ANTI BULLYING POLICY
At Norton Summit Primary School we want all students to feel safe, therefore we take
bullying and harassment seriously.
NATIONALLY AGREED DEFINITIONS
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Bullying is repeated verbal, physical or social behaviour that is harmful and involves the misuse of
power by an individual or group towards one or more persons. Cyber-bullying refers to bullying
through information and communication technologies.
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Harassment is behaviour that targets an individual or group due to their identity, race, culture or
ethnic origin; religion; physical characteristics; gender; sexual orientation; marital, parenting or
economic status; age; and/or ability or disability, and that offends, humiliates, intimidates or
creates a hostile environment. Harassment may be an ongoing pattern of behaviour, or it may be a
single act.
EXAMPLES OF BULLYING
Physical: hitting, pushing, touching, grabbing, looks, stares, facial expressions, gestures, spitting, taking
or damaging property
Verbal or written: spoken or written insults, threats, suggestive comments, name-calling, unfair criticism,
spreading rumours
Cyber: using e-mail, voice and text messaging, social networking sites, photographic and video images
Graffiti: using pictures, tags or words
Social: forming groups to leave out, ignore and disrespect; influencing, encouraging or organising
someone else to be involved in any type of bullying or harassment.
STUDENT RESPONSE TO BULLYING
Firstly:
 Ignore the student bullying you and walk away
or
 Tell the person who is bullying you to stop and tell them clearly that you do not like what they are
doing or saying. Do not answer back with verbal or physical violence.
If the bullying continues:
 Tell a friend, Peer Mediator or CPSW who may be able to support you in talking to the person who
is bullying you
If the bullying continues:
 Seek help from your classroom teacher or the Yard Duty teacher. Tell them exactly what happened
and decide with them what action will be taken.
 Tell your parents/caregivers what happened
If bullying continues:
 Seek help from the Principal
 The Principal will contact parents and discuss further action
If you see someone being bullied, help them to follow these steps.
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PARENT RESPONSE TO BULLYING
If you think that your child is being bullied or harassed, take the following steps:
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Listen calmly to your child
Find out what happened, who was involved, where it happened and if anyone else saw, read or
heard it
Talk with your child about what could be done
Make a note of what your child tells you to help you when you talk to the school staff
Speak to your child’s teacher and discuss strategies to prevent further bullying
If bullying continues, speak to the Principal
If the issue is not resolved after trying all of the above, you may contact the Regional Director of
the Adelaide Hills Region on 8391 4705 – refer to the Parent Complaint Policy.
TEACHER RESPONSETO BULLYING
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Listen to the person who has been bullied
Talk to the person who has bullied others
Use Restorative Justice practices such as restorative conferences with students involved to work
through a process of rebuilding or restoring the relationships. Teachers do not use a ‘one size fits
all’ approach. Each incident of bullying is different, therefore each incident may be treated
differently and according to logical consequences.
Discussion with parents/caregivers as required and if there has been physical violence.
Recording of incidents and outcomes.
Monitoring of situation and follow up
Logical consequences for bullying may include:
 Written and or verbal apology
 Time Out of the yard or classroom
 Time Out / Reflection sheet in the Principal’s office. Parent notified.
 Conference with parents, student, teacher, Principal.
 Loss of Privileges
 Take Home – (sent home from school)
 Suspension
 Exclusion
 Expulsion
Restorative Justice
We use the Restorative Justice practices in order to rebuild and restore the relationships when there’s been
an issue between students. When working to resolve issues with students within a restorative framework,
teachers facilitate collaborative conversations with and between students. Our goal is to restore the
relationships between individuals having reached agreements about future behaviour with apologies and
efforts to redress wrongs and with agreed consequences for breaking the agreements.
Restorative Questions are used to facilitate the conversation when something’s gone wrong:
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What happened?
What were you thinking at the time?
What have you thought about since?
Who has been affected by what you did?
In what way?
What do you think you need to do to make things right?
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Further clarifying questions might be:
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What
What
What
What
did you think when you realised what had happened?
impact has this incident had on you and others?
has been the hardest thing for you?
do you think needs to happen to make things right?
SCHOOL APPROACH TO BULLYING
Prevention strategies include:
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Using the curriculum to teach students about respectful relationships and civics and citizenship
using social skills programs and the “Child Protection Curriculum”.
Developing programs to help students participate and have a say in their learning
Teaching students about violence prevention, conflict resolution, anger management and problem
solving and reviewing policies which promote student safety.
Teaching for and about diversity
Providing professional learning for staff in collaboration with local agencies. (eg. CAMHS, Social
Worker, CFYS, ISBM)
Intervention strategies include:
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Counselling students who have been bullied and using restorative practices
Counselling students who have bullied and using restorative practices
Discussing situation and strategies with parents/caregivers
Putting logical consequences in place for those who bully others
Teaching students to be better bystanders
Ensuring that all staff know how to address bullying effectively and respectfully
Post-intervention strategies include:
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Monitoring the situation between the students to ensure that their safety and wellbeing are
maintained
Talking with parents or caregivers about strategies
Reviewing yard procedures to make sure they are effective
Dealing with hotspots in the yard
Reviewing and evaluating behaviour codes and policies
FOR FURTHER AND ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
http://www.decd.sa.gov.au/speced2/pages/bullying/saferschools/
Further review and development of this policy will continue each year.
School Contact Details
Principal:
Phone:
Fax:
Street Address:
Region:
Email:
Website:
Julie Mattiske
08 8390 1771
08 8390 1063
Crescent Drive
Norton Summit SA 5136
Adelaide Hills
[email protected]
www.nortonps.sa.edu.au
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