Anti Bullying Policy

Zero Tolerance

Definition

Bullying is when someone, or a group of people, who have more power at the time, deliberately upset or hurt another person on more than one occasion. Bullying includes physical bullying such as hitting; verbal bullying such as name calling; and indirect bullying such as spreading rumours.

Direct physical bullying e.g. hitting, tripping, pushing, damaging property or inappropriate touching

Direct verbal bullying e.g. name calling, insults, homophobic or racist remarks, verbal abuse, putting down of others for their achievements or inappropriate comments.

Indirect bullying: lying and spreading rumours playing nasty jokes to embarrass and humiliate, encouraging others to socially exclude, and damaging one's social reputation and social acceptance.

Cyber-bullying: involves the use of email, text messages or chat rooms to humiliate and distress.

What we will do when incidents of bullying are reported or observed:

Act on any reported or observed cases of bullying

Keep records of incident of bullying

Support all concerned to resolve the issues

Address bullying through the school curriculum

Provide in- school programs for students and staff to support our anti bullying policy.

Process for dealing with bullying:

*Incidents of a serious nature may be responded to by immediate suspensions. Any case of retaliation against a person for reporting bullying will be treated very seriously.

First Incident:

Incident report filled in by both victim and alleged bully. Interviews conducted.

Incident will be recorded in the Bully Register.

Records will be kept of essential details

Parents will be notified of the student being bullied, if appropriate.

Second Incident:

Incident report filled in by both victim and alleged bully. Interviews conducted.

Incident will be recorded in the Bully Register.

Both the person being bullied and the person(s) reported for bullying will initially be interviewed separately and in a sensitive manner. Both victim and bully need to have a clear understanding of what happened and why it is unacceptable. A further discussion may take place between all parties for mediation. The bully will be asked to go on a contract. The bully may be excluded from class; excluded from the yard; in school suspension, withdrawal of privileges or an official after school detention. Student deemed to be the bully may be required to attend school based counselling.

Parents will be contacted (letter/ telephone)

Third incident

Incident report filled in by both victim and alleged bully. Interviews conducted.

Incident will be recorded in the Bully Register.

Parent will be notified by telephone and letter. A formal interview will be arranged between the parents of the person bullying and the college. Student deemed to be the bully may be placed on a contract, in -school/external suspension may be appropriate. The bully will be required to attend counselling with the schools social worker, with the view of changing his/her behaviour.

Any subsequent incident of bullying

An external suspension will apply followed by a formal meeting between the parents of the person bullying and the college. A review of the student's enrolment at the college will be the subject of these discussions.

Coordinators to follow up first and second incidents of bullying with the support of Principal or Assistant

Principal class where necessary.

Strategies and advice for students:

What to do if you are bullied:

Students should discuss and report bullying incident to a member of staff they feel comfortable talking to or directly to their PSL Teacher, Student Counsellor, Year Level Co-ordinator or Assistant Principal.

When this happens, the staff member will treat the report as confidential and discuss the options available to the student. The victim should be interviewed by a member of the teaching staff to get the details of the incident. The report is then noted in the Bully Registrar.

How you can help if you witness bullying:

Strategies for Parents

The following information has been developed to provide you with useful strategies in dealing with incidents of bullying.

What is Bullying?

Bullying is when someone, or a group of people, who have more power at the time, deliberately upset or hurt another person on more than one occasion. Bullying includes physical bullying such as hitting; verbal bullying such as name calling; and indirect bullying such as spreading rumours.

Bullying is Not

• a situation where there is mutual conflict-i.e. a balance of power where students are both upset and usually want a resolution to the problem.
• Social rejection or dislike (unless it is a repeated act and directed towards a specific person).
• Single episodes of nastiness or meanness or random acts of aggression or intimidation.

How do I know if my child is being bullied?

Some of the signs that a child is being bullied include:

• an unwillingness or refusal to go to school
• feeling ill in the mornings
• wagging school
• doing poorly in their school work
• becoming withdrawn, starting to stammer, lacking confidence
• crying themselves to sleep, having nightmares
• asking for money or starting to steal (to pay the bully)
• refusing to talk about what's wrong
• having unexplained bruises, cuts, scratches
• beginning to bully other children or siblings
• becoming aggressive and unreasonable

Adapted from Kidscape, available at www.kidscape.org.uk/parents/signsof.shtml

What can I do if my child is being bullied?

Step 1: Listen carefully to your child and show concern and support.

Step 2: Give sensible advice - don't encourage your child to fight back; this will most likely increase the bullying.

Step 3: Assist your child to develop positive strategies including:

• ‘saying leave me alone' and calmly walking away
• avoiding situations that might expose them to further bullying
• making new friends.

Step 4: Ask your child the following questions to understand if there is a repeated pattern:

• What, where and when did the incident happen?
• Who was involved on each occasion?
• Did anybody else see it and, if so, who?
• What solutions have been tried so far?
• The names of any teachers who are aware of the problem.

Step 5: Report the bully to the school and work with your child's school to solve the problem. We take our responsibilities in relation to bullying behaviour very seriously and have more success when parents work with the school to solve the bullying problem.

Remember, if you were not aware that your child was being bullied, then perhaps your child's teachers did not know about it either. You should:

• Make an appointment with your child's teacher and make notes of the points you want to discuss before the meeting.
• At the meeting try to stay calm and present information in a way that makes it clear that you and the school are working as partners in trying to fix this problem.

The school will need time to investigate and talk to teachers and, perhaps, other students.

Step 6: You can make a follow-up call to see what has been done or alternatively ask the school when you can expect them to get back to you.