Anti Bullying

There is no legal definition of bullying. But it is usually defined as repeated behaviour which is intended to hurt someone either emotionally or physically and is often aimed at certain people because of their race, religion, gender or sexual orientation or any other aspect such as appearance or disability.

Bullying can take many forms including:

• Physical e.g. fighting, pushing, taking belongings
• Social bullying e.g. name calling, excluding from a group, making insulting remarks
• Threatening behaviour e.g. ‘ganging up’ on someone, threatening to hurt them, blackmail / extortion
• Cyberbullying e.g. texting, use of social media

Cyberbullying can also be referred to as online bullying, which is via social networking sites, gaming sites, chat rooms or anywhere online. Irrespective of whether the bullying takes place in person or online, it is still bullying and must be reported. If you are being bullied online, make your parents / carers aware straight away, and if possible block the person sending unkind message. As soon as possible, make someone in school aware.

You MUST report bullying as soon as possible. There is no need for anyone to ‘suffer in silence’ as we have a huge amount of support available for you. Please either report the bullying to any adult in school or use the ‘Tell Us’ in the top right hand corner of this page to report the bullying.

It is important that you talk to your child about your concerns and try to gather as much information as possible, particularly the names of the bullies. It is also helpful to find out when and where the incident(s) happened and the names of any witnesses. You should try to encourage your child to speak to a member of staff they feel comfortable with at school. With the permission of your child the bullying can then be investigated and dealt with.

People who are being bullied can feel really distressed and it can have a serious impact on their life. Below is some things you can do if you are worried that a friend is experiencing bullying at school.

• Report the bullying using the ‘Tell Us’ button in the top right hand corner of this website.
• If you are at school, let a teacher know what you suspect is taking place
• Go with the person being bullied and back up what they say to the teacher
• Tell your parents or an adult you trust

• At The Farnley Academy we have a zero-tolerance bullying policy. However, we do recognise that confronting the bullies could make the situation worse. As long as the safety of your child or any other is not at risk we are happy to deal with the problem as your child wishes. This may mean simply monitoring the situation or we can do a full investigation. This will involve collecting statements from all students concerned, including witnesses. On receiving these, we will do an investigation to establish the facts and from these sanctions will be given if necessary.
• It is important to be aware that whilst all unkind actions towards any members of our community are unacceptable, and will be sanctioned, a single unkind act does may not automatically constitute bullying. The Farnley Academy keeps careful records of all unkind behaviours between peers. These records are kept in order to establish patters of unkind behaviour that would constitute ‘confirmed bullying’.

The first priority in any report of bullying is your welfare. We will want to support you in whatever way you need. This may include support through your form tutor, Student Progress and Wellbeing Manager, Inclusion and Safeguarding Officer, GIPSIL Counselling Service, or even with a short term place in our Personalised Learning Centre.

We will continue to monitor any instances of confirmed bullying to ensure that there are no further issues. We will also ensure that the person who carried out the bullying is provided with education (following on from their sanction) in respect of why the behaviour they exhibited was unacceptable.