Anti-Bullying
Bullying of any kind is unacceptable in our school. Our anti-bullying policy ensures that all our children can learn in a supportive, caring and safe environment without fear of being bullied. We are a Tell Someone Academy. This means that anyone who knows that bullying is happening is expected to tell the staff, parents or a trusted adult. If bullying does occur, all pupils should be able to tell and know that incidents will be dealt with promptly and effectively.
What is bullying?
Bullying is the use of aggression with the intention of hurting another person. Bullying results in pain and distress to the victim, it can be direct (physical/verbal) or indirect (being ignored or cyber bullying). It is different from other types of aggressive behaviour because it is defined as something that happens more than once and is targeted specifically at an individual or group.
The children are taught that Bullying means Several Times On Purpose.
Bullying can be:
- Emotional – being unfriendly, excluding, tormenting e.g. hiding books, threatening gestures;
- Physical – pushing, kicking, hitting, punching or any use of violence;
- Sexual – unwanted physical contact or sexually abusive comments;
- Verbal – name-calling, sarcasm, spreading rumours, teasing;
- Cyber – all areas of the internet, such as email and internet chat room misuse; mobile threats by text messaging and phone call; misuse of associated technology i.e. camera and video facilities.
It can also include material bullying which includes damage to belongings and extortion.
Perpetrators may use different pretexts as the basis of their bullying, basing their comments or actions on:
- The religious background or faith of the person bullied;
- A disability, perceived physical difficulty or Special Educational Need;
- The race of the victim e.g. racist name calling, taunts, graffiti or gestures;
- The sexuality of the victim e.g. homophobic bullying.
Bullying is not:
It is important to understand that bullying is not the odd occasional falling out with friends, name calling, arguments or when the occasional “joke” is played on someone. Children do sometimes fall out or say things because they are upset. When occasional problems of this kind arise it is not classed as bullying. It is an important part of a child’s development to learn how to deal with friendship breakdowns, the occasional name calling or childish prank.
We all have to learn how to deal with these situations and develop social skills to repair relationships.
All Together – United Against Bullying
Kinson Academy is committed to ensuring that all pupils feel safe at school. We work actively to prevent any behaviour that is deemed as bullying. We are an “all together” award-winning school.