Anti-bullying
Tackling and preventing bullying at Westerton Primary School
Pupils learn best when they feel safe and are happy at school. At Westerton we strive to reduce incidences of bullying, and deal with any bullying in a fair and consistent manner.
Anti-bullying week is highlighted in November each year through a whole-school assembly and that week’s PSHE lesson being a lesson about what bullying is and how pupils can help each other prevent it happening. Last year and this year key stage 1 pupils also enjoyed an entertaining yet highly informative anti-bullying play during the week. Class councillors, elected by each class, act as anti-bullying ambassadors during playtimes, and check that their peers are content and engaged with others at these recreational points of the school day. Friendship stops in our playgrounds assist the anti-bullying ambassadors in this work. Keeping parents informed of how we prevent and deal with bullying is of vital importance, and during our last parent consultations evenings a presentation about the school’s work in this area was shown for parents to view between appointments with their children’s teachers. This presentation is below. The school’s PSHE curriculum, from nursery to year 6, includes considerable learning about developing and maintaining positive friendships, tailored to each year group’s emotional maturity and level of development.
Recently, we have been truly proud of one of our year 6 pupils, who completed a moving piece of writing during PSHE about racist bullying. This piece of work has subsequently formed part of West Yorkshire Police’s anti-racism campaigns.
If potential bullying issues do arise at Westerton, our learning mentor can often offer small group or individual counselling sessions for pupils, as well as small friendship groups, to facilitate both bully and victim overcoming their problems and seeking ways to resolve to work and play together positively. As a school our use of restorative practices is emerging, with teaching, support and dinner supervisor staff receiving training. One of our aims of becoming restorative is to encourage pupils to develop their emotional literacy, and in particular their ability to empathise with their peers and interpret others’ feelings.
see also
