Anti-Bullying Policy

BEHAVIOUR AND LEARNING SUPPORT SERVICE

VICTORIA DRIVE PUPIL REFERRAL UNIT

Anti-Bullying Policy

September 2015
Aims

At Victoria Drive PRU we take bullying and its impact extremely seriously. Pupils, staff and parents should be assured that known incidents of bullying will be responded to immediately and efficiently. Bullying will not be tolerated under any circumstance. The school will seek ways to counter the effects of bullying that may occur within school or in the local community. Any such behaviours, whether observed or reported, will be directly challenged, discussed and dealt with as appropriate.

Ethos

At Victoria Drive PRU there is a strict zero tolerance policy regarding any discrimination on the grounds of any Protected Characteristics in line with the Equality Act 2010 and Public Sector Equalities Duty 2011. The message of anti-bullying is embedded throughout all provision with pupils, staff, community, schools and families. The understanding and education of difference is embedded throughout every aspect of Victoria Drive PRU to ensure that pupils are confident to view their own perspective of the world and effectively challenge any difficulties that they encounter.

What Is Bullying?

Bullying is unacceptable behaviour used by an individual or group, usually repeated over time, that intentionally hurts another individual or group either physically or emotionally. Bullying can be short term or continuous over long periods of time. Bullying can be: =

Emotional	unfriendly, excluding, tormenting (e.g. hiding books, ignoring)
Physical	pushing, kicking, biting, hitting, punching or any use of violence
Racial	racial taunts, graffiti, gestures
Sexual	unwanted physical contact or sexually abusive comments
Homophobic	because of, or focussing on the issue of sexuality
Direct or Indirect Verbal	name-calling, sarcasm, spreading rumours, teasing
Cyber Bullying (see E-safety Policy)	All areas of internet ,such as email and internet chat Twitter, Facebook misuse, Mobile threats by text messaging and calls Misuse of associated technology , i.e. camera and video facilities, Ipad, games consoles,

Bullying may be related to:

• Race

• Gender

• Religion

• Culture

• SEN or Disability

• Appearance or health condition

• Home circumstances, incl Young carers and poverty

• Sexual orientation, sexism, or sexual bullying, homophobia


Why is it Important to Respond to Bullying?

Bullying hurts. No one deserves to be a victim of bullying. Bullying has the potential to damage the mental health of a victim. Everybody has the right to be treated with respect. Pupils who are bullying need to learn more appropriate ways of behaving.

Prevention is the key

At Victoria Drive PRU we use a variety of methods to support children in preventing and understanding the consequences of bullying through PSHE and Citizenship lessons, Anti-bullying week, Cool Cats initiative, termly e-safety lessons (including heightened awareness of cyber-bullying), Gang awareness workshops for KS2, Challenging homophobia in schools lessons and continued focus throughout all lessons. Furthermore, the school aims to develop a firm self-identity and develop self-esteem so that children feel competent to deal with the world around them. Victoria Drive PRU promotes strong inclusive values and helps pupils develop empathy, respect and a good understanding of the impact of their behaviour on others.

The ethos and working philosophy of Victoria Drive PRU means that all staff actively encourage children to have respect for each other and for other people’s property. Good and kind/polite behaviour is regularly acknowledged and rewarded. Staff will regularly discuss bullying; this will inform children that we are serious about dealing with bullying. We encourage open conversations and develop increased confidence in children to want to discuss bullying and report any incidents and concerns about other children’s behaviour. Staff will reinforce expectations of behaviour as a regular theme in line with our expectations through transportation to and from the school, within Victoria Drive PRU and when pupils return to their mainstream school.
Children are involved in the prevention of bullying as and when appropriate, these may include: writing a set of school or class rules, writing a personal pledge or promise against bullying, reading stories about bullying or having them read to a class or assembly, making up role-plays about what to do through scenarios of bullying having discussions about bullying and signing their own e-safety agreement.
Staff

To ensure that staff feel competent and confident to embed the anti-bullying policy they receive current and regular training. This training has included GANG awareness, Homophobic bullying model lessons, Extremism and Radicalisation Prevent training and model lessons. Further CPD is delivered and supported by the local Council’s training program.

Staff must be careful not to highlight differences of children or an individual child, even if this is done in jest. This gives other children advocacy to use this difference to begin calling names or teasing. Staff must reinforce a general message that children do not have to be friends with everyone else, but they must be respectful of everyone else’s feelings and be kind to each other.
Staff are expected to lead by example to prevent bullying and ensure that their interactions are exemplary at all times. Disputes and differences should be handled professionally with the support from their line manager, if required, and under no circumstances must negative interactions be observed by the pupils. Any such disagreements will be treated with a highly significant level of importance by the Headteacher and may result in disciplinary action.

Recording of Bullying Incidents
When an incident of bullying has taken place, staff must record and report each incident. All incidents of bullying should be recorded in the Incidents of Bullying/ Racist incidents and Homophobic Bullying File. This would include incidents where staff have had to become involved and speak with children, and/or where parents have raised concerns regarding bullying.
All incidents of bullying will be discussed with all relevant persons using a Multi-Agency Team (MAT) Approach including; staff at Victoria Drive PRU, the pupil’s mainstream school, parents/ carers of the children involved, external professionals where appropriate (particularly for LAC/ CP/CIN pupils) in order that everyone can be vigilant and that further incidents by the same child(ren) may be prevented from happening in the future. An action plan of intervention will be devised to ensure that the pupil develops a full understanding of the incident, this may include targeted lessons (see homophobic example lesson), 1:1 intervention, family support etc.
Termly reports of all bullying incidents will be collated and registered with Wandsworth Council.
Supportive organisations
www.wscb.org.uk-Wandsworth Safeguarding Children Board
www.childnet-int.org-Childnet
www.stoptextbully.com-Stop Text Bully
www.anti-bullying.net Anti-bullying Network
www.bullying.co.uk Bullying UK
www.parentlineplus.org.uk Parentline Plus