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Our Trust of Schools

Anti-bullying

Safeguarding: Anti-bullying

Bullying is a reality for students in many schools. At Sidmouth College we are committed to preventing bullying.

Bullying may take the form of words, actions, expressions or attitudes. It can involve direct contact between persons or indirect contact, e.g. via text-messaging, email and the internet.

At Sidmouth College we want to encourage openness about bullying. Students must feel that all staff take bullying seriously and that they will act to stop it. We encourage students to support each other by informing staff if their friends are bullied. The Staff and Governors of the College will not tolerate the disruption of a student's education and well-being by the behaviour of another student or students. We are working towards gaining the Anti-Bullying Quality Mark. This is a national scheme which challenges schools to ensure effective and sustainable anti-bullying policies and strategies working with all stakeholders to achieve this.

The knowledge that bullying of any kind will not be tolerated is conveyed via focused tutorials, house assemblies and whole school assemblies. It is essential that the bully and the victim understand that further bullying, or any repercussions from staff intervention, will not be tolerated.

Useful links

Our lead for anti-bullying is Mr James Gilbert.
Our named governor for anti-bullying is Mr Chris Hall.

What is Bullying?

There are many definitions of bullying, but most consider it to be:

  • deliberately hurtful (including aggression)
  • repeated often over a period of time
  • difficult for victims to defend themselves against
  • consists of incidents victims feel they cannot deal with alone

Bullying can take many forms, but four main types are:

  1. PHYSICAL (hitting, kicking)
  2. VERBAL (name calling, insulting, making offensive remarks)
  3. INDIRECT (spreading nasty stories about someone either orally, in writing or electronically, exclusion from social groups, being made the subject of malicious rumours, taking belongings etc.)
  4. CYBER BULLYING

What you should do if you experience, or see, bullying at College

At Sidmouth College many of our students are trained anti-bullying ambassadors who can support their peers when needed.

Tell someone early and nip it in the bud, prevention is better than cure.

Don’t become a bystander – do not tolerate poor behaviour towards other students inform an adult immediately – this includes discriminatory and derogatory language to others

  • Tell someone else: support a friend in need
  • Talk to an Anti-Bullying Ambassador
  • Speak to an adult in the school
  • Speak to the Student Development Centre
  • Speak to a parent or guardian
  • Stay away from places where you know trouble can happen
  • If you suffer problems on a school bus where you can't get away, seek help from older students and report it to Student Support. If that doesn't work, speak to your tutor who may decide to alert your Head of House or a member of Senior Leadership Team to the problem
  • Trust those people who deal with bullying: they will offer immediate support

 

Cyberbullying

Online bullying, which is sometimes termed cyberbullying, is any form of bullying that uses an electronic device.

Parents / carers should always create an open and honest dialogue with their children around internet use, and ensuring that they:

  • check levels of supervision are appropriate for the age and stage or you child
  • check their child’s phone to ensure appropriate privacy settings
  • work with the school
  • support their child to block users and report comments through the social media platforms;
  • keep evidence such as screenshots of any unkind communications;
  • report instances of online bullying or unsafe behaviour to the school
  • do not contact the family of the perpetrator;
  • consider additional support from other agencies if needed;
  • contact the police as well as school if the contact involves physical threats.

We will work with pupils to raise awareness of what is and what is not acceptable online.

Mobile phones must be turned off and in pupils’ bags once they are on school site.

The school can and will act if online bullying occurs which is likely to cause upset to pupils on our roll, even if this contact takes place on evenings and weekends away from school site.

Responses to online bullying may be different to face-to-face bullying.  School has the power under the Education Act to confiscate electronic devices and search them with or without pupil or parent consent if safeguarding issues are raised.  School may need to refer to the police and / or Children’s Services to address aspects of cyberbullying or safeguarding concerns. Where appropriate, the police can support when an incident takes the form of Malicious Communication. This includes behaviour which may lead to feelings of harassment, alarm or distress, especially if it was a pattern of behaviour (which could be just a few incidents over a short period of time- even a couple of days.)

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