Our Approach to Anti-Bullying
What we are doing to combat bullying in our school
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The school is very clear about what bullying actually is. Our Anti-Bullying Policy states: ‘Bullying is any behaviour that hurts, threatens or frightens another person or group of people. It is usually unprovoked, persistent and can continue for a long period of time. Bullying covers a wide range of intimidating/offensive behaviours on grounds of a person’s: race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief or disability by one person or a group. It can cause great emotional harm’.
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We have clear advice to students and parents and request that students and parents should immediately contact the Director of Learning for the appropriate year group to get support to deal with this issue. This can be done using the admin@hornseyschool.com email.
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Other helpful external support can be found through Childline www.childline.org.uk 0800 111 Kidscape www.kidscape.org.uk 08451 205 204. The Anti-Bullying Alliance http://www.anti-bullyingalliance.org.uk/advice/, and for those students affected by LGBTQ issues, http://www.stonewall.org.uk/help-advice. We also recommend using http://www.bullying.co.uk/ to help.
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The anti-bullying agenda is high up on our list of priorities, not because it is an issue within the school, but because its important that all students know they are in a safe, secure and listening environment that allows them to flourish. Students have lessons on anti-bullying aspects throughout the curriculum and in Personal and Social education and Citizenship lessons and as key themes for assembly time. Anti-cyber-bullying is also highlighted in our assemblies and student planners.
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In school we track and monitor all of our students’ achievements and behaviour incidents on our School Information Management System (Sims). We have recently added a special section for recording bullying and refined this to define the specific type of bullying to allow us to track all bullying incidents more precisely. Incidents of bullying are rare, however, they can happen as students struggel with their emerging identities. Directors of Learning are the key point of contact. They know the students best and are able to act quickly to eliminate any issues or concerns.
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Any bullying incident is investigated fully by the tutors and Directors of Learning of the students involved and parents are informed at all stages of the procedure. We take statements from pupils involved to understand the situation. Students found to have committed bullying offenses are given an appropriate sanction and then we organise a mediation session. Serious incidents of physical violence are always sanctioned by external exclusions and any student, guilty of repeated offences of physical violence, is permanently excluded. Incidents of this nature are very very very rare.
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We also track and monitor students' internet use carefully with SECURUS which tracks internet misuse and by our successful internet filtering system. This year only 0.03% of all incidents of potential internet misuse turned out to be a dangerous use of the internet. Students are monitored regularly and students, who are misusing the internet, have their accounts disabled and letters sent home to their parents with evidence of their inappropriate online activities. Parents are invited into the school to talk to pastoral staff, if there is a clear breach of school policy. The School’s Child Protection Officer, Ms McDonald is always informed, and involved, if we discover any student being potentially 'at risk'. This includes students at risk from engaging with criteria under PREVENT.
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The school does work with the Metropolitan Police Service and may refer cases to them if it is appropriate, especially around safeguarding and malicious communications.
If you have any concerns regarding a bullying matter, worries or concerns or indeed for any further information please contact the tutor via the Edulink messaging app in the first instance or the director of learning.
