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Antibullying

We are committed to providing a caring, friendly and safe environment for all of our pupils so they can learn in a relaxed and secure atmosphere.

We expect all members of our community to be treated equally in line with our Christian values and we believe that Bullying of any kind is unacceptable at our school.

For clarity, this policy applies to online behaviour in the 'virtual world' as well as behaviour in person in the 'real world'.

If bullying does occur, whether in person, or online, all pupils should be able to report them and know that incidents will be dealt with promptly and effectively.  Our approach is typified by the acronym: STOP.

STOP: Start Telling Other People. 

STOP: Several Times On Purpose

Lympne School’s definition of bullying drawn up in consultation with staff and pupils is:

 

‘Bullying is deliberately hurtful behaviour. It is usually repeated, often over a period of time and when it is difficult for those being bullied to defend themselves.’

STOP: Several Times On Purpose

We believe that there are a number of types of bullying:

Emotional: excluding from a group, tormenting, ridiculing, humiliating

Physical: hitting, punching, pinching, kicking or taking someone’s belongings.

Verbal: name-calling, insulting, Indirect bullying, through spreading stories about someone, threats, making fun of someone

Racist: racial taunts, gestures, making fun of someone’s culture or religion

Prejudice based/Discrimantory: discriminating against someone on a vairety of grounds

Peer on peer: physical, sexual, harrassment, initiation for example

Sexual: unwanted physical contact, sexually abusive or sexist comments

Online: setting up hate websites, offensive e-mails and texts

It is important to recognise that:

Bullying is not the odd occasion when there is 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 we do not class it as bullying. It is an important part of a child’s development to learn how to deal with friendship breakdowns, the odd name calling or childish prank. We all have to learn how to deal with these situations and develop social skills to repair relationships.

But we do recognise that:

Bullying is when one of the different types mentioned above is done repeatedly and on purpose.

Several Times On Purpose: STOP

How we deal with bullying in Lympne School

In order to ensure that pupils, staff and parents respond in a consistent way to reporting, dealing with and responding to any alleged incident of bullying we have devised a stepped process which has been communicated to all members of the school community.

Full details of these steps and our approach can be found below in our policy.

We believe that our school is a lovely place to learn and work in and that all members of the community deserve to be treated fairly and free from bullying/ prejudice in line with our own Christian beliefs and the requirements of the Equality Act 2010.