Rating description:
- Fully met: There are a range of methods for to report bullying that meet the needs of all pupils, including those with communication impairments.
- Partially met: There are two methods to report bullying but we don’t know if they meet the needs of all pupils.
- Not yet met: We do not have a range of methods to report bullying and it does not meet the needs of all pupils.
Tips:
- The ability to report and record incidents of bullying behaviour is a crucial part of any anti-bullying strategy. Schools and other settings need to encourage and make it as easy as possible for children and young people to report bullying incidents.
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Discuss whether there should be designated members of staff to manage bullying complaints. Be clear on timescales for responding to incidents, who you will involve, and what the different outcomes might be. How will you record incidents to establish patterns and provide evidence of action?
- Having a ‘one size fits all’ approach is unhelpful when supporting children and young people who experience bullying behaviour. Therefore having a range of reporting and recording mechanisms is important. In all cases of bullying behaviour, it is necessary to act quickly, but even more so if you have a child who may find it difficult communicating or remembering what has happened.
Resources and examples:
You can see tools and case studies in the attachments section below.
Schools who took part in our programmes said:
The school decided to invest in WHISPER an online anonymous reporting system. The system allows students to report concerns and then a messaging service allows further information/advice to be delivered. This has been advertised to all stakeholders and a number of posters are visible in each classroom.
We have introduced the Tootoot platform as another method in reporting incident or concerns. This, along with the other ways in which children can report incidents has been added to our policy and is soon to be advertised around school.
A feelings box is used by children who do not feel confident to approach an adult. We also have action teams led by children encourage children to speak to each other i.e. 'mood club' where children can talk about their feeings.
Each class now has a 'feelings scale' where they can move their name to the their corresponding feeling, the teacher can then address any issues.
We have a child friendly form for the children, which uses symbols to support SEN children.
Makaton sigining, storyboards, discussions with members of staff and the School Incident Bullying Form are some of the ways that bullying can be reported.
Peer mentors were asked to select from a series of ways to report bullying. They decided the three best ways would be: 1. report to an adult. 2. report to a peer mentor. 3. Use the antibullying email address. So we selected these three ways as a school and these were communicated to pupils via assemblies & parents via a stand at each parents evening. Later in the year we also tried a worry box, which was monitored by our team of peer mentors. Next year, based on the low numbers of students seeking out peer mentors, we will be using a referral and buddy system for them, which should make them far more visiable to our most vulnerable students.