What to do if a child is being bullied?

Staff will:

Investigate

Investigate bullying incidents thoroughly and talk to those everyone involved, e.g. witnesses and appropriate staff. The Headteacher will investigate accusations of bullying that happen inside and outside of school.

Record

Record the incident – Get a written statement from all individuals involved. This may include staff and other children. If a child cannot write down what happened you should scribe for them.

Respond

Respond to the child concerned by:

• Listening actively
• Offering support and strategies to deal with unacceptable behaviour
• Protecting the child and ensure their safety as and when necessary
• Involving parents
• Involving external agencies to support the child as appropriate

Respond to the child who bullied by:

• Ensuring he/she recognises his/her behaviour and how it affects others
• Applying appropriate sanctions
• Guiding, supporting, advising and offering strategies to change behaviour
• Encouraging him/her to take responsibility for actions and help them to make amends
• Involving parents

Prevent

Prevent further situations by providing opportunities for children to explore the issues. This will take the form of a circle time or discussion with all children involved. Children should have an opportunity to discuss their feelings and how the actions and behaviours made them feel. The children should also help to construct a solution to the issue.

Review

Review the situation with the child  and parents and others, throughout the investigation and afterwards. Review policies and procedures - consider changes that can be made to environment, groupings, rules and codes of conduct etc.

Monitor the situation

Provide opportunities for children to say how safe they feel and if the policy is working. This should take place on a regular basis.

We tackle bullying using the following guidance:

DfE anti-bullying guidance

Please see our Behaviour and Anti-Bullying Procedure SMC found in our School Policies and Procedures section of this website.