Anti-Bullying

Our school take a firm stand against any form of bullying and our full Anti-Bullying Policy is available in the Policies section of our website.

What is Bullying ?

We define bullying “as a deliberate or persistent action leading to physical or emotional upset for another student”.

This definition correlates with that of the Anti-Bullying Alliance’s definition of “the repetitive, intentional hurting of one person by another person or group”.

We recognise that bullying can come in many different forms:

  • Physical; Eg – pushing, shoving, tripping up, kicking, spitting, etc.
  • Emotional; Eg – humiliating someone, isolating someone, name-calling, using insulting names or comments, etc.
  • Prejudice; Eg – homophobia, racism, misogyny, victimisation for special needs or disabilities, etc.
  • Indirect; Eg – spreading rumours, random vandalism, etc.
  • Cyberbullying Eg – via mobile phone, via internet, etc.

We do not recognise bullying to be a one-off falling out or confrontation. 

What Anti-Bullying Strategies Do We Use ?

We can promise care, confidentiality and subtlety in dealing with every reported incident. This applies to incidents in school, out of school and online. Both students and parents should be 100% assured that we take bullying very seriously.

We foster an anti-bullying climate through a wide range of strategies including:

  • Staff will model respectful behaviour through day-to-day interactions.
  • Maintain an on-going dialogue about acceptable / non-acceptable conduct in relationships; for example, respecting one another, recognising particular individual needs and disabilities, using displayed to communicate key messages, etc.
  • Maintain anti-bullying themes into our pastoral programme; Eg – assemblies, tutor times, etc.
  • Maintain anti-bullying themes in our Focus Week programme; Eg – National Anti-Bullying Week, Holocaust Memorial Week, Internet Safety Day, etc.
  • Maintain anti-bullying themes in our PSHEE programme.
  • Systemically publicise reporting options for bullying – with whole-day support available via our Student Supports facility.
  • Liaise with national organisations to develop and improve anti-bullying practice; Eg – Kidscape, etc.
  • Apply restorative justice interventions to anti-bullying (where appropriate) to better secure accountability and closure in any incidents.

What Should You Do If You / Your Child is Being Bullied ?

There is always a risk that students and parents wrongly decide not to report their concerns for fear of making things worse. This is a real mistake and does not teach a sensible response for school or adult life.

Likewise, occasionally an on-going issue from primary school is wrongly not flagged up immediately and is allowed to fester in our school without redress.

The bottom line is that we would encourage all students and parents to speak up about any problems they are facing by either:

  • Speaking to your Tutor.
  • Speaking to Student Support.
  • Speaking to your Head of House.
  • Speaking to any member of staff who you feel comfortable with.
  • Emailing stopbullying@friaryschool.co.uk.

How Will Bullying Be Dealt With ?

Most bullying will be dealt with by the Student Support Team – although pastoral and senior leaders will always be made aware of any serious concerns – and their work will usually follow these steps:

  • Interview the students involved and take statements if necessary.
  • Log the ‘bullying’ in order to record the incident.
  • Contact the parents of both parties and involve outside agencies if required.
  • Decide on a suitable sanction and follow-up intervention / support for the perpetrator.
  • Determine if and when on-going intervention / support will be required for the victim.
  • Monitor the children involved and review in a specified time-frame to make sure there are no repercussions.

We pay particular attention towards bullying connected to prejudice – such as homophobia, racism and misogyny – and staff record these as a specific Safeguarding concern whenever it is identified.

Occasionally, an incident may be dealt with successfully, and go quiet for weeks, months or even years, before a flare-up happening and in these cases we would urge students and parents to flag up the issue immediately. It is far better to nip these problems in the bud rather than address them once they have already escalated.

Further Information

Further information about bullying can be accessed via:

Further information about E-Safety can be accessed via:

If you have further concerns about bullying then please contact Michelle Simpson, Assistant Headteacher, via office@friaryschool.co.uk.