St John’s National School
Scoil Náisiúnta Naomh Eoin
Principal: Catherine Coady Deputy Principal: Katrina Scanlan
Address: Wyattville Road, Phone: 01 2855525
Ballybrack, Email: office@stjohnsns.ie
County Dublin, Website: www.stjohnsns.ie
A96 NW60
Anti-Bullying Policy
In accordance with the requirements of the Education (Welfare) Act 2000 and the code of behaviour guidelines issued by the NEWB, the Board of Management of St. John’s N.S has adopted the following anti-bullying policy within the framework of the school’s overall code of behaviour. This policy fully complies with the requirements of the Anti-Bullying Procedures for Primary and Post-Primary Schools which were published in September 2013.
The Board of Management recognises the very serious nature of bullying and the negative impact that it can have on the lives of pupils and is therefore fully committed to the following key principles of best practice in preventing and tackling bullying behaviour:
A positive school culture and climate which-
is welcoming of difference and diversity and is based on inclusivity;
encourages pupils to disclose and discuss incidents of bullying behaviour in a non-threatening environment; and
promotes respectful relationships across the school community;
Effective leadership;
A school-wide approach;
A shared understanding of what bullying is and its impact;
Implementation of education and prevention strategies (including awareness raising measures) that-
build empathy, respect and resilience in pupils; and
explicitly address the issues of cyber-bullying and identity-based bullying including in particular, homophobic and transphobic bullying.
Effective supervision and monitoring of pupils;
Supports for staff;
Consistent recording, investigation and follow up of bullying behaviour (including use of established intervention strategies); and
On-going evaluation of the effectiveness of the anti-bullying policy.
In accordance with the Anti-Bullying Procedures for Primary and Post-Primary Schools bullying is defined as follows:
Bullying is 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.
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.
Negative behaviour that does not meet this definition of bullying will be dealt with in accordance with the school’s code of behaviour.
Additional information on different types of bullying is set out in Section 2 of the Anti-Bullying Procedures for Primary and Post-Primary Schools.
The relevant teachers for investigating and dealing with bullying are the class teachers.
The education and prevention strategies that will be used by the school are as follows:
Class teachers use age appropriate strategies to develop awareness about bullying, such as
Circle time discussions,
S.P.H.E lessons on tackling bullying and building confidence and self-esteem
Role play dramas to allow children to explore assertiveness.
Stay Safe Programme
RSE lessons on respect
Whole school strategies include:
Roots of Empathy
Fun Friends
Encouraging non gender specific games
Friendship Week as an annual event
Safer Internet Day as an annual event
Yard competitions every term, focusing on inclusive games and respectful behaviour
The school’s procedures for investigation, follow-up and recording of bullying behaviour and the established intervention strategies used by the school for dealing with cases of bullying behaviour are as follows
To investigate issues of bullying the restorative questions will be used by all staff• What happened?
• What were you thinking about at the time?
• What have your thoughts been since?
• Who has been affected by what you did?
• In what way have they been affected?
• What do you think you need to do to make things right?
Stage One
In the case of a complaint by a parent/guardian that his/ her child is the victim of bullying by another child in the school, the concern should in the first instance be raised with the relevant teacher. Unless the incident is of a very serious nature, it will be dealt with by the relevant teacher who will talk to the children involved. As part of the investigation, the teacher will continue to observe and keep a record of any further incidents. In investigating the allegation of bullying the teacher will exercise professional judgment to determine whether the behaviour is bullying.
In the case that the teacher establishes the bullying has occurred, he/she will inform all the parents and start a record of any further incidents. The purpose of this record is:
To aid memory by recording details of the incident
For clarity in assessment of the situation
For planning and intervention
When dealing with bullying the primary aim of the teacher is to resolve any issues and to restore, as far as is practicable, the relationships of the pupils involved by:
Making it clear to the child that the behaviour is in breach of the anti-bullying policy
Trying to get the child who bullied to see the situation from other child’s point of view.
Focusing SPHE lessons on bullying, including dramas about how a child deals with bullying
Arranging friendship groups to assist the child to develop social skills
The child who has bullied will be praised for any efforts made to restore the relationship with the child who they bullied. This includes praise from the teacher, the principal and phone calls to the parents telling them about how much their child is trying to make things right.
The teacher will continue to monitor and record the child’s behaviour and engage with the parents so they can reinforce and support the actions of the school. Should the action taken at this stage prove not to have resolved the issue, the staff will proceed to stage two.
Stage Two
The Principal will arrange to meet with the parents of the child who is seen to be bullying and separately with the parents of the victim of bullying.
The Principal will:
Make it clear to the child that their behaviour is in breach of the school’s anti-bullying policy
Try to get the child who bullied to appreciate the situation from the other child’s point of view.
Organise a Behavioural Plan meeting with the teacher and parents, with the objective of setting up an IB plan for the child, with SMART targets. The child’s behaviour in all areas is monitored during the day. All positive behaviour, progress on work etc will also be noted. A review of the reports will be carried out on a weekly basis by the Principal.
Request the assistance of parents to supervise their child during play time
Stage 3
It is the duty of the school to provide a safe environment for all the children. Should the above interventions fail and the bullying continue, it will be dealt with as a serious misbehaviour and the procedures outlined in the school’s Code of Behaviour will be followed. Furthermore, in cases where the relevant teacher considers that the bullying behaviour has not been adequately and appropriately addressed within 20 school days after he/she has determined that bullying behaviour has occurred, it must be recorded by the relevant teacher in the recording template at Appendix 3
The school’s programme of support for working with pupils affected by bullying is as follows
The child who is the victim of bullying will also meet with the Principal and his/her parents. The aim of such a meeting will be to address emotional needs and devise strategies for the child to deal with the bullying. Strategies include increased
circle time discussions,
S.P.H.E lessons on tackling bullying and building confidence and self-esteem
role play dramas to allow children to explore assertiveness.
Stay Safe Programme and RSE lessons on respect
Follow up meetings will be organised between the children by the relevant teacher, with a view to restoring the relationships when the teacher judges that the children are ready for such a meeting.
Supervision and Monitoring of Pupils
The Board of Management confirms that appropriate supervision and monitoring policies and practices are in place to both prevent and deal with bullying behaviour and to facilitate early intervention where possible.
Prevention of 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 pupils or staff or the harassment of pupils 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.
This policy was adopted by the Board of Management on ___25/01/2023_____________ .
This policy has been made available to school personnel, published on the school website (or where none exists, is otherwise readily accessible to parents and pupils on request) and provided to the Parents’ Association (where one exists). A copy of this policy will be made available to the Department and the patron if requested.
This policy and its implementation will be reviewed by the Board of Management. The board of management minutes will record that the principal provides a report to the board at least once a term on the overall number of bullying cases reported (by means of the bullying recording template provided in the Procedures) since the previous report to the board. Written notification that the review has been completed will be made available to school personnel, published on the school website. A record of the review and its outcome will be made available, if requested, to the patron and the Department.
___________________________________ __________________________________
Ms Sarah Cosgrave Mrs Catherine Coady
Chairperson of the Board of Management Principal
St. John’s N.S., Church Road, Ballybrack St. John’s N.S., Church Road, Ballybrack
Appendix 1 Template for recording bullying behaviour
1. Name of pupil being bullied and class group
Name _________________________________________Class__________________
2. Name(s) and class(es) of pupil(s) engaged in bullying behaviour
_________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
3. Source of bullying concern/report (tick relevant box(es))*
4. Location of incidents (tick relevant box(es))*
Pupil concerned
Playground
Other Pupil
Classroom
Parent
Corridor
Teacher
Toilets
Other
School Bus
Other
5. Name of person(s) who reported the bullying concern
6. Type of Bullying Behaviour (tick relevant box(es)) *
Physical Aggression
Cyber-bullying
Damage to Property
Intimidation
Isolation/Exclusion
Malicious Gossip
Name Calling
Other (specify)
7. Where behaviour is regarded as identity-based bullying, indicate the relevant category:
Homophobic
Disability/SEN related
Racist
Membership of Traveller community
Other (specify)
8. Brief Description of bullying behaviour and its impact
Details of actions taken
Signed ______________________________ (Relevant Teacher) Date ___________________________
Date submitted to Principal/Deputy Principal ___________________
Appendix 2 Checklist for annual review of the anti-bullying policy and its implementation
The Board of Management (the Board) must undertake an annual review of the school’s anti-bullying policy and its implementation. The following checklist must be used for this purpose. The checklist is an aid to conducting this review and is not intended as an exhaustive list. In order to complete the checklist, an examination and review involving both quantitative and qualitative analysis, as appropriate across the various elements of the implementation of the school’s anti-bullying policy will be required.
Yes /No
Has the Board formally adopted an anti-bullying policy that fully complies with the requirements of the Anti-Bullying Procedures for Primary and Post-Primary Schools?
Has the Board published the policy on the school website and provided a copy to the parents’ association?
Has the Board ensured that the policy has been made available to school staff (including new staff)?
Is the Board satisfied that school staff are sufficiently familiar with the policy and procedures to enable them to effectively and consistently apply the policy and procedures in their day to day work?
Has the Board ensured that the policy has been adequately communicated to all pupils?
Has the policy documented the prevention and education strategies that the school applies?
Have all of the prevention and education strategies been implemented?
Has the effectiveness of the prevention and education strategies that have been implemented been examined?
Is the Board satisfied that all teachers are recording and dealing with incidents in accordance with the policy?
Has the Board received and minuted the periodic summary reports of the Principal?
Has the Board discussed how well the school is handling all reports of bullying including those addressed at an early stage and not therefore included in the Principal’s periodic report to the Board?
Has the Board received any complaints from parents regarding the school’s handling of bullying incidents?
Have any parents withdrawn their child from the school citing dissatisfaction with the school’s handling of a bullying situation?
Have any Ombudsman for Children investigations into the school’s handling of a bullying case been initiated or completed?
Has the data available from cases reported to the Principal (by the bullying recording template) been analysed to identify any issues, trends or patterns in bullying behaviour?
Has the Board identified any aspects of the school’s policy and/or its implementation that require further improvement?
Has the Board put in place an action plan to address any areas for improvement?
Signed _____________________________________ Date ________________
Chairperson, Board of Management
Signed _____________________________________ Date ________________
Principal
Aoppendix 3 Notification regarding the Board of Management’s annual review of the anti-bullying policy
To: _____________________________________
The Board of Management of ____________________ wishes to inform you that:
The Board of Management’s annual review of the school’s anti-bullying policy and its implementation was completed at the Board meeting of _______________ [date].
This review was conducted in accordance with the checklist set out in Appendix 4 of the Department’s Anti-Bullying Procedures for Primary and Post-Primary Schools.
Signed _____________________________________ Date ________________
Chairperson, Board of Management
Signed _____________________________________ Date ________________
Principal
Appendix 3
TEACHING RESOURCES
Stay Safe Programme
Alive-O Programme
Walk Tall
Eartrhlinks
Self-Esteem Amelia Ruscoe Skills to Build self-worth Prim-Ed
These lessons specifically deal with issues related to bullying.
• Why won’t you play with me
• What to do when you are left out
• Accepting people as they are
• Did you hear about
• Other people’s feelings
• Getting a ‘hard time’
• Joking and teasing
• Why do people tease?
• When should I tell the teacher?
• Keeping out of trouble
• We can all get along
101 Games for Social Skills Jenny Mosley and Helen Sonnett
LIBRARY RESOURCES FOR CHILDREN
• Feelings – Brave – Janine Amos
Stories about feelings and how to cope with them
• The Bully – Roderick Hunt, Alex Brychta
• The Skin I’m In – Pat Thomas
A first Look at Racism
• Who cares about – Disabled People? Child’s Play Series
• Who cares about race and colour? Child’s Play Series
• Joe’s Special Story
Deals with the issue of adoption
• I’m Me and You are You
Appendix 4
Restorative questions are designed to encourage the wrongdoer to think about their actions and how they have affected others.
When challenging behavior the following questions are to be used:
• What happened?
• What were you thinking of at the time?
• What have you thought about since?
• Who has been affected by what you have done?
• In what way have they been affected?
• What do you think you need to do to make things right?
To help those affected the following questions are to be used:
• What did you think when you realized what had happened?
• What impact has this incident had on you and others?
• What has been the hardest thing for you?
• What do you think needs to happen to make things right?