Bullying -Processes and Procedures

What is Bullying?

Bullying is a pattern of willful, conscious behaviour intended to hurt, injure upset, threaten or embarrass any individual or group. Bullying is a repetitive attack, which causes distress not only at the time of the attack but also by the threat of future attacks. It involves an imbalance of power.

Its’ nature can be:
verbal – name-calling including racist and sexist remarks, put-downs, threatening;
physical - hitting, tripping, poking, punching, kicking, throwing, objects, spitting;
social - ignoring, hiding, ostracising, sending nasty notes
psychological - stalking, dirty looks, spreading rumours, hiding or damaging possessions, singled out for unfair treatment, is picked on.
cyber – the use of email, websites, social media apps, text, photo and video technology.

Practices and Procedures

1. Remove child/ren from harm and attend to them if required.
2. Decide whether this is an incident of bullying. Check definition.
3. Assess the level of seriousness before beginning the anti-bullying process.
4. If it is deemed not serious, teachers can help by discussing the child’s feelings and possible options to deal with the behaviour. This is particularly relevant to junior students. 
5. State the School’s stance of not tolerating bullying.
6. Complete Bullying Registration Form.
7. All interventions will focus on helping all children involved.
8. Apply No Blame Approach.
9. If applicable, provide access and counselling from the Social Worker.
10. Ongoing consultation from the Assistant Principals in cases where bullying is not resolved.
11. If this is deemed to be a serious bullying incident it must be
    recorded on the Student/Parent reporting Sheet (appendix 3) and submitted to the Behaviour Management Team.
12. The Behaviour Management Team will assess in view of severity and history and will then adopt a consequence be it detention, in-school suspension or out of school suspension.

This school currently has a number of programmes established to promote a caring and supportive environment. These educational and positive programmes we hope minimize bullying and violence. However, in the event that bullying occurs, the school will react firmly and promptly. There is a range of sanctions available depending on the seriousness of the situation.

The teacher will support students who raise a concern in regard to bullying by finding out the facts of the incident.

This will involve meeting with those concerned using a shared concern or ‘no blame’ approach to address the issue.

Parents or caregivers will be contacted at an early stage and where appropriate, a referral will be made to the Social Worker/ educational psychologist to develop positive strategies to overcome bullying.

Dealing with Serious Incidents

Any incident involving physical injury, physical bullying and serious damage to property or repeated bullying behaviour will result in immediate Leadership Team Intervention.

Consequences for serious incidents will be at the discretion of the Behaviour Management Team and may involve any one or a combination of the following consequences.

• Class teacher and parents informed
• Implementation of an Action Plan (i.e. referral to Social Worker, individual contract, extra support)
• Recess or Lunchtime detention (depending on age) with Behaviour Journal (look at making amends e.g. apology letter
• In-school detention with different recess and lunch arrangements for 1 - 3 days
• Out of School suspension or other appropriate action.

Proactive Measures

At the commencement of each school year, and periodically throughout the year, classes will discuss the Behaviour Management Policy.
Copies of the Behaviour Management Processes and procedures will be made available to all current parents/caregivers on the school website.

• Information on bullying will be made available on request to parents, teaching and non-teaching staff in the form of literature, educational sessions as required or through discussion.
• Students will be given opportunities to talk about bullying in general.
• Discuss appropriate standards of behaviour and school rules with all students in both classrooms, and school assemblies.
• Identify students at risk/awareness of individual needs and develop individualised support plans Teacher/ Social Worker, Educational Psychologist).
• Organise appropriate referrals for students experiencing difficulties (Support Teacher, Social Worker, Educational Psychologist).
• Teach social skills, anger management, resiliency and protective behaviours as part of the curriculum
• Emphasis on conciliatory approach (listening to both sides, not labelling, problem-solving).
• Continue with “Buddies Programme” pairing younger students with more senior students for a variety of activities both with an academic and social value.
• Encourage co-operative learning.
• Use student support services where necessary.
• Responsible and safe behaviour will be recognized and rewarded.

Important Attachments

Guidelines for Parents