class teachers. Class teachers will discuss their findings with a member of the safeguarding team who will then take action to stop future incidents from occurring.

We achieved bronze status for our Anti-Bullying work through the United Against Bullying programme and are now aiming for silver!

Full details of our anti-bullying approach can be found on our policies page.

Anti-bullying Ambassadors

This year pupils took part in a one-day anti-bullying training session run by The Diana Award. The group of Year 5 pupils worked together and acquired vital skills to enable them to change the attitudes and behaviours of bullying in their school by building their skills and confidence to address different situations, both off and online.

The training looked at bullying in different situations including face-to-face and online. At the end of the day, pupils made an action plan of how to approach bullying issues that may arise in their schools and committed to their roles as Anti-Bullying Ambassadors.