Anti Bullying

At Garlinge we take bullying seriously. Pupils and parents should be assured that they will be supported when bullying is reported to a member of staff.

What is bullying?

Bullying is 'Behaviour by an individual or a group, usually repeated over time that intentionally hurts another individual either physically or emotionally'.

Bullying can include: name calling, taunting, mocking, making offensive comments, kicking, hitting, taking belongings, inappropriate text messaging and electronic messaging (including through web-sites, social networking sites and instant messenger), sending offensive or degrading images by phone or via the internet, producing offensive graffiti, gossiping, excluding people from groups and spreading hurtful and untruthful rumours. Not all unpleasantness between pupils is bulling, some can be regarded as random acts of unkindness such as refusing to talk to a person.

How do we educate the children about bullying?

Each year, we as a school take part in Anti-Bullying Week (held in the month of November). Anti-Bullying Week shines a spotlight on bullying and encourages all children, teachers and parents to take action against bullying. Over the course of Anti-Bullying Week, we hold a number of school assemblies and each class completes a number of activities designed at educating the children about what bullying is and how to deal with its different forms effectively.

Ways of reporting 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 victim's and alleged bully's class teachers.

Pupils may also write down any worries they have about bullying and put theses into a worry box for Ali Gillatt or one of the Learning mentors to read and pass onto class teachers. Pupils must be aware that for incidents to be dealt with they must not report anonymously.

What should staff do?

If a member of staff witnesses bullying they must record this onto an incident report form and give copies to the class teachers of the children involved.

What should parents/ members of the public do?

Parents can report bullying by:

• Speaking to their child's class teacher
• Phoning the school: 01843 221877
• E-mailing the family liaison officer: Ali Gillatt

Useful Anti-bullying website links:

KCC website http://www.kent.gov.uk/ - on the home page and type in 'bullying.' This will bring up a long list of useful web links.

Orange have a 10 minute video about cyberbullying - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGHNsWTBVz4

http://www.childnet.com/resources/know-it-all-for-parents - Childnet International has a CD-ROM guide on internet safety for parents titled 'know it all'. This is also available in other languages.

www.kent.police.uk/internetsafety

www.e-safety.org.uk

www.antibullyingalliance.org.uk - this is a useful link for information around all aspects of bullying

Anti-Bullying Information Tool for Parents & Carers: www.anti-bullyingalliance.org.uk/tools-information/advice-parents/interactive-anti-bullying-tool-parents

Anti-Bullying Week - Poster Competition 2018

This year we held an Anti-Bullying poster competition across the school, involving children from Reception through to year 6. The competition encouraged pupils to reflect on what bullying is and how to deal with it effectively in our school community. We linked this year’s poster competition with the Anti-Bullying theme ‘Respect’ and selected a winning poster from each year group. These are our winning posters!

Anti-Bullying Week - Odd Socks Day - November 2018

The children also took part in ‘Odd Socks Day’ on Monday 12^th November and year 6 children learnt about Cyberbullying through a series of lessons. ‘Dare to Differ’ also delivered two fantastic assemblies to both KS1 and KS2, highlighting the effects of bullying and why it is important to treat others with respect. The children thoroughly enjoyed themselves through their various class activities and learnt a great deal!

 

Anti-Bullying Week - November 2017