Anti-Bullying Policy

This Policy should be read in conjunction with the school’s Behaviour Policy and Exclusions Policy.

Statement of intent

Kaleide International School aims to be a caring school, a place where everyone –children, staff, parents, and other community members– treat others fairly, with respect, empathy and kindness, and act in a socially responsible way towards all members of the school community, including people with special education needs. It is an inclusive community where diversity is affirmed within a framework of common values, and where all members participate in decision making and cooperate to promote everyone's well-being. We believe the school must provide not only a safe and protective environment, but one in which children feel a sense of belonging and love, and where their self-esteem is strengthened.

Our “human scale” helps educators and children develop bonds of trust, and bullying behaviour, should it occur, is much more likely to be noticed and remedial action to be taken promptly. We strive to give children opportunities to bring up incidents at weekly school meetings, as well as through conversations with educators and other children, and to resolve them in an empathetic and non-judgemental way. Our school culture also models respect through the acceptance of others and the appreciation of our differences.

We are aware that being bullied may lead to depression or, in the most serious cases, attempted suicide. It can also cause anxiety, depression, loneliness and lack of trust in adult life. Bullying hurts. No-one deserves to be a victim of bullying. Everybody has the right to be treated with respect. Pupils who are bullying need to learn different ways of behaving.

Aims

• To help individuals celebrate and value their differences and to acknowledge and respect the differences of others;

• To encourage everyone to view themselves as an important part of the school community where their participation is valued and their views appreciated;

• To promote in everyone a positive attitude and healthy self-esteem;

• To foster emotional awareness and empathy;

• To help individuals to understand and accept the consequences of their own actions;

• To develop a programme whereby all incidents of bullying and harassment are dealt with fairly and appropriately within a no-blame approach;

• To help everyone feel secure in reporting incidents of bullying.

Objectives

1. To establish a school culture of trust and openness where children feel safe communicating with adults and sharing incidents related to bullying;

2. To communicate effectively to all members of the school community the school’s stance on bullying;

3. To communicate effectively to all members of the school community the school’s policy and procedures;

4. To work with staff so that they can identify different sorts of bullying and know how to deal with cases sensitively, non-judgementally and effectively;

5. To work with children in a range of ways so they are adequately equipped with skills, values and knowledge to counter and deal with bullying.

Definition of bullying

“Bullying is a relationship between individuals or groups over a period of time during which one party behaves in a way which might meet needs for excitement, status, material gain or group process without recognising or meeting the needs and rights of the other people/person who are harmed by the behaviour. The person or group that is harmed does not have the resources, status, skill, or ability to counteract or stop the harmful behaviour.” (Barbara Maines and George Robinson, The No Blame Approach to Bullying)

The key features of bullying are:

1. It is repetitive (happens again and again)

2. It is deliberate (not accidental)

3. It is unfair (the person who bullies is stronger and more powerful, or there are more of them)

Bullying can occur through several types of anti-social behaviour:

• Physical: a child may be physically punched, kicked, hit, spat at, etc;

• Verbal: verbal abuse can take the form of name-calling or teasing. It may be directed towards gender, ethnic origin, physical or social disability or personality;

• Psychological: intimidating, coercion, teasing, extortion, discrimination (racial, religious, etc.);

• Sexual: unwanted physical contact or sexually abusive comments;

• Indirect: spreading rumours, exclusion, ostracising, stalking;

• Damage to property or theft: pupils may have their property damaged or stolen. The bully may resort to physical threats in order for that property to be handed over to him or her;

• Cyber bullying: involves all areas of the internet, such as email, text messages and chat rooms, and social media. It can be particularly harmful because it can happen anywhere and at any time.

What bullying is not

• Mutual conflict: an argument or disagreement between children where there is no imbalance of power. Both parties are upset and usually both want a resolution to the problem. However, unresolved mutual conflict may develop into bullying if one of the children seeks “retaliation” in a one-sided way.

• Being left out: is unrealistic to think that every child must like to be with every other child. Refusing to play with a particular child or, for example, not inviting them to a birthday party is not bullying, provided social rejection does not involve deliberate and repeated attempts to cause distress, exclude or create dislike by others. Only when someone is ostracised or deliberately excluded, does being left out become bullying.

• Single-episode acts of nastiness or meanness, or random acts of aggression or intimidation: although we shall always seek to address this kind of unkind behaviour, a single episode of nastiness, physical aggression, teasing or an occasional push or shove is not bullying. But when teasing becomes cruel and repetitive, it crosses the line into bullying.

• Not playing fair: it is normal for children to insist on getting their own way and act “bossy”. Only when a child begins to consistently threaten other children or physically hurt them when things don't go his/her way does this become bullying.

The role of the school

As educators, we acknowledge our role in modelling appropriate social and emotional skills in children. We strive to create a school culture based on trust and empathy, an environment that is welcoming to difference and diversity and is based on inclusion and respect.

The way in which adults react to bullying contributes to the caring culture of the school and can help to make it more or less likely that bullying will happen in the future. Ignoring the problem will help it flourish, whilst a heavy handed approach can drive it underground. We believe a positive, non-judgemental response will encourage children to speak up about matters that concern them and will improve the learning environment by promoting more caring and responsible patterns of behaviour.

At Kaleide International School, we avoid using punishment and rewards as tools for managing children's behaviour. When behaviour problems arise, facilitators do not isolate or reprimand the child, and instead encourage him or her to discuss the problem with an adult, and with the children involved. We believe it is only by the development of “higher values” such as empathy, consideration, and unselfishness, that the bully is likely to relinquish his/her behaviour and function differently in a social setting.

Prevention of bullying at our school is grounded on a “no blame” approach (see Appendix I), and on the principles of restorative justice (see Appendix II). At the heart of all restorative justice is the goal of restoring the harm caused by an offence rather than punishing the crime. Restorative practices is an emerging social science that studies how to strengthen relationships between individuals as well as social connections within communities.

Children will be encouraged to bring up issues of bullying –however incipient–at the school's circles as part of our whole school policy. The meeting system at Kaleide International School constitutes an ideal environment to learn dispute resolution, reflective dialogue, community discussion, awareness and democracy in action. It encourages children's ability to question, ask, challenge, compromise and negotiate both with their peers and the adults who support them.

The weekly circles create a safe space to explore issues of concern, create emotional awareness, enhance effective communication and affirm the values of caring and respect of our school community, by encouraging children to:

• focus on their own feelings and those of others and develop empathy;

• listen to one another and respect others’ views;

• learn to take turns;

• discuss difficult issues using a problem-solving approach.

Strategies for staff

We see children's behaviour as a visible projection of their emotional well-being and facilitators should strive to address the roots of behavioural problems by working closely with the parents. In cases related to a recurrent issue, strategies to better support the child may be put in place in a transparent and consensual manner.

In terms of prevention, facilitators will resort to a specific range of interventions (based on the work of Ferre Laevers at the Centre for Experiential Education) in order to improve the level of well-being in individual children and start off “release processes”.

In relation to bullying, staff will watch for early signs of distress in students. This could be evident in any aspect of school life. All staff follow five key points:

1. Never ignore suspected bullying.

2. Do not make premature assumptions.

3. Listen carefully and non-judgementally to all accounts.

4. Adopt a problem-solving approach that moves pupils on from self-justification.

5. Follow up repeatedly, checking that bullying has not resumed.

All cases of suspected bullying must be reported –by students, facilitators or parents– in the first instance to the pedagogical team, and to the Director.

All incidents of bullying –inside or outside school– involving children from Kaleide International School can be brought up at a circle and children will be involved in finding a solution, in line with our no blame approach and restorative justice practices. The facilitator/s involved will write a brief summary of the incident and its outcomes, and share it with the pedagogical team and the Managing Director.

Strategies for children

Children at Kaleide International School are encouraged to express their emotions and reflect on difficult situations as a group. Whenever a case of bullying occurs, it will be one of the issues brought up at the next circle, and specific attention will be devoted to it. A proposed strategy –based on restorative practices– for all the children involved will be as follows:

• What happened?

• What were you thinking/feeling at the time?

• What are you thinking/feeling now?

• Who’s been affected by what happened and how?

• What do you/they need?

• What needs to happen to make things right?

Children –especially the older ones– are also encouraged to take on the role of Mediators in cases of conflict. Mediators will be expected to support and empower younger children in the reporting of bullying.

Strategies for parents

Kaleide International School involves parents and considers them as an integral part of the school. Parents' participation is just as essential as the participation of children and facilitators, and we function as a “three-party system” within the community at large. Throughout the year facilitators meet with parents to discuss all areas of their child's development –including aspects related to emotional well-being.

We want to foster effective and open lines of communication with families and share with them whatever information might be of benefit to their children. In relation to the prevention of bullying:

• Information about the school’s anti-bullying policy and procedures will be published on the school's website;

• Any concerns raised by parents will be empathetically heard and investigated;

• Parents of both victims and bullies will be supported.

Often, rather than telling an adult, children may indicate by signs and symptoms that they are the victims of bullying. Parents should be aware of these possible signs and should investigate if a child:

• is frightened of walking to or from school;

• begs not to be taken to school;

• changes the usual routine;

• is unwilling to come to school;

• becomes withdrawn, anxious or lacking in confidence;

• cries him/herself to sleep or has nightmares;

• feels ill in the morning;

• begins to show less engagement in activities;

• comes home with clothes or possessions damaged;

• starts stealing money;

• has dinner or other money “lost” frequently;

• has unexplained cuts and bruises;

• comes home starving [more so than is usual];

• becomes aggressive or unreasonable;

• is bullying siblings or other children;

• stops eating;

• is frightened to say what is wrong;

• is afraid to use the mobile phone [or internet];

• appears unhappy / anxious / fearful;

• stammers;

• wets his/her bed;

Parents are encouraged to seek help from the pedagogical team whenever they suspect their child is being bullied or is bullying someone else.

Monitoring and evaluation

All reported cases of bullying will be recorded by the facilitator involved, who together with the Director will undertake to:

1. keep records confidential (in compliance with General Data Protection Regulation (EU GDPR) and secure;

2. ensure that all reported cases of bullying are resolved to the satisfaction of the individuals concerned.

Appendix I

The No Blame Approach

Kaleide International School implements a “no blame” approach to instances of bullying, in line with the work of Barbara Maines and George Robinson. We believe bullying is an antisocial behaviour resorted to by young people with low levels of well-being, and inadequate or inappropriate social skills; our response to it should help children learn better strategies to relate to their peers. Punishing the bully rarely works; and, in fact, may make things worse when the bully takes further revenge on the victim. In this sense, we find that increasing a bully's anxiety and alienation from us is not the best way to help him/her.

Although we use the terms “bully” and “victim” in this policy, we do not think it is helpful to use them as labels in school. We know that to call a young person by any name must affect his/her self-image and must be difficult for parents to accept when we want to work cooperatively with them.

Our approach is to focus on the victim's feelings, rather than to investigate or interrogate the bully, as we believe that focusing attention on a victim’s feelings can draw attention away from blame. For adults, it's not about condemning but being curious, open-minded and inquisitive so that children feel comfortable about explaining their experiences. Bullying is in itself an abstraction, a cover for concrete actions and experiences, and these are the ones we need to understand to make changes.

We believe that the interventions which are likely to combat bullying in schools demand much more from us than the impeccable intention to convey to bullies that their behaviour is unacceptable. We believe the primary focus of our plan to reduce bullying should be upon the feelings and status of the bully. By involving the peer group, colluders and bystanders, it is possible to enhance the empathic responses of healthy members of the group. This in turn has an effect on the behaviour of the group leader who no longer has the group's consent to behave in a bullying manner.

We do not differentiate between “bullying by an individual” and “mobbing by a group”. This is because we are describing situations in which, even if the bully is operating solo, her behaviour is usually witnessed in some way by others. If the witness supports the bully, however passive that support might be, then the behaviour is in some way owned by the whole group and the strengths of the group can be enabled in order to confront the behaviour.

If an adult who is in a position of power uses his/her authority to stop the bullying, then it may have a short-term effect upon that particular situation but it is unlikely to change the status or identity of the bully and the victim. There may well be a risk that the victim is further damaged because the bully was thwarted: “I will get you later!”.

Facilitators need to try to set aside any feelings of retribution towards the bully. Our aim is not justice or morality; it is to change behaviour and thus achieve the best outcome for the victim. The use of power to stop the bully may confirm to the bully that power can be used to intimidate the weak, and to suggest to the victim that in order to protect themselves they need to be more powerful, which may leave them even more powerless. Even less helpful is to ask students to explain why they behave in a certain way. It is very hard to explain our actions, maybe impossible in a way which will satisfy an adult.

The crucial element that should not be overlooked is the potentially pro-active role of those who observe and/or collude.

When bullying has been observed or reported, the following steps can be taken:

• Step one: interview with the victim. When a facilitator finds out that bullying has happened she starts by talking to the victim about his/her feelings. She does not question him/her about the incidents but she does need to know who was involved.

• Step two: convene a meeting with the people involved. The facilitator arranges to meet with the group of pupils who have been involved. This will include some bystanders or colluders who joined in but did not initiate any bullying. A group of six to eight young people can work well.

• Step three: explain the problem. She tells them about the way the victim is feeling and might use a poem, a piece of writing or a drawing to emphasise his/her distress. At no time does she discuss the details of the incidents or allocate blame to the group.

• Step four: share responsibility. The facilitator does not attribute blame but states that she knows that the group are responsible and can do something about it.

• Step five: ask the group for their ideas. Each member of the group is encouraged to suggest a way in which the victim could be helped to feel happier. The facilitator gives some positive responses but she does not go on to extract a promise of improved behaviour.

• Step six: leave it up to them. The facilitator ends the meeting by passing over the responsibility to the group to solve the problem. She arranges to meet with them again to see how things are going.

• Step seven: meet them again. About a week later, the facilitator discusses with each student, including the victim, how things have been going. This allows the facilitator to monitor the bullying and keeps the young people involved in the process.

When a pupil is seriously assaulted by another, then the usual sanctions must be applied, even reporting the aggression to the Dirección Territorial o Insular de Educación if necessary. This does not mean that the “no blame approach” cannot be tried as well, since the particular incident of violence would not be discussed. The issue addressed is the misery of the victim and how that might be alleviated.

Any young person who has poor social and friendship skills or who is very unassertive should be offered help and support in order to learn appropriate social interaction. This should not be implied as a responsibility to stop the bullying for themselves.

Appendix II

Restorative Justice

Inspired by indigenous values, restorative justice is a philosophy and a theory of justice that emphasises bringing together everyone affected by wrongdoing to address needs and responsibilities, and to heal the harm to relationships as much as possible. It is being applied in multiple contexts, including schools, families, workplaces, the justice system, global conflict, and as a tool to transform structural and historic harms.

Restorative justice acknowledges that when a person does harm to another person they also harm themselves and the whole community. When one person has harmed another it is more useful to seek to repair the harm done to the victim, than to cause further harm to the offender (Bazemore, 2001; Varnham, 2005; Wright, 1999).

Restorative justice is not only an alternative for dealing with conflict, but a proactive strategy to create a culture of connectivity where all members of the school community feel valued and thrive. Restorative justice is a profoundly relational practice.

Restorative justice in a school setting views inappropriate behaviour as harm to relationships within the school community rather than school rule breaking. This means the harm done to people and relationships needs to be explored and the harm needs to be repaired (Thorsborne and Cameron 2000). The questions restorative justice asks are essentially different from those asked by retributive justice:

Retributive Justice	Restorative Justice
What rule or law was broken?	What is the harm?
Who broke it?	What are the needs and obligations of all affected by the harm?
What punishment is deserved?	How can all the affected parties create a plan to heal the harm as much as possible?

The rationale behind this approach is that when offenders reflect upon their harm to victims:

• they become remorseful and act restoratively;

• practitioners can focus on the unacceptable behaviour of offenders rather than their moral character;

• this can lead to healthier interpersonal relations among members of the school community and more effective learning.

The basic practices of restorative justice can be summarised as follows:

• If crime hurts, justice should heal: the focus is on repairing harm if it has occurred.

• Nothing about us without us: those impacted feel welcome and safe to speak and participate.

• There is simply no substitute for the personal: building respectful relationships is foundational and an outcome of any process.

• This can work. I can live with it: agreements are made by consensus.

• I am willing to do this: participation is voluntary.

(Oakland Unified School District Restorative Justice Implementation Guide)