Anti-Bullying Policy
Proposed Anti-Bullying Policy
Section 1 In accordance with the requirements of the Education (Welfare) Act 2000 and the code of behaviour guidelines issued by the NEWB, the Board of Management of Shanbally NS has adopted the following anti-bullying policy within the framework of the school’s overall code of behaviour. This policy fully complies with the requirements of the Anti-Bullying Procedures for Primary and Post-Primary Schools which were published in September 2013.
Section 2 The Board of Management recognises the very serious nature of bullying and the negative impact that it can have on the lives of pupils and is therefore fully committed to the following key principles of best practice in preventing and tackling bullying behaviour:
1. A positive school culture and climate which
is welcoming of difference and diversity and is based on inclusivity;
encourages pupils to disclose and discuss incidents of bullying behaviour in a non-threatening environment; and
promotes respectful relationships across the school community;
2. Effective leadership
3. A school-wide approach
4. A shared understanding of what bullying is and its impact
5. Implementation of education and prevention strategies (including awareness raising measures) that-
build empathy, respect and resilience in pupils; and
explicitly address the issues of cyber-bullying and identity-based bullying including in particular, homophobic and transphobic bullying;
effective supervision and monitoring of pupils;
6. Effective supervision and monitoring of pupils
7. Supports for staff
8. Consistent recording, investigation and follow up of bullying behaviour (including use of established intervention strategies); and
9. On-going evaluation of the effectiveness of the anti-bullying policy.
Section 3 In accordance with the Anti-Bullying Procedures for Primary and Post-Primary Schools bullying is defined as follows:
Bullying is unwanted negative behaviour, verbal, psychological or physical conducted, by an individual or group against another person (or persons) and which is repeated over time.
The following types of bullying behaviour are included in the definition of bullying:
- deliberate exclusion, malicious gossip and other forms of relational bullying,
- cyber-bullying and
- Identity-based bullying such as homophobic bullying, racist bullying, bullying based on a person’s membership of the Traveller community and bullying of those with disabilities or special educational needs.
Isolated or once-off incidents of intentional negative behaviour, including a once-off offensive or hurtful text message or other private messaging, do not fall within the definition of bullying and should be dealt with, as appropriate, in accordance with the school’s code of behaviour.
However, in the context of this policy, placing a once-off offensive or hurtful public message, image or statement on a social network site or other public forum where that message, image or statement can be viewed and/or repeated by other people will be regarded as bullying behaviour.
Negative behaviour that does not meet this definition of bullying will be dealt with in accordance with the school’s code of behaviour.
Examples of bullying behaviours, this is not an exhaustive list
See Appendix 1
Section 4 The relevant teachers for investigating and dealing with bullying are as follows:
Principal: David Nolan
Deputy Principal: Claire O’Connell Patricia Kelly Kathleen Tuohy Mary Sheahan Naomi O’Donovan Oonagh Cunningham Aideen O’Mahony Margaret Ryan Mairead Tate Sandra Moran Eilish Callanan Nollaig Boland Padraig Clifford Aidan O’Mahony Any teacher may act as a relevant teacher if circumstances warrant it. |
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Section 5 The education and prevention strategies (including strategies specifically aimed at cyber-
bullying, homophobic and transphobic bullying) that will be used by the school are as follows:
School-wide approach
Implementation of curricula
Links to other policies
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Section 6 The school’s procedures for investigation, follow-up and recording of bullying behaviour and the established intervention strategies used by the school for dealing with cases of bullying behaviour are as follows:
Procedures for Investigating and Dealing with Bullying
The primary aim in investigating and dealing with bullying is to resolve any issues and to restore, as far as is practicable, the relationships of the parties involved (rather than to apportion blame);
The school’s procedures must be consistent with the following approach. Every effort will be made to ensure that all involved (including pupils, parent(s)/guardian(s)) understand this approach from the outset.
Reporting bullying behaviour
Investigating and dealing with incidents: Style of approach
It may also be appropriate or helpful to ask those involved to write down their account of the incident(s), using templates from the Anti-Bullying Campaign
Follow up and recording
– Whether the bullying behaviour has ceased; – Whether any issues between the parties have been resolved as far as is practicable; -Whether the relationships between the parties have been restored as far as is practicable; -Any feedback received from the parties involved, their parent(s)/guardian(s)s or the school Principal or Deputy Principal
Recording of bullying behaviour
It is imperative that all recording of bullying incidents must be done in an objective and factual manner.
The school’s procedures for noting and reporting bullying behaviour are as follows:
Informal- pre-determination that bullying has occurred
Formal Stage 1-determination that bullying has occurred
Formal Stage 2-Appendix 3 (From DES Procedures) The relevant teacher must use the recording template at Appendix 3 to record the bullying behaviour in the following circumstances:
a) in cases where he/she considers that the bullying behaviour has not been adequately and appropriately addressed within 20 school days after he/she has determined that bullying behaviour occurred; and b) Where the school has decided as part of its anti-bullying policy that in certain circumstances bullying behaviour must be recorded and reported immediately to the Principal or Deputy Principal as applicable. Such circumstances would include bullying related to physical aggression or harassment based on any of the following nine grounds outlined in the equality legislation i.e. gender (including transgender), civil status, family status, sexual orientation, religion, age, disability, race and membership of the Traveller community.
When the recording template is used, it must be retained by the relevant teacher in question and a copy maintained by the principal. The principal will retain such copies indefinitely in his office. The principal will decide access on each case’s merit.
Established intervention strategies
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Section 7 The school’s programme of support for working with pupils affected by bullying is as follows
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Section 8 Supervision and Monitoring of Pupils
The Board of Management confirms that appropriate supervision and monitoring policies and
Practices are in place to both prevent and deal with bullying behaviour and to facilitate early intervention where possible.
Section 9 Prevention of Harassment
The Board of Management confirms that the school will, in accordance with its obligations under equality legislation, take all such steps that are reasonably practicable to prevent the sexual harassment of pupils or staff or the harassment of pupils or staff on any of the nine grounds specified i.e. gender including transgender, civil status, family status, sexual orientation, religion, age, disability, race and membership of the Traveller community.
Section 10 This policy was adopted by the Board of Management on ________________ [date].
Section 11 This policy has been made available to school personnel, published on the school website and provided to the Parents’ Association. A copy of this policy will be made available to the Department and the patron if requested.
Section 12 This policy and its implementation will be reviewed by the Board of Management once in every school year. Written notification that the review has been completed will be made available to school personnel, published on the school website and provided to the Parents’ Association. A record of the review and its outcome will be made available, if requested, to the patron and the Department.
Signed: ____________________________________ Signed: ___________________________
(Chairperson of Board of Management) (Principal)
Date: ______________ Date: __________________
Date of next review: _______________
Appendix 1.
Bullying can take a number of forms. These may include any of the following (this list is not exhaustive):
D Harassment based on any of the nine grounds in the equality legislation e.g. sexual harassment, homophobic bullying, racist bullying etc.
D Repeated aggressive behaviour/attitude/body language, for example:
D Shouting and uncontrolled anger
D Personal insults
D Verbal abuse
D Offensive language directed at an individual,
D Continually shouting or dismissing others
D Public verbal attacks/criticism
D Domineering behaviour
D Open/physical aggression
D Offensive gestures and unwanted physical contact
D Intimidation, either physical, psychological or emotional, e.g. Treating in a dictatorial manner
D Ridicule
D Persistent slagging
D Deliberate staring with the intent to discomfort
D Persistent rudeness in behaviour and attitude toward a particular individual
D Asking inappropriate questions/making inappropriate comments re. personal life/family
D Asking inappropriate questions/making inappropriate comments re. social life or schoolwork
D Interference with property, for example:
- Stealing/damaging books or equipment
- Stealing/damaging clothing or other property
- Demanding money with menaces
- Persistently moving, hiding or interfering with property
- Marking/defacing property
D Undermining/Public or Private Humiliation, for example:
- Condescending tone
- Deliberately withholding significant information and resources
- Writing of anonymous notes
- Malicious, disparaging or demeaning comments
- Malicious tricks/derogatory joke,
- Knowingly spreading rumours
- Belittling others’ efforts, their enthusiasm or their new idea,
- Derogatory or offensive nicknames (name-calling)
D Cyber Bulling
- Denigration: Spreading rumors, lies or gossip to hurt a person’s reputation
- Harassment: Continually sending vicious, mean or disturbing messages to an individual
- Impersonation: Posting offensive or aggressive messages under another person’s name
- Flaming: Using inflammatory or vulgar words to provoke an online fight
- Trickery: Fooling someone into sharing personal information which you then post online
- Outing: Posting or sharing confidential or compromising information or images
- Exclusion: Purposefully excluding someone from an online group
- Cyber stalking: Ongoing harassment and denigration that causes a person considerable fear for his/her safety
D Disrespectfully mimicking a particular individual in his/her absence
D Deliberately refusing to address issues focusing instead on the person
D Ostracising or isolating, for example:
- Deliberately marginalising an individual
- Deliberately preventing a person from joining a group
- Deliberately preventing from joining in an activity, schoolwork-related or recreational
D Blaming a pupil for things s/he did not do
D Homophobic and Transgender Bullying
- Spreading rumours about a person’s sexual orientation
- Taunting a person of a different sexual orientation
- Name calling e.g. Gay, queer, lesbian…used in a derogatory manner
D Bullying based on Race, nationality, ethnic background and membership of the Traveller community
- Discrimination, prejudice, comments or insults about colour, nationality, culture, social class, religious beliefs, ethnic or traveller background
- Exclusion on the basis of any of the above
D Sexual Bullying
- Unwelcome or inappropriate sexual comments or touching
- Harassment
D Bullying based on Special Educational Needs, Disability
- Name calling
- Taunting others because of their disability or learning needs
- Taking advantage of some pupils’ vulnerabilities and limited capacity to recognise and defend themselves against bullying
- Taking advantage of some pupils’ vulnerabilities and limited capacity to understand social situations and social cues.
- Mimicking a person’s disability
- Setting others up for ridicule
Appendix 2 Practical tips for building a positive school culture and climate
The following are some practical tips for immediate actions that can be taken to help build a positive school culture and climate and to help prevent and tackle bullying behaviour.
- Model respectful behaviour to all members of the school community at all times.
- Explicitly teach pupils what respectful language and respectful behaviour looks like, acts like, sounds like and feels like in class and around the school.
- Display key respect messages in classrooms, in assembly areas and around the school. Involve pupils in the development of these messages.
- Catch them being good – notice and acknowledge desired respectful behaviour by providing positive attention.
- Consistently tackle the use of discriminatory and derogatory language in the school – this includes homophobic and racist language and language that is belittling of pupils with a disability or SEN.
- Give constructive feedback to pupils when respectful behaviour and respectful language are absent.
- Have a system of encouragement and rewards to promote desired behaviour and compliance with the school rules and routines.
- Explicitly teach pupils about the appropriate use of social media.
- Positively encourage pupils to comply with the school rules on mobile phone and internet use.
- Follow up and follow through with pupils who ignore the rules.
- Actively involve parents and/or the Parents’ Association in awareness raising campaigns around social media.
- Actively promote the right of every member of the school community to be safe and secure in school.
- Highlight and explicitly teach school rules in pupil friendly language in the classroom and in common areas.
- All staff can actively watch out for signs of bullying behaviour.
- Ensure there is adequate playground/school yard/outdoor supervision.
- School staff can get pupils to help them to identify bullying “hot spots” and “hot times” for bullying in the school.
- Hot spots tend to be in the playground/school yard/outdoor areas, changing rooms, corridors and other areas of unstructured supervision.
- Hot times again tend to be times where there is less structured supervision such as when pupils are in the playground/school yard or moving classrooms.
- Support the establishment and work of student councils.
Appendix 3 Template for recording bullying behaviour
1. Name of pupil being bullied and class group
Name _________________________________________Class__________________
2. Name(s) and class(es) of pupil(s) engaged in bullying behaviour
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ | |||||
3. Source of bullying concern/report (tick relevant box(es))* | 4. Location of incidents (tick relevant box(es))* | ||||
Pupil concerned | Playground | ||||
Other Pupil | Classroom | ||||
Parent | Corridor | ||||
Teacher | Toilets | ||||
Other | School Bus | ||||
Other |
5. Name of person(s) who reported the bullying concern
6. Type of Bullying Behaviour (tick relevant box(es)) *
Physical Aggression | Cyber-bullying | ||
Damage to Property | Intimidation | ||
Isolation/Exclusion | Malicious Gossip | ||
Name Calling | Other (specify) |
7. Where behaviour is regarded as identity-based bullying, indicate the relevant category:
Homophobic | Disability/SEN related | Racist | Membership of Traveller community | Other (specify) |
8. Brief Description of bullying behaviour and its impact
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- Details of actions taken
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Signed ______________________________ (Relevant Teacher) Date ___________________________
Date submitted to Principal/Deputy Principal ___________________
* Note: The categories listed in the tables 3, 4 & 6 are suggested and schools may add to or amend these to suit their own circumstances.
Appendix 4 Checklist for annual review of the anti-bullying policy and its implementation
The Board of Management (the Board) must undertake an annual review of the school’s anti-bullying policy and its implementation. The following checklist must be used for this purpose. The checklist is an aid to conducting this review and is not intended as an exhaustive list. In order to complete the checklist, an examination and review involving both quantitative and qualitative analysis, as appropriate across the various elements of the implementation of the school’s anti-bullying policy will be required.
Yes /No
Has the Board formally adopted an anti-bullying policy that fully complies with the requirements of the Anti-Bullying Procedures for Primary and Post-Primary Schools? | |
Has the Board published the policy on the school website and provided a copy to the parents’ association? | |
Has the Board ensured that the policy has been made available to school staff (including new staff)? | |
Is the Board satisfied that school staff are sufficiently familiar with the policy and procedures to enable them to effectively and consistently apply the policy and procedures in their day to day work? | |
Has the Board ensured that the policy has been adequately communicated to all pupils? | |
Has the policy documented the prevention and education strategies that the school applies? | |
Have all of the prevention and education strategies been implemented? | |
Has the effectiveness of the prevention and education strategies that have been implemented been examined? | |
Is the Board satisfied that all teachers are recording and dealing with incidents in accordance with the policy? | |
Has the Board received and minuted the periodic summary reports of the Principal? | |
Has the Board discussed how well the school is handling all reports of bullying including those addressed at an early stage and not therefore included in the Principal’s periodic report to the Board? | |
Has the Board received any complaints from parents regarding the school’s handling of bullying incidents? | |
Have any parents withdrawn their child from the school citing dissatisfaction with the school’s handling of a bullying situation? | |
Have any Ombudsman for Children investigations into the school’s handling of a bullying case been initiated or completed? | |
Has the data available from cases reported to the Principal (by the bullying recording template) been analysed to identify any issues, trends or patterns in bullying behaviour? | |
Has the Board identified any aspects of the school’s policy and/or its implementation that require further improvement? | |
Has the Board put in place an action plan to address any areas for improvement? |
Signed _____________________________________ Date ________________
Chairperson, Board of Management
Signed _____________________________________ Date ________________
Principal
Notification regarding the Board of Management’s annual review of the anti-bullying policy
To: _____________________________________
The Board of Management of ____________________ wishes to inform you that:
- The Board of Management’s annual review of the school’s anti-bullying policy and its implementation was completed at the Board meeting of _______________ [date].
- This review was conducted in accordance with the checklist set out in Appendix 4 of the Department’s Anti-Bullying Procedures for Primary and Post-Primary Schools.
Signed _____________________________________ Date ________________
Chairperson, Board of Management
Signed _____________________________________ Date ________________
Principal
Appendix 5 Sexual Orientation – Advice for Primary Schools
GENERAL POINTS
• Schools can foster a culture that is accepting of difference. This can be expressed where appropriate, rather than making the assumption that everyone understands it.
• An integral part of RSE is learning to respect others; this will include respect for families or individuals who are different from the norm.
• The Equal Status Acts 2000 and 2004 provide protection against discrimination on nine grounds, one of which is sexual orientation. The Acts oblige those who manage schools to protect students and staff from discrimination or sexual harassment.
• If children are using the word ‘gay’ in a negative fashion it is better not to ignore it in the hope that it will go away. The same advice would apply for any instance of bullying.
• Schools are advised to develop a strategy for responding to children who have questions about sexual orientation or who are taunting others about being gay. This should be done in the context of the school’s ethos and RSE policy and with the awareness that primary school children are probably too young to engage in any detailed discussion of sexual identity.
PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS
• Depending on the context and the age group of the children, the teacher could ask a child or a class group what they mean by the word ‘gay’
• A school could decide on a response to this question, such as ‘The majority of people are attracted to people of the opposite sex. This is called being heterosexual. Some people are attracted to people of the same sex. This is called being homosexual or gay.’
• To give factual information like this in an open and straightforward way may help to remove the secrecy which is necessary for any bullying to flourish.
• Homophobic insults should be treated in exactly the same way as racist or other insults
– the teacher can calmly explain to the child that such insults are hurtful to the other person and are not acceptable.
• Schools promote a culture of communication which actively discourages abusive name calling