Anti – Bullying Policy

Mission Statement

We at Roscommon Community College aim to provide a quality academic, practical, social and spiritual education for our students suited to their needs and abilities in a warm caring and friendly environment.

We also wish to foster mutual respect between students and staff and instil in our students a sense of self-discipline and community.

Context

In accordance with the requirements of the Education (Welfare) Act 2000 and the code of behaviour guidelines issued by the National Educational Welfare Board (NEWB), the Board of Management of Roscommon Community College has adopted the following anti-bullying policy within the framework of the School’s overall Code of Behaviour Policy. This policy fully complies with the requirements of the Anti-Bullying Procedures for Primary and Post-Primary Schools which were published in September 2013 by the Department of Education.

Bullying behaviour, by its very nature, undermines and dilutes the quality of education and imposes psychological damage. As such it is an issue that must be positively and firmly addressed through a range of school-based measures and strategies through which all members of the school community are enabled to act effectively in dealing with this behaviour.

The purpose of this policy is:

• To raise awareness within our entire school community of the unacceptability of bullying
• To contribute to our school ethos and culture which encourages children to disclose and discuss incidents of bullying
• To devise and agree on measures to prevent bullying in our school community and to deal with incidents of bullying if they occur

Policy Aims:

• To create a school culture that is inclusive and welcoming of differences
• To create a school ethos which encourages children to disclose incidents of bullying behaviour.
• To raise awareness of bullying as a form of unacceptable behaviour with school management, teachers, pupils, parents/guardians.
• To ensure comprehensive supervision and monitoring measures through which all areas of school activity are kept under observation.
• To provide procedures for noting and reporting incidents of bullying behaviour.
• To provide procedures for investigating and dealing with incidents of bullying behaviour.
• To work with and through the various local agencies in countering all forms of bullying and anti-social behaviour.
• To evaluate the effectiveness of school policy on anti-bullying behaviour.

Definition of Bullying

In accordance with the Anti-Bullying Procedures for Primary and Post-Primary Schools bullying is defined as follows: Bullying is an unwanted negative behaviour, verbal, psychological or physical conducted, by an individual or group against another person (or persons) and which is repeated over time.

The following types of bullying behaviour are included in the definition of bullying:

• deliberate exclusion, malicious gossip and other forms of relational bullying,
• cyber-bullying, and
• identity-based bullying such as homophobic bullying, racist bullying, bullying based on a person’s membership of the Traveller community and bullying of those with disabilities or special educational needs.

Isolated or once-off incidents of intentional negative behaviour, including a once-off offensive or hurtful text message or other private messaging, do not fall within the definition of bullying and should be dealt with, as appropriate, in accordance with the school’s code of behaviour.

The School reserves the right to apply its bullying policy in respect of bullying that occurs at a location, activity, function or programme that is not school related if in the opinion of the Principal and/or the Board of Management the alleged bullying has created a hostile environment at school for the victim, has infringed on the rights of the victim at the School and/or has materially or substantially disrupted the education process or the orderly operation of the School.

However, in the context of this policy, placing a once-off offensive or hurtful public message, image or statement on a social network site or other public forum where that message, image or statement can be viewed and/or repeated by other people will be regarded as bullying behaviour, (see the School’s Information Technology Acceptable Use Policy).

Negative behaviour including harassment (see page 7) that does not meet this definition of bullying will be dealt with in accordance with the School’s Code of Behaviour.

Please see Appendix 1 for additional information on different types of bullying and potential signs of bullying.

Types of Bullying:

The following types of bullying are examples of behaviour deemed to be inappropriate whether displayed in person (physically/spoken) or written (email, text messaging, web etc.) Harassment based on any of the nine grounds in the equality legislation e.g. sexual harassment, homophobic bullying, racist bullying etc.

• Physical aggression: including pushing, shoving, punching, kicking, poking and tripping. ‘Mess fights’ can be used as a disguise for physical harassment or inflicting pain and may therefore be considered as bullying behaviour.
• Intimidation: including, but not limited to inappropriate physical contact, aggressive use of body language or the voice being used in an aggressive fashion
• Isolation and exclusion
• Cyber-Bullying
• Name calling
• Damage to property: interfering with personal possessions or locker
• Extortion/Threat – demands for money etc.
• Relational: where a person’s attempts to socialise and form relationships with peers are repeatedly undermined e.g., malicious gossip, rumour, innuendo or ridicule of a person
• Verbal abuse
• Inappropriate comments
• Aggressive or obscene language
• Offensive joke

Roles and Responsibilities

• All staff members, school pupils, parents and the school community have a part to play in the prevention of bullying in our school.
• Any pupil or parent(s)/guardian(s) may report a bullying incident to any teacher in the school.
• Teaching and non-teaching staff such as secretaries, special needs assistants (SNAs), caretakers, cleaners will report any incidents of bullying behaviour witnessed by them, or mentioned to them, to the relevant teacher.
• The relevant teachers for investigating and dealing with bullying are as follows:
• The pupil’s Year Head or Tutor if the Year Head is unavailable
• Any teacher may act as a relevant teacher if circumstances warrant it.
• The Anti-Bullying co-ordinators are:
• The principal (DLP)
• The deputy principal (DDLP)
• The anti-bullying co-ordinators will make themselves available in an advisory capacity for teachers concerned about suspected cases of bullying, investigations and supports.
• Staff understand that all bullying incidents are of a serious nature and should not be discussed in an informal setting.
• Whenever an incident is being investigated, the relevant teacher will inform the following:
• The principal
• In their absence: the DDLP
• Parent(s)/guardian(s) and pupils are required to co-operate with any investigation and assist the school in resolving any issues and restoring, as far as is practicable, the relationships of the parties involved as quickly as possible

Reporting Incidents of Bullying

Students and parents/guardians should approach any teacher or SNA with whom they feel comfortable. The SNA will report it to the relevant teacher. This report can be in person or over the phone or can be written. The report does not need to be made by the victim, a peer may report on behalf of the student experiencing bullying.
The school offers a sensitive and confidential approach to investigating the incident and students are assured of confidentiality insofar as it can be offered. Only the people who need to know will be told. All reports of bullying will be investigated and a standard report form completed.

The relevant teachers in the school are:

• Class Tutor
• Year Head
• Members of the Student Support Team
• Deputy Principal
• Principal

Recording of Bullying

See Procedures outlined in Appendix 2

Data Retention

• Incident record forms / sociograms to be filed in the school office, please see Appendix 3.
• Serious incidents are recorded to the Board of Management
• Records will be kept for seven years

Education and Initiatives

The school engages in various programmes and initiatives in order to ensure a safe learning environment for every student. These programmes and initiatives look to prevent bullying and then in cases where bullying is present, disarm and help the student to move forward.

• Student Support Team (Principal, Deputy Principal, SEN, Year Heads, Guidance Counsellors, HSCL, SCP Leader) meet weekly to discuss students of concern.
• The school charter is displayed in the school in all languages spoken by the students, please see Appendix 3.
• Full implementation of SPHE, RSE, CSPE and IMBV programmes and curricula to ensure that school culture supports a safe social and personal environment.
• DCU’s Fuse Anti Bullying Programme implemented throughout Junior Cycle.
• All staff complete ‘One Good Adult’ training through Jigsaw.
• LGBTQ+ Quality Mark achieved and all staff trained through BelongTo.
• LGBTQ+ posters displayed on notice boards and on office walls, Allies Club and Pride flag flying outside the main school building alongside the national flag and the green schools’ flag.
• The implementation of whole school awareness measures, for example: Stand Up Week, Wellbeing Week, Give Racism the Red Card etc.
• Class Tutor and Year Head system to encourage staff/ student relationships
• ‘Big Brother/Big Sister’ TY and 1^st Year Mentor Programme
• Blocking of social networking sites on the school network
• Supervised lunch time activities
• Supervision and monitoring of classrooms, corridors, school grounds, school tours and extracurricular activities. Black Spots identified and supervised regularly. Non-teaching and ancillary staff are encouraged to be vigilant and report issues to relevant teachers. Supervision will also apply to monitoring student use of communication technology within the school alongside the I.T. Acceptable Use Policy
• Administer a confidential questionnaire once a year.
• The school will continue to work with outside agencies facilitating the piloting of relevant resource material.

Parents and Bully

Where the bullying requires imposition of sanctions the co-operation of parents is crucial. The school Code of Behaviour must come into play. Agreement should be sought from parents and the student responsible in relation to future behaviour.

With a very resistant bully intervention may take a long time with ongoing management involvement.
In rare cases complete denial may be vigorously supported by the parents of the bully. The school management should be involved in resolving the difficulty. If it remains unresolved at school level then it should be referred to the Board of Management.
Students who are repeatedly bullied or those who persistently bully others may need to be referred to either the Educational or Child Psychological services.

Harassment

The Board of Management confirms that the School will, in accordance with its obligations under equality legislation, take all such steps that are reasonably practicable to prevent the sexual harassment of students or staff or the harassment of students or staff on any of the nine grounds specified i.e., gender including transgender, civil status, family status, sexual orientation, religion, age, disability, race and membership of the Traveller community. Incidents of harassment will be dealt with in accordance with the school’s Code of Behaviour

Evaluation and Review

The school’s Anti-bullying Policy will be subject to regular review by the Board of Management in order to ensure that it is being adhered to and that it continues to meet the needs of the school as these change and develop.

Signed: _______________________________

Date: _______________________________

Appendix 1

Examples of Bullying

*This is not an exhaustive list

Indications of Bullying

• Anxiety about attending school.
• Deterioration in educational performance.
• Pattern of physical illness.
• Unexplained changes in mood or behaviour.
• Visible signs of anxiety or distress.
• Possessions missing.
• Increased requests for money.
• Unexplained bruising.
• Reluctance to say what is troubling him/her.

These are all signs of a variety of problems as well as bullying.

Appendix 2

Procedures

All bullying incidents shall be recorded in a ‘Bullying Incident book’, under these headings:

What happened?
Why did it happen?
Who was involved in the incident?
Where did the incident take place?
When did it occur?
How can we resolve this problem?

It should be signed and dated by the investigating teacher and student/students involved.

All records will be kept for 7 years and then shredded.

Investigating

All issues of bullying will be investigated by the relevant teachers (Tutor/Year Head/ Deputy Principal).

Investigations can take various forms including sociograms and interviews.
Investigations will be carried out in an appropriate office.

Resolution

In cases where sanctions are imposed, parents will be informed.
Where possible all cases will be resolved in school with both parties concerned
In unresolved cases, school management will be involved and may decide to involve outside agencies.

Sanctions

Sanctions may vary according to the individual cases. Students are aware that if they are involved in bullying the following will happen:

• They will be warned to stop immediately
• Failing this the student will be referred to the Principal.
• Their parents will be informed
• The student will get serious talk, detention, work to do, student and parent sign agreement.
• They may be excluded from the School premises at break and/or lunch times.
• We may arrange for them to be escorted to and from the School premises.
• If they do not stop bullying they will be suspended for a minor fixed period.
• More serious sanctions, for example exclusion or loss of privilege in taking part in extra-curricular activities, may apply to students who engage in continual serious bullying incidences.
• If bullying continues they will be recommended for suspension for a major fixed period (up to five days) or an indefinite period.
• If they do not end such behaviour, they will be requested to appear before the Board of Management of the school with their parents/guardians.

Follow-up procedures

Relevant teachers will be made aware of the situation by the Student Support Team and asked to monitor the students. A member of the Student Support Team will meet with both the victim and the bully, individually at first and then together if appropriate, within one week of the initial resolution of the issue.
The students involved will continue to be monitored by the Student Support Team and relevant teachers. Further meetings will be scheduled if deemed necessary.

The final resolution of the problem should not end with the punishment of the guilty party. Both sides may be in need of healing, rehabilitation and reconciliation. Victims may need counselling and opportunities to participate in activities designed to raise their self-esteem and to develop their friendship and social skills whenever this is needed.

Students who engage in bullying behaviour may need counselling to help them learn other ways of meeting their needs without violating the rights of others

Appendix 3

Bullying Record Form

Date _______________________________             Time ____________________

Teacher ____________________________               Class ____________________

Names of students involved

___________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________

Details of incident

___________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­

_________­­­­________________________________________________________­__

Action Taken (Warning, Sanction, Referral, Mediation, Other)

___________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________

Signed

STUDENT _________________________________________

TEACHER _________________________________________

PARENT ___________________________________________

Suggestions for follow up

___________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________

Sociogram

Appendix 4

Anti-bullying Charter

Roscommon Community College will have an Anti-Bullying Charter to be displayed in all classrooms and other prominent areas of the school. Both the staff and students are involved in the writing of this charter. The following is what was co-created:

• We want Roscommon Community College to be free from bullying.
• Every student is expected to make a positive contribution to the life of the school.
• The school culture should be one of mutual support, especially when in difficulty.
• There should be no name calling.
• There should be no physical abuse.
• There should be no ganging up on people.
• There should be no hurtful “slagging”.
• Every student should respect others’ When one of us makes a mistake they should not be laughed at.
• Right to be themselves.
• Right to self-expression.
• Right to participate fully in school life.
• Right to personal property.
• Problems should be shared.

Rights and Responsibilities