Anti Bullying Statement

At Uplands School we recognise that bullying happens, and it could happen here. Bullying is not acceptable, no matter what form it takes, and we will address concerns as they arise. The negative impact of bullying can be lifelong as well as impacting on short term outcomes and engagement and attendance at school.

To help our students understand what bullying is, why it shouldn’t happen and how to deal with situations of bullying as they arise, we believe we need to educate our students well. They need to know what the different types of bullying are and be confident in reporting their concerns to staff and know that their concerns will be heard and acted upon. In turn our staff need to know what to do when a student raises a concern and how to report it so that appropriate help and support can be provided to the students.

How we educate our students about bullying

The approach and steps we take to addressing bullying as we discover it is contained in our Anti-bullying Policy. Our approach to helping students understand about positive relationships and curriculum to develop their understanding of these and what bullying is, the impact of bullying and how to prevent it and respond to it, is also found within our Personal, Social, Health and Citizenship Education (PSHCE) and Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) Policy and curriculum. At Uplands School, PSHCE and RSE is a core subject, recognising its importance in supporting our students’ safe and healthy development. Dedicated whole class or one to one lessons give students opportunities to learn and test out their understanding about each type of bullying, as appropriate. As a school we ensure that conversations about types of bullying happen regularly; through our spiral PSHCE and RSE curriculum and through other curriculum areas and learning opportunities as they occur, as well as through whole school assemblies on themes such as British Values and online safety.

How we find out the scale of the issues and monitor bullying

We also, as a school need to understand the scale of the problem, the nature of any bullying that occurs and have in place an agreed approach to dealing with it which is deeply understood. We draw together information from our reporting systems termly, both from that which staff place on our recording systems but also that drawn from our forensic software. This allows us to understand what the nature of the bullying is, who is doing it and the severity of the concern. Our staff reporting system ‘Behaviour Watch’ is a vehicle for all staff to record concerns as they arise, and they are trained to do so at induction and through ongoing refresher training. Forensic software tracks all staff and students’ use of the internet and documents and captures phrases or terminology of concern. Reports are routinely sent to the Designated Safeguarding Lead and their Deputies to review and to consider what action to take next. Should marker comments related to bullying be seen through either reporting mechanism, leaders will address this using our anti-bullying policy and safeguarding procedures. Our Designated Safeguarding Lead and their Deputies lead on this work.

Reporting and Oversight

Leaders reflect on all safeguarding and bullying matters routinely in their leadership and safeguarding meetings. The Head teacher will then additionally formally report on the types, frequency and severity of bullying at local governing committee meetings.