One important aspect of a healthy school is emotional well-being.
The emotional distress caused by bullying in any form can prejudice school achievement, lead to lateness or unauthorised absence and, in extreme cases, end with attempted suicide. To provide some perspective, a third of all girls and a quarter of all boys are at some time afraid of going to school because of bullying.
Head teachers have a legal duty to draw up procedures to prevent bullying among pupils and to bring these procedures to the attention of staff, parents and pupils. Effective anti-bullying strategies should form part of a school's discipline and behaviour policy. Procedures for staff, parents and pupils to follow if bullying occurs should be clear and well publicised throughout the school. Bullying that has a direct link with school can also occur out of school and this can be covered in the procedures.
A wide range of information regarding bullying, including the DfES information pack: Bullying: Don't Suffer in Silence, is available from the Department's bullying site, and from TeacherNet. This pack provides ideas and practical techniques for all those involved in combating bullying. Other documents have been circulated nationally, for example, Bullying (Prim-Ed Publishing) – a set of three books. All High schools have received a copy of Bullying: A Whole School Approach (Jessica Kingsley Publishers) and Bully For You – a video and handbook (Athena Information Management).
Another resource, which has been previously circulated to all schools in Herefordshire, is Throwing Stones. This aims to deal with racist bullying and includes a video and supporting material to use with KS2/3 students. Training and support regarding tackling bullying is available from the Behaviour Support Team (tel. 01432 260878) and the Education Psychology Service.
Bullying can be defined as deliberately hurtful behaviour, repeated over a period of time, often where it is difficult for those being bullied to defend themselves. The three main types of bullying are:
- physical (e.g. hitting, kicking, theft)
- verbal (e.g. name calling, racist remarks)
- indirect (e.g. spreading rumours, excluding somebody from social groups) – this category includes cyber-bullying (e.g. texting and emails).
Other organisations working alongside the DfES on this issue which offer help to education professionals include Kidscape, the Anti-Bullying Alliance, Bully Free Zone and Ofsted, whose report, Bullying: Effective Action in Secondary Schools, is based on visits by inspectors to LEAs and schools in 2001/02. The report focuses on strategies to reduce incidents of school bullying, to support children who are bullied and to deal with children who bully.
As part of the Every Child Matters Outcomes Framework there is a requirement for schools to report to their LA information about bullying incidents for students aged 11-15.
Please use
this link to report this information.
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