About St Kenneth’s Primary School

 

 

Rationale 

“In order to thrive and achieve their full potential, children and young people need learning environments which are safe, nurturing, respectful and free from fear, abuse and discrimination” (Scottish Government; Respect for All, 2017) 

 

This sentiment is echoed by South Lanarkshire Council, which is committed to providing a safe, supportive environment for all people in its educational establishments. The Council’s Policy ‘Treat Me Well’ can be found on the South Lanarkshire Council website. 

 

Bullying is a breach of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. In Scotland, bullying is defined as: 

“Bullying is both behaviour and impact; the impact is on a person’s capacity to feel in control of themselves. This is what we term as their sense of ‘agency’. Bullying takes place in the context of relationships; it is behaviour that can make people feel hurt, threatened, frightened and left out. This behaviour happens face to face and online. “(Scottish Government, Respect for All, 2017) 

 

At St Kenneth’s Primary School and Nursery Class, we share the Scottish Government and South Lanarkshire Council vision that bullying is never acceptable and that children and young people have the right to learn in a safe, secure environment.  As a Catholic Primary School we promote the Gospel Values of courage, creativity, thankfulness, responsibility, compassion, peace, service, justice, trust, hope, love, forgiveness, friendship, humility, generosity and reverence and respect.

We are committed to challenging all types of prejudiced-based bullying and language, including in relation to the nine protected characteristics detailed within the Equality Act (2010): 

 

• Age
• Disability
• Gender reassignment
• Marriage and civil partnership
• Race
• Religion or belief
• Sex
• Sexual orientation

 

 

Our Policy: This anti-bullying policy and the actions arising from it aim to: 

 

• Provide an environment where our children will learn and develop free from bullying
• Children will develop respectful, responsible and confident relationships with other children and adults
• provide a consistent and coherent approach in dealing with and preventing bullying behaviour
• develop the skills and resilience of young people and their parents to prevent and/or respond to bullying behaviour
• ensure that every child who needs help will know who can help them and what support is available

 

 

  

Our School Vision

In St Kenneth’s Primary School and Nursery Class, we are fully committed to creating an inclusive environment where all members of our community feel valued, supported, safe and happy.  In promoting a Catholic ethos, we aspire to nurture and encourage children to reach their full potential by providing a wide range of meaningful learning experiences that seeks children’s views, meets their needs and challenges them in their thinking in order to prepare them for the ever changing world of work.

Our School Motto (devised from our Vision)

“Working hard and making friends St Kenneth’s learning never ends!”

Our school motto poster is displayed in every class and our motto is featured at every assembly. 

(see appendix 1) 

Our School Definition of Bullying

Repeated unkind behaviour that is intended to make others feel hurt, upset, uncomfortable or unsafe.

Types of bullying are identified as: 

• emotional (e.g. hurting people’s feelings, leaving individuals out) 
• physical (e.g. hitting, kicking, theft) 
• verbal (e.g. name calling) 
• racist (e.g. calling of names, graffiti) 
• homophobic (e.g.name calling, hurting people’s feelings)            sexist (e.g.name calling, hurting people’s feelings) 
• cyber (e.g. saying unkind things by text, e-mail, messenger services etc) 

 

Promoting Positive Relationships and Good Behaviour

In St Kenneth’s, we have developed a variety of strategies for promoting positive relationships and good behaviour. There are many examples of good practice being used to reinforce the school’s caring, Catholic ethos and to provide our children with clear and effective models of behaviour. 

These include: 

• Class based awards systems promoting positive relationships and good behaviour
• Whole school assertive discipline system
• Whole school house ethos promoting our school values
• Structured playground activities
• Buddying in the playground
• Whole school assemblies,
• Health and Wellbeing focus through a variety of mindfulness, growth mindset and Christian meditation activities, as well as
• Curriculum pathways for health and wellbeing and religious education.

 

Our school takes every opportunity to celebrate success and boost the selfesteem of all by encouraging our children in the four capacities of learning – Confident Individuals, Successful Learners, Effective Contributors and Responsible Citizens.

 

These include: 

 certificates celebrating the four capacities and pupil achievement   achievement displays 

 Pupil Council, Eco-committee, Sports committee, Junior Road Safety

Officers, House Captains and Vice Captains, Junior Librarians,  trained

Anti-bullying Ambassadors and Pope Francis Faith Award Candidates  infant activities   monitors, P1/P7 buddies, reading buddies   a wide variety of young leader opportunities  lunchtime and after school clubs   Go for Green house points and events 

 

 

Strategies to prevent and respond to bullying:

A range of strategies to prevent and respond to bullying behaviour have been developed in consultation with children, parents/carers and staff. 

 

These include: 

 a whole school focus on GIRFEC (Getting it Right for Every Child),   a focus on wellbeing and anti-bullying through our Health and Wellbeing

curriculum, assemblies, pupil wellbeing surveys, school display, focused anti-bullying weeks 

 our school motto  pupils trained as anti-bullying ambassadors  trained buddy programme  parent leaflet and school app links, 

 ‘time to talk”  benches in playground 

 Roles and responsibilities discussed through assembly programme  training for staying safe online (CEOP)

 

 

Supporting children experiencing bullying behaviour: 

Roles and Responsibilities

All incidents of bullying should be reported to the Senior Management Team.  A member of the SMT will investigate, monitor and report on incidents of bullying.

 

Information regarding situations will be shared with members of staff as appropriate to enable them to support individuals. 

 

Role and Responsibilities of all staff if a bullying incident is reported. Staff must:

 

 report any concerns to the SMT  recognise the impact on the child; 

 recognise that the child may feel more vulnerable having spoken about

their experience; 

 never underestimate the ‘power of peers’; their reaction to bullying

behaviour or its disclosure may influence the young person’s decision on how to react;   accept the young person’s fear of reprisals as genuine; 

 accept that confidentiality for some young people is a concern but assure

children that information may need to be shared to deal the incident 

 remain vigilant 

 

Role and Responsibilities of staff dealing with incident:  this will usually by a member of SMT (HT or DHT) 

 

 reassure the child that it is right to talk to someone about having been bullied; 

 remind the child that they have the right to feel safe within the school environment; 

 explore a range of choices so that they feel in control and comfortable

with the future course of action; 

 assure the young person that the bullying behaviour will be addressed and that the situation will be dealt with in a proactive way; 

 reassure the young person that they will not be expected to confront the

person/s carrying out the bullying behaviour unless they wish to do so; 

 provide regular opportunities for feedback both from and to the child

about progress 

 ensure records of incidents, actions and next steps is  logged and shared

with HT

 ensure that the child is involved in constructing and implementing an

action plan; 

 ensure that any action taken doesn’t prompt reprisals;   explore the possibility of support from other children who have

experienced bullying behaviour in the past; 

 work towards building a support network for the child;   seek all available opportunities to empower the child;   monitor and review the situation and check with the child that they feel

adequately supported.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Roles and Responsibilities of Children

 share their feelings and worries   give their ideas for the action plan   engage with support and advice given   engage in learning and experiences about wellbeing and anti-bullying   say no and report or challenge unacceptable behaviour   use social media and online devices responsibly 

 understand that it is an act of courage to report bullying behaviour 

 

Bullying often takes place in groups. Children have a choice of :

 watching  joining in

 trying to remain uninvolved  ignoring

 trying to support those experiencing bullying behaviour  reporting to staff

 

In St Kenneth’s we want our children to have the courage to stand up for what is right.  Children are asked to be “upstanders” rather than “bystanders” and are always encouraged to make the best choice to help someone who is at risk by showing support to those experiencing bullying behaviour and reporting to staff.

Roles and responsibilities of Parents/Carers

Parents have an important part to play in our anti-bullying policy. We ask parents to:

• Look out for unusual behaviour in their children – for example, they may suddenly not wish to attend school, feel ill regularly, or not complete work to their usual standard.
• Always take an active role in your child’s education.
• If you feel your child may be a victim of bullying behaviour, inform school.

Your complaint will be taken seriously and appropriate action will follow.

• If you feel your child has been bullied by another child, we ask you not approach that child or the child’s parent on the playground, but to inform school immediately

  

 

• Not to advise your child to deal with this themselves by fighting back. This will only make the problem much harder to solve.
• Tell your child that it is not their fault that they are being bullied.
• Reinforce the school’s policy concerning bullying and make sure your child is not afraid to ask for help.

Monitoring and Recording

In St Kenneth’s Primary incident and concerns are logged and followed up.  Other professionals/agencies are involved as necessary.  Incidents are recorded on SEEMis as deemed necessary.

Useful Resources 

 

 Respect for All: The National Approach to Anti-Bullying for Scotland’s

Children and Young People (Scottish Government, 2017)   https://respectme.org.uk/   www.childline.org.uk   www.bullying.co.uk   www.nspcc.org.uk   www.thinkuknow.co.uk