Positive Behaviour and Anti-Bullying Policy

Contents

  • Aims of our school
  • Staff Responsibilities and Expectations
  • DfE recommendations appertaining to this policy
  • Expectations for behaviour throughout the school
  • Rewards and encouragement
  • Consequences and procedures
  • Equal Opportunities
  • Children with Special Educational Needs
  • Hate Crime: Anti-bullying strategies/Online Safety /Anti-racism strategies / Homophobic strategies
  • Use of Reasonable Force
  • Screening and Searching Pupils
  • Discipline Beyond the School Gate
  • Seeking External Support to Improve Behaviour
  • Pastoral Care for Staff
  • Complaints

 

The guiding principles outlined in this policy are in place to ensure our school is an Attachment and Trauma Aware setting; we use the knowledge of attachment and trauma as the cornerstones of this policy.

 

This policy is influenced by and takes aspects of the following documents:

Developing an Attachment Aware Behaviour Regulation Policy: Guidance for Brighton & Hove Schools September 2018

The Ladder of Intervention: Supporting children and young people with Social, Emotional and Mental health difficulties in schools September 2019 (NYCC)

 

The Aims of our school:

 

  • We aim to achieve a respectful, civilised, secure and safe environment where everyone shows consideration and kindness towards each other.
  • We aim to provide our children with an inspirational and relevant curriculum; one which inspires children; one which encourages problem solving, fluency and reasoning to build academic success in school, where children are happy supported, confident and enthusiastic.
  • We facilitate children in reaching their potential; respecting others’ cultures and maintaining mutual respect for, equality and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs and for those without faith.
  • We teach children how to challenge concepts appropriately in a democratic and supportive environment where all opinions are respected and where ideas are valued
  • We aim to expose to children the successes the educated world has to offer to them and aspire for them to become totally committed, through their learning, to joining that world and being successful.
  • We aim to create an environment where children feel safe to make mistakes and to learn from these, ensuring they are committed to growing in their learning in this way.
  • We aim to produce happy, healthy children who know how stay safe and who enjoy their relationships with others; understanding healthy boundaries.
  • We aim to foster a sense of wonderment and inspire a constant curiosity within our pupils.

We have a dedicated team of talented teachers who understand their children’s academic and emotional needs and in doing so, ensure all children are in receipt of a challenging and rich curriculum where high standards are set and where secure relationships are built. Our staff team are respectful of the children’s needs and speak to each child with kindness and care to help each child to become self-aware and to support each child in self-regulating their behaviour.

All members of staff have been trained so that they are able to use the four step process and language associated with Emotion Coaching to support our children and to help them understand what is happening:

Step 1: Recognising, empathising, soothing to calm (‘I understand how you feel, you’re not alone’) Step 2: Validating the feelings and labelling (‘This is what is happening, this is what you’re feeling’)

Step 3: Setting limits on behaviour (‘We can’t continue to do as it is not safe.)

Step 4: Problem-solving with the child/young person (‘We can sort this out by ’ / How do you think this could be resolved?’)

 

Children only have one childhood and one chance at Primary School, and we know that each day is the opportunity to grow and develop in our learning; to build knowledge, resilience, tolerance and to develop our interest in the world around us. Every moment is precious at school; we learn to persevere, become resilient, to be healthy, to have friends and to be respectful; we are not afraid to make mistakes along the way. Everyone is special – the children, parents, staff and governors. Together we all support the children in becoming well-rounded individuals and members of local and global communities. Providing children with opportunities to integrate with their peers and with the wider community, we will enable all children to discover their unique strengths and talents.

 

In order to be able to challenge themselves and carry out tasks independently, children must be able to regulate their behaviour according to the different learning styles demanded in a 21st century classroom. We encourage children to concentrate, to be ‘active listeners’ and to develop the capacity to make decisions through rewarding positive behaviours. Good concentration, the ability to question appropriately, self- motivation and self-regulation are key skills. We aim to help children adapt their behaviour sensitively and sensibly to the many different contexts in which they will find themselves, now and in the future.

 

The expectations and class rules were discussed, tweaked and agreed in classes:

  • I will be kind to other children and adults, and I will care for and respect their feelings.
  • I will be polite and helpful to everyone in school, using my manners at all times.
  • I will listen carefully when asked to do so by an adult.
  • I will move calmly and quietly around school to maintain a peaceful learning environment.
  • I will be safe and sensible at all times.
  • I will look after my belongings and treat other people’s property with care and respect.

These rules will be revisited at the beginning of each academic year. These expectations embody a strong moral code against which the children can measure their actions and underpin the expectations for behaviour throughout our school.

 

Staff Responsibilities and Expectations:

Ensuring, acknowledging and encouraging positive behaviour is everyone’s responsibility. The Governing Body outline a code of behaviour expectations and ALL staff are duly expected to follow the Positive Behaviour strategies and protocols outlined within this policy.

The lunchtime staff work in teams co-ordinated by their Supervisors who are ultimately line managed by the Headteacher and Assistant Head Teacher. The expectations for all staff include the staff we have as part of the team on a lunchtime and as such, they too are fully integrated into the Positive Behaviour Policy, having access to the reward and consequences system outlined below.

If a child is experiencing difficulties of any kind with their concentration or behaviour, then the class teacher will log their concerns and put appropriate strategies in place to allow the child the opportunity to discuss and address their difficulties with the teacher. If the unsettled behaviour continues then the class teacher will involve their Key Stage Leader and possibly the school SENDCo. There can be many reasons for a child becoming un-cooperative/non-compliant and the staff always looks for potential explanations. Those children with additional needs follow broadly the same system as their peers, though the teacher as the expert may, at times, choose to adapt the policy slightly whilst still ensuring that the children are, through restorative conversations and support, able to understand consequences and how to reinstate their own positive behaviour.

A child may be experiencing friendship difficulties; needing additional help with their work or experiencing a disruption within their family/ home life. Our positive behaviour system is designed to alert parents/carers to any changes experienced at school through effective verbal communication in the first instance (a phone call or a brief meeting). We are fully committed to working in partnership with parents/carers and we believe children are far more successful when school and home are both working to support one another.

Our system is designed to involve parents/carers at every stage, establishing a dialogue between teacher and parent so that the appropriate consequences and support mechanisms can be put in place for maximum effect.

 

We focus on key areas:

RESPECT: for everyone by listening to other opinions and learning to value them.

RESPONSIBILITY: taking responsibility for your own actions.

REPAIR: developing the skills within our school community so that its individual members have the necessary skills to identify solutions that repair harm and ensure behaviours are not repeated.

RE-INTEGRATION: working through a structured, supportive process that aims to solve the problem and allows young people to remain in mainstream education.

 

A Relationship-Based approach to Inclusion

The change in terminology in the 2014 Code of Practice of Special Educational Needs (SEN) recognised that behaviour is a form of communication. Behaviour and Social Difficulties was replaced with Social, Emotional and Mental Health Difficulties (SEMH) which helped to promote a shift towards viewing behaviour as a communication of an emotional need, whether conscious or unconscious and responding accordingly.

We believe that responding to the SEMH needs of a child is everyone’s responsibility.

 

“Fairness does not mean everyone gets the same (equality). Fairness means everyone gets what they need

(equity).” Rick Riordan

 

We take every opportunity to teach strategies for building social skills, resilience and raising self-esteem. Across the school these are recognised as vital steps in preparing our pupils for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of life. Our children develop a range of strategies which enable them to manage their emotions and self-regulate their behaviour.

A non-judgemental and empathic approach towards behaviour is taken and all adults in school are encouraged to respond in a way that focuses on the feelings and emotions that might drive certain behaviour, rather that the behaviour itself. A child with behavioural difficulties needs to be regarded as vulnerable rather than troublesome, and we all have a duty to explore this vulnerability and provide appropriate support.

We recognise that strong relationships between staff and children are vital. Staff must be fair and consistent with every child, taking into account individual needs. Children need to understand that the staff member will always be approachable and support pupils in understanding that they are there to help, enabling pupils to feel safe. This may sometimes mean that there is a need for staff to explain a consequence to the pupils to facilitate the learning of appropriate behaviour and to ensure the safety of all.

 

We actively promote strong relationships between staff, children and their parents/carers. We rely on our positive school culture and climate that fosters connection, inclusion, respect and value for all members of the school community.

Relationships are central to our sense of belonging and to our emotional well-being. These include staff-pupil, pupil-pupil, staff-staff, staff-parent/carer, child-parent/carer relationships.

We maintain clear boundaries and expectations around behaviour. Changing how we respond to behaviour does not mean having no expectations, routines or structure. In order to help children feel safe, we ensure that their educational environment is rich in both nurture and structure. We have consistent, predictable routines, expectations and responses to behaviour. These are in place and modelled appropriately, within the context of our safe and caring school environment.

Relevant rewards and consequences that can follow certain behaviours should be made explicit, without the need to enforce ‘sanctions’ that can shame and ostracise children from their peers, school community and family, leading to potentially more negative behaviour.

We encourage parental engagement and involvement and see this as crucial when addressing and planning support for children’s SEMH needs.

It is important that indicators of SEMH are clearly recognised to ensure that it is not just pupils who are displaying observable and active/ ‘acting out’ behaviours (e.g. those who are non-compliant, show symptoms of low mood or hyper arousal, verbal and physical aggression, those who abscond, who have difficulty understanding others or personal boundaries) that are identified. Pupils who display more passive behaviours (e.g. those who present as withdrawn, isolated, disengaged and/or distracted, who avoid risks, who appear very anxious, who refuse to accept praise, are reluctant to speak) sometimes go unnoticed because their behaviour can feel less challenging to manage. The long term impact is greater for this group of children.

It is also important to view children whose behaviour is externalised or whose emotional distress is internalised as equally vulnerable. Early intervention is imperative for addressing both active and passive behaviours to ensure that low level features / difficulties can be addressed early. It is essential to be aware of the tendency to make judgements around behaviour (e.g. ‘mad’/’bad’) and important to see all behaviour as an indicator of emotions to which we must respond in an empathic and caring manner. This can be particularly hard to do when a child acts in a way that hurts or frightens others.

Attachment Awareness

We value the power of relationships and work relentlessly to understand behaviour in context. All staff consider the context when interpreting behaviour and actioning any consequences in school. We consider what a child may be trying to say by their behaviour, and we ask the right questions to investigate the situation and to offer support: ‘What has happened to the child?’, ‘What is the story?’ and not ‘What is wrong with the child?’ It is important that we take the time to interpret behaviour.

Jones and Bouffard (2012) and Banerjee, Weare and Farr (2014) suggest that interventions for pupils’ social and emotional learning should be integrated into the daily life of the classroom rather than provided through discrete programs.

We advocate an integrated Whole School Attachment Aware Approach. Through sharing information, Pupil Progress meetings and through individual Personal Provision Plans, strategies and support are in place to support children’s individual differences and attachment needs. All children are vulnerable, and some children are particularly vulnerable.

All staff recognise that for some children, the behaviour seen in a given situation was possibly the only option for the child at that time.

All staff recognise that behaviour can indicate the developmental stage of a child. It is important that basic physiological and emotional needs (Maslow’s Hierarchy) are met before a child feels safe enough to relax, play and learn. Behaviours that seem inappropriate often occur when a child feels threatened and their basic needs are not being met.

For some children who’s basic needs have not been met, their responses to situations may appear irrational, they are likely to go into survival mode, freeze, (this might be a lack of interest, not listening, clumsy behaviour), fight (this might be physical or verbal aggression) flight (this might be physical running away or emotional running away, the child shuts down) or submit. Each of these emotions will have strong associated emotions, e.g. anger, fear or worry and may lead to behaviour that impact on their learning.

All emotions are natural and normal, and not always a matter of choice. Children cannot successfully self- regulate their emotions unless they have experienced and internalised co-regulation (i.e. an adult tuning in/empathising with their emotional state and thus ‘containing’ – sharing, supporting and carrying – their emotional state). This also involves explicit teaching and modelling.

Children who are identified as particularly vulnerable need specific approaches tailored to their individual needs and experiences, strengths and difficulties. These are planned in conjunction with parents / carers and relevant professionals, and shared sensitively, as deemed appropriate.

As outlined in the SEN Code of Practice and our local SEND Guide, we promote a differentiated approach following different levels of intervention using the Assess / Plan / Do / Review cycle. Appropriate target-setting and information-sharing is extremely important, to ensure that bespoke provision and strategies are recorded using a range of suitable tools such as Personal Provision Plans. These are jointly developed, agreed and reviewed, involving key adults. Most importantly this must include input and involvement from the child to ensure that they (alongside their parents/carers) remain central to this process and can voice what helps/hinders; what likely triggers might be; strengths and difficulties, etc.

 

How we encourage the best kind of behaviour:

Ethos

Our weekly Ethos changes each half term to help children explore the wider half-termly value. During the academic year, they broadly focus on the human / Christian values of:  Courage, Creativity (and how children and adults can create their own positive situations), Peace, Trust, Forgiveness, Justice, Thankfulness, Compassion, Friendship, Hope, Truthfulness, Humility, Generosity, Respect, Wisdom, Perseverance, Service and Responsibility.

This is designed to celebrate each individual’s achievements whilst promoting a strong sense of communal responsibility.

 

Our Curriculum and Individual Academic Progress

We begin with our curriculum, ensuring each child is appropriately challenged and supported. During termly pupil progress meetings, our teachers work with the Deputy Headteachers to discuss each child; together they review their progress and set targets for their academic development over the coming term. These targets are reviewed on a termly basis and children’s progress is monitored by the class teacher daily. We believe that this accountability system ensures that every child is comfortable with their level of challenge; deepening the understanding of the academically able whilst supporting those who need additional support. If the curriculum is broad, balanced and appropriately pitched to each child, we know that children will retain confidence and work productively. When too much, or too little is being asked of a child, then this will often be reflected in their relationships, with either their teacher or other pupils. By investing time and effort into getting this right, we believe we are establishing the correct environment for children to achieve their potential.

Academic achievement alone does not prepare children for life; it must be embedded within an ethos which allows them to thrive and grow in confidence. Preparing our pupils to make moral decisions and exercise their democratic rights of citizenship is one of the most complex challenges that we face as educators and parents and therefore we believe it is vital for us to work in partnership whereby there is a strong sense of respect from and for all parties involved.

SMSC, British Values and understanding others

The School’s provision is carefully designed to help deliver SMSC (Social, Moral, Spiritual, Cultural) throughout the curriculum. All aspects of the National Curriculum are delivered in a creative and thoughtful manner for each class, providing an initial stimulus to engage each child with their learning, offering opportunities for children to ask their own questions and uncover what they already know. Regular weekly recapping what the children are learning during their learning journey is vital as well as end of half term ‘quizzes’ to determine the progress in skill and knowledge acquisition. Planning draws subject areas together so that the children are learning through a relevant and creative cross-curricular programme; one which encourages independence, respect and motivation for learning.

Discussion, Conflict Resolution, Growth Mindset and Peer Support

Children are always encouraged to resolve any conflict or issues with one another with the direct support and guidance from their Class Teacher. They are encouraged to understand feelings, acknowledge their own behaviours and how they may have impacted on another.

Children’s behaviour is underpinned by the stage they have reached in social and emotional development, the level of skills they have in this area, and their emotional well-being, in interaction with the social, emotional and physical environment.

We cannot assume that children already have the skills they need in order to manage their emotions and meet our expectations about their behaviour. We need to take active steps to develop children’s social, emotional and behavioural skills.

Children may need help and support with their interactions. Adults need to offer support to the children around naming feelings (anger/ sadness and knowing it is ok to have such emotions) and being able to help consider ways in which any wrongdoing can be repaired. When dealing with conflicts or issues, adults consider knowledge and understanding of the child’s back story and how that might impact on their behaviour. When considering the child’s viewpoint, adults need to see this from the child’s perspective, rather than with the logic, cognition and emotional response of an adult. Working restoratively ensures that relationships are stronger, and learning is more effective.

At the start of the day, every child is made to feel welcome, greeted by adults and shown that they belong, are liked, respected and valued. The children begin the school day with a brief emotional check in. By sharing how they feel, adults in the classroom are able to identify the children who may need support and encouragement and anticipate needs for the day ahead. The adults in the classroom share how they are feeling with the children in order to share and generate a safe environment, build empathy and help the children identify why they are feeling a certain way and start to understand emotions they are feeling and why.

Children are encouraged to develop their strategies for dealing with difficult situations with support, structure and modelling from all adults. Children of all ages can play together at break times resulting in our youngest children growing in confidence and resilience with the support of the older pupils.

 

DfE recommendations appertaining to this policy:

This behaviour policy acknowledges the school’s legal duties under the Equality Act 2010, in respect of safeguarding and in respect of pupils with special educational needs (SEND).

 

It is to be noted within this policy that:

Teachers have statutory authority to discipline pupils whose behaviour is unacceptable, who break the school expectations or who fail to follow a reasonable instruction (Section 90 and 91 of the Education and Inspections Act 2006);

Any reference to the school applies to all paid staff with responsibility for pupils.

Teachers can confiscate pupils’ property should the need be required in order to maintain the safety of other pupils and/or excellence in learning standards and experiences for all children.

Praise Assembly

School has a ‘Praise Assembly’ as part of Collective Worship once a fortnight. During this time, the children and staff celebrate academic, sporting and other personal achievements both from school and home.

Consequences and Procedures

Encouragement and praise are the foundation stones of our policy however when children make inappropriate choices, the consequence system is operated.

We always fully investigate any incident; all the children involved can talk and discuss the issue and each one is listened to. Children who have broken the expectations of conduct because of personal difficulties are given extra support but will still be given the appropriate sanction. The guidelines below ensure parity between events and fairness for all children.

 

Behaviour Responsibility Consequence

following Restorative

Conversation

Outcome
It is important to understand the ‘inside’ consequence is the child’s time to reflect on the restorative conversation that has occurred between them and the adult in school. The child may be asked to use this time to complete a learning activity such as writing a letter of apology or completing a ‘comic strip conversation’ outlining better choices. This will be totally dependent on the needs of the individual child. The restorative conversation will occur at an appropriate time for the child based on their needs and their reaction at the time e.g. Freeze, Flight, Fight, Submit.
Disrespect to adults or each other Class teacher + adult involved 1 playtime inside Record on CPOMs under ‘Behaviour’ and Contact Parents / Carers that day.
Lying to an adult Class teacher + adult involved 1 playtime inside
Swearing Class teacher + adult

involved. If persistently  HT

1 playtime inside

Fighting CT & HT 2 playtimes inside
Racism CT & HT 2 playtimes inside Record on CPOMs under ‘Behaviour’ and Contact Parents / Carers that day. Notify Local Authority.
Bullying CT & HT 2 playtimes inside
Deliberately

damaging            another person’s property

CT & HT 2 playtimes inside Record on CPOMs under ‘Behaviour’ and Contact Parents / Carers that day.
Stealing CT & HT 2 playtimes inside

Note: Depending on the scale of incident, the Class Teacher or Headteacher will usually speak to the parent/carer to explain the incident.

 

For many behaviours, all children are given two reminders in class before they experience a sanction.

 

Reminder Action
1 Move to another table / spot on carpet – continue working
2 Move to another chair in classroom for 5 minutes (timed) – ‘time out’
3 Consequence: Discussion / support followed by playtime loss

 

Differentiated playtime loss and steps before losing playtime:

Teachers can use their discretion with playtime loss, and it would be appropriate for teachers of younger children to consider children losing 5 or 10 minutes of a playtime. As part of the missed playtime, children would be expected to engage in a supportive conversation with their class teacher or the Headteacher.

Any very serious incident will by-pass the sanction system. The school follows local authority guidance to physical assault. Procedures for internal and / or external exclusion will be implemented following the steps outlined by the LA and adopted by the Governors for dealing with any such occurrence.

Each teacher keeps a behaviour record for individual pupils on CPOMs. Behaviour is discussed weekly in staff meetings and this means that staff have a full profile of any children experiencing any difficulties with self-control and can adapt their teaching strategies and programmes accordingly.

Parents/carers are always fully involved in this process. They will be told of their child’s involvement in any incident via a phone call; parents will be invited to discuss it further with the class teacher if they wish to do so. Parental support is of paramount importance when helping a child to mature and develop their behaviour. Serious transgressions of our code need discussion between home and school, sometimes parents/carers are asked to be part of a ‘behaviour programme’ for a child which may involve keeping in daily contact with school through a ‘home / school’ book.

In addition to our formal consequences the teacher keeps a class record of persistent minor behaviours; these are behaviours which disturb the good working order of the classroom e.g. not coming to sit on the carpet when called, shouting out, not settling to work quickly enough.

Again, we would underline that we always look for reasons for a child’s behaviour and discuss our concerns with them using the usual classroom consequences to bring them back into line. However, if teachers find themselves constantly logging these types of behaviours, they will alert the Headteacher. Class Teachers will then inform parents/carers and request a meeting. At this meeting, as a team, we can discuss any action that may need to be taken in order to support the child.

 

Monitoring and Evaluation of Behaviour

The Behaviour Policy is reviewed every two years and updated in accordance with any new legislation or advances in our understanding of children’s psychological development.

Our ‘CPOMs’ recording system is monitored on a termly basis so that patterns in children’s behaviour can be picked up and acted upon. The Headteacher is legally obliged to log all bullying and racist incidents (termed ‘Hate Incidents’) and these will be sent to the Local Authority for independent recording.

The Headteacher monitors the incidents on CPOMs so that a discussion can be held regarding any escalation in a child’s misconduct with the Class Teacher and Headteacher. Misconduct can sometimes be the result of a child struggling to divert attention away from their difficulties with a specific kind of work. We like to pick this up as early as possible and put the appropriate support programmes in place if possible.

Conflict Resolution:

  • Approach any conflict quickly and calmly, stopping any harmful behaviours.
  • Reach out, recognising, empathising, soothing to calm. Acknowledge feelings by making simple statements. I understand how you feel, you’re not alone’ (e.g. ‘It’s really upsetting when someone tells you ‘no’)
  • Engage in a conversation, validating the feelings and labelling. This is what is happening (e.g. ‘you’re kicking the wall’), this is what you’re feeling (e.g. ‘because you’re cross’)
  • Gather information and make sure children talk one at a time. Information should be gathered from children separately to ensure that all have a chance to share their perspective.
  • Setting limits on behaviour, ‘we can’t always get what we want’
  • Seek to solve the problem, come up with solutions and allow children choose one together.
  • End on a good note, give a compliment, a handshake. Thank the children for being honest and open or for accepting an apology from someone. Encourage sincere apologies with eye contact if this is suitable for the child.
  • Be prepared to offer follow up support.

Everyone working in our school is responsible to the Headteacher and Governors for the good conduct, professional approach and happy atmosphere of the school. Any concerns that parent/carers may have, can be raised through our governors. Parents/carers views on standards are sought through the regular questionnaires to parents.

Equal Opportunities

Our school has high expectations both for personal learning and social development. We are strongly committed to giving every child – regardless of disability, race, sex or religion – the opportunity to succeed to the best of their ability. Our planning systems ensure that the children’s curriculum reflects these principles and our positive behaviour system provides the supporting ethos.

Children with Special Educational Needs

Our Positive Behaviour Policy expectations apply to all children. All adults adhere to its framework and all children are expected and encouraged to do so. However, within our community there are children who need additional support. For these children, their behaviour is always placed within the context of the policy, but with the help of our SENDCo, it may be adapted and differentiated to support children with specific needs.

The governors and staff are particularly proud of the kindness and sensitivity shown by our pupils towards our more vulnerable children and of the part the children play in making ours a truly inclusive school.

 

Anti-Bullying

Our aim, in any situation is to always support the children and families. We believe that all children, those acting out of line with the expected behaviour and those on the receiving end should all be supported to understand their behaviour and actions and to become the best versions of themselves.

 

Bullying may be evident in the form of one or more of the following:

 

  • Physical: hitting, kicking, pushing
  • Emotional: tormenting, being unfriendly, excluding, threatening gestures
  • Verbal: name calling, insulting, insulting remarks
  • Cyber or social media bullying
  • Racist: racial taunts, gestures
  • Sexual: unwanted physical contact or sexually abusive comments
  • Homophobic: because of, or focussing on the issue of sexuality
  • Transphobic: displaying negative attitudes, or actions toward transgender or transsexual people.
  • Any unfavourable or negative comments, gestures or actions made to someone relating to their disability or special educational need.

 

Bullying behaviour will not be tolerated within our school. It is defined by its persistence, its destruction of other peoples’ confidence and its desire to humiliate or harm its target. All persistent behaviours that victimise others on the grounds of their race, culture, creed, disability, sexuality or age are defined as bullying and must be reported to the Local Authority.

Bullying is behaviour by an individual or group, repeated over time, that intentionally hurts another individual or group either physically or emotionally. It can be through intimidation and threats, name-calling, spreading rumours, stealing, damaging belongings, telling lies to get others into trouble, sending messages around the class, online torment or emotionally/physically hurting people.

Unfortunately, research shows that these behaviours can take place in the school environment and some through the use of technology such as the internet or through Direct Messaging on Apps. The School constantly reminds children of their right to safety and encourages them to make their teachers aware when other children are making them feel uncomfortable. Sometimes this can be a matter of helping a child to understand that not all acts of unkindness or exclusion are bullying. Many hurtful behaviours are short term upsets and can be dealt with through the normal systems and by building a child’s confidence and understanding in constructing and maintaining relationships.

 

However, sometimes unkindness can escalate into something which must be dealt with quickly and uncompromisingly. As soon as we become aware that a child is being bullied the following things happen:

  • A log of the incidents will be kept on CPOMs and it will be reviewed for any previous incidents.
  • The bully will be confronted with their behaviour and consequences applied, this means that the bully’s parents are made aware of their behaviour. A member of staff may be asked to work with this child to help identify the causes of the problem and support them with making better choices and understanding the consequences of their actions.
  • When a bully sees their victim reporting an incident this can often exacerbate their behaviour, in this way they hope to prevent the object of their bullying telling the teacher. To relieve any fears of reprisal, children being bullied will be given a teacher buddy, this will be a senior member of staff. This means that a child can report incidents without the class or the bully being aware that it is happening. It is also someone they can talk to about and who will support them with their feelings. A full range of supportive strategies will be discussed with the Headteacher and implemented to support each child.
  • All staff in school (Teachers and Teaching Assistants) will be made aware of the situation to ensure that the child being bullied is supported through lunch-times as will the Headteacher.
  • If the bullying continues, the parents of the perpetrator will be asked to come into school to meet with the Headteacher and the relevant Class Teacher. A ‘Behaviour Programme’ will be put in place and a daily reporting system to parents will be established.

 

Above all we teach children to be confident, assertive individuals. We involve the children in our decisions and embed expectations through Assemblies, our work in PHSE and through class discussions. Our school has a wonderful family ethos which we believe encourages respectful and happy children to grow into respectful and happy citizens.

The school also uses Assemblies and class work to support children and newsletters and planned workshops for families to help them understand the very real dangers of their life ‘online’ in order to safeguard our children and to ensure that behaviour and relationships online are positive.

Our school community:

  • Discusses, monitors and reviews our anti-bullying practises.
  • Supports staff to identify and tackle bullying appropriately.
  • Ensures that pupils are aware that all bullying concerns will be dealt with sensitively and effectively.
  • Reports back quickly to parents/carers regarding their concerns on bullying.
  • Seeks to learn from anti-bullying good practise elsewhere and utilises the support of the LA and relevant statutory/voluntary organisations when appropriate.

Parents are consulted by the Headteacher and Governors; their views and any concerns about the way school deals with bullying issues are taken very seriously. After each consultation the school will further reflect on its practice and make adjustments accordingly if appropriate.

 

Anti-racism and Homophobia – termed ‘Hate’ Incidents

All racist/hate incidents are recorded on CPOMs and appropriate action is taken. The Headteacher is informed immediately and is duty bound to inform the Local Authority by completing the following online form: Reporting prejudiced based incidents and hate crimes in schools and settings.

Bullying and racism can sometimes be intertwined. All staff work very hard to make our school a safe place for all, where every child knows that racism and bullying will not be tolerated.

The best way to ensure this is to build an inclusive school where equal opportunity and tolerance lie at the heart of our ethos and curriculum. This is our aim and we will continue to work through our policies, to establish relationships and behaviours which are based on understanding and respect for one another.

 

Complaints

Every well-governed and well-managed school will from time to time, deal with complaints from parent/carers, school neighbours and others. Teachers and Governors know that most parental concerns and complaints are resolved informally by school staff. Relatively few complaints lead to a formal process, but where they do, our Governing Body must ensure that proper procedures are in place, are publicised, understood and followed. (Please reference our complaints policy – available on the school website).

 

Use of Reasonable Force

At times when a child’s behaviour presents a tangible risk to him/herself, to other children, to staff or to the fabric of the school, reasonable force will be used to reduce the risk and to maintain safety. All colleagues required to restrict a child’s physical behaviour in such circumstances will have undertaken formal Restrictive Physical Intervention (RPI) training which is refreshed at least every three years. Use of RPI techniques should be seen as a last resort and used only when all other strategies have failed/are failing to maintain safety.

For isolated instances of RPI, the NYCC ‘Synergy Web’ is used for recording.  For regular instances of RPI (e.g. for children with special educational needs), it is not possible to maintain this level of recording. In such cases, and with the Headteacher’s express consent, a running record of physical intervention will be maintained.

All instances of RPI, except where there are specific arrangements in place for a child with complex needs, are reported to the parent/carer along with full and detailed context. A written record of what is said to the parent/carer and any response made is kept on the child’s file via a CPOMs entry.

All instances of RPI, except where there are specific arrangements in place for a child with complex needs, are reported to the parent/carer along with full and detailed context. A written record of what is said to the parent/carer and any response made is kept on the child’s file via a CPOMs entry.

 

Screening and Searching Pupils

Although unlikely at primary level, school staff retain the right to screen and search pupils where they believe they are attempting to bring dangerous items into school. This right does not extend to items such as trading cards that may have been banned as the child can be managed through the main behaviour policy if s/he refuses to hand over such items.

Any member of staff who believes that a child is attempting to bring a dangerous item into school should seek the support of the Headteacher before screening or searching. All screening/searching must be done respectfully, with more than one adult present and in a manner that keeps the child fully informed of each stage of the process. Physical contact should remain minimal (e.g. an instruction to turn out trouser pockets rather than turning out trouser pockets for the child). The Headteacher retains the right to refuse entry into our school to any pupil believed to be bringing dangerous items into school who does not allow screening/searching to take place.

 

Discipline Beyond the School Gate

All aspects of this policy apply to all elements of curriculum / routines within the school, for example: school visits (including residential visits), activities outside of school but led by school staff, events within the school grounds outside of school hours or run for/on behalf of the school (e.g. Christmas Fairs, Summer BBQ) extra-curricular provision (e.g. Morning Club) and extra- curricular clubs, during or after school.

Exclusion regulations do not apply to extra-curricular activity. The school retains the right to remove a child from extra-curricular activities if his/her behaviour puts self, other children or adults at risk or if the behaviour damages or could lead to damage to the reputation of the school.

The school retains the right to carefully consider access to extra-curricular activities for a child where his/her attendance would put the child or others at risk due to behaviour. As the majority of clubs take place after school, the capacity to provide additional staff to support such activities could only be made available if specifically requested as part of an EHCP for a child with Special Educational Needs. The school cannot use its main delegated budget to provide additional support for extra-curricular activity unless specifically stipulated in a child’s EHCP.

On rare occasions when an act of indiscipline outside of school leads to the damage or perceived damage to the school’s reputation and the child is identified as a pupil (e.g. when wearing uniform), the school retains the right to use sanctions as set out in this policy. Parents/carers should be involved in all such cases and the matter would usually be dealt with by the Headteacher.

All such decisions are taken by the Headteacher only and consider the school’s equalities scheme, the Equalities Act 2010 and the SEND Code of Practice.

 

Seeking External Support to Improve Behaviour

External support is sought for children who display continuous disruptive behaviour and for whom the steps set out within this policy have not been effective. Staff should always seek to understand a child’s behaviour to determine whether there are additional needs that are not being met. This should be done in liaison with the SENDCo where appropriate.

Other agencies are involved where disruption from pupils due to their behaviour is continuous. Where there are no additional needs identified or under investigation, this involvement should be considered after a third behaviour form has been completed (e.g. 3 rounds of three entries on a behaviour form and three meetings with the Headteacher to set targets for improvement). It is the responsibility of the class teacher and those involved with the child to meet the expectations as set out in any report from other agencies (e.g. RoSI from Targeted Provision) that give recommendations and/or targets. Throughout this process, parents/carers are actively involved, and discussions are documented.

 

Pastoral Care for Staff

The school adopts all NYCC HR Policies and reviews these policies periodically. Where a staff member has followed the steps set out in this policy and has sought advice before acting outside of this policy, the school provides full support to colleagues should a complaint be received about their conduct. Reference should be made to the relevant HR Policies and the school’s Complaints Procedure.