Statement of Philosophy

The Everest International School community is based on an ethos of mutual respect and consideration and is committed to providing a safe and happy learning environment for all.

We do not tolerate bullying, harassment, victimisation or discrimination of any kind and work hard to prevent these or to tackle them if they occur.

We understand our responsibility to encourage respect for other people, with particular regard to the protected characteristics under the U.K. Equality Act 2010.

We understand our statutory duty to promote the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of all our students. In accordance with the Education (Independent School Standards) (England) Regulations, 2014 Everest International school will ‘actively promote’ the fundamental British values of: Democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs alongside respect for equal rights, belief in personal and social responsibility and respect for British institutions.

Bullying is a whole school issue and we take a whole school approach in response. Any member of the community may bully or be a victim of bullying: we regard all incidences of bullying equally seriously and in turn expect all staff, students and parents to play their part in preventing and tackling bullying.

Aims of Policy

This policy aims to:

• Try and prevent bullying
• Help staff, pupils and parents deal with bullying when it occurs.

What do we mean by bullying?

The Department for Education defines bullying as ‘behaviour by an individual or group, repeated over time, that intentionally hurts another individual or group either physically or emotionally’.
It is often aimed at certain groups for example, because of race, religion, gender or sexual orientation.

This can include:

• Physically hurting or attempting to hurt, harm or humiliate another person or damaging their property
• Verbal abuse such as name-calling, taunting, mocking or writing unkind notes
• Emotional manipulation such as excluding someone or spreading malicious rumours about them, building negative alliances based on gossip, or deliberately betraying former
• confidences to humiliate or isolate another students
• Cyberbullying, i.e. via social networking websites, phone calls, text messages, photographs or emails
• Unpleasant remarks or actions related to any of the following:
  • Race, religion or culture
  • Sex (i.e. talking to or touching someone in a sexually inappropriate way)
  • Gender, gender identity or perceived gender identity
  • Sexual orientation (e.g. homophobic bullying)
  • Disability or Special Educational Needs
  • Intellectual or other abilities
  • Appearance or health conditions
  • Being adopted or a carer

Any behaviour that a reasonable bystander would say was intended to hurt or upset the victim is wrong and could constitute bullying, including complicity that may fall short of participating directly in the bullying. It is no justification that the perpetrator says or believes that the victim is not upset or hurt by his or her actions or words.
Much bullying is performed in subtle ways, which are not easy to detect; a bully can use a simple look, word or gesture to a victim to signal an intended threat or insult. Some students are adept at changing a bullying situation into an apparently harmless one when an adult approaches. This Makes it all the more important for the victim or another student to be able to come forward to report bullying, and for staff and parents to be alert to symptoms of bullying.

Bullying is always hurtful to the victim and damaging to the whole school community. Anyone and everyone who is involved in or witnesses bullying is affected by it. It can cause great distress, unhappiness and psychological damage and at its worst lead to suicide. It can also be a criminal offence, for example, if the behaviour amounts to harassment or threatening behaviour.

How does bullying differ from teasing or friendship difficulties?

Sometimes students can feel hurt or upset because they have been teased or have fallen out with a friend. This is not the same as bullying.

Bullying:

• Is deliberately intended to hurt or humiliate
• Involves a power imbalance that makes it hard for the victim to defend themselves
• Is usually persistent
• Often involves no remorse or acknowledgement of the victim’s feelings

School staff are ready to help and support students who have fallen out with friends, but such situations will not be treated in the same way as a case of bullying.
The strategies we use may be similar because we acknowledge that over a period of time the impact on the student may be the same, and the situation could become bullying if it escalates.

Preventing Bullying

We aim to prevent bullying by:

• Fostering a whole school ethos of positive behaviour, mutual respect, and consideration. We aim to create a safe, happy, and inclusive environment for learning
• Developing a culture in which diversity is championed and celebrated and in which the school takes a proactive role in educating students and other members of the school community on issues around equality
• Developing a culture in which the vulnerable are protected and incidents which might demonstrate prejudice or intolerance are tackled and addressed, for example by challenging inappropriate or prejudicial language
• Encouraging all members of the school community to have high expectations and model how to behave towards each other
• Raising awareness about bullying through opportunities in the curriculum, the PSHE programme, assemblies, and national events
• Developing students’ social skills, confidence, resilience and self-esteem; and defining the value of assertiveness in relationships as opposed to aggression, whether direct or indirect educating students and other members of the school community about how to keep themselves safe when online or using social media or other electronic means of communication, so they
  take maximum precautions to help prevent themselves being victims of cyberbullying
• Making it clear to all that there are effective procedures for reporting, investigating and tackling bullying, and encouraging students to report instances of anything they perceive to be bullying
• Making it clear to all that incidents of cyberbullying or bullying of any kind that occur off the school premises but have an impact on the classroom environment or relationships between
  pupils will be pursued with the same seriousness as bullying occurring within school
• Making it as easy as possible for students who are being bullied to talk to someone they trust and get help confidentially
• Having a strong pastoral team dedicated to students welfare and experienced in dealing with bullying issues. Action is taken to reduce the risk of bullying where and when it is most likely to
  occur. The member of staff with overall responsibility for anti-bullying work is the Director of Teaching and Learning
• Ensuring that the IT filtering and monitoring systems are effective in protecting members of the school community

Being aware – possible signs of bullying

Changes in behaviour that may indicate a student is being bullied include:

• Unwillingness to go to school or return after a break
• Failure to produce work, or producing unusually bad work, work that appears to have been copied, or interfered with or spoilt by others
• Belongings suddenly going missing or being damaged
• Change to established habits (e.g. not wanting to play at playtime)
• Diminished levels of self-confidence
• Inability to concentrate
• Anxiety, depression, becoming withdrawn or unusually quiet
• Repressed body language and poor eye contact
• Frequent absence, erratic attendance, late arrival
• Reluctance to leave the classroom at the end of lessons or school day
• Choosing the company of adults
• Frequent symptoms such as stomach pains or headaches, especially at particular times or during particular lessons
• Unexplained cuts and bruises
• Difficulty in sleeping, nightmares
• Talking of suicide or running away

Although there may be other causes for these symptoms, teachers, parents and fellow students should be alert for these possible signs of bullying and contact a member of the pastoral team if
they are concerned.

Dealing with Bullying

If you are being bullied

• Stay calm and try to appear confident. Tell the bully to stop and get away from the situation as quickly as you can
• Do not suffer in silence: talk to a member of staff. If you are unhappy about talking to a member of staff directly, you could talk to someone in your family or a friend. Telling does not make you a ‘grass’ or ‘snitch’: not telling means that the bullying is likely to continue.
• Remember you may not be the only victim
• Be assured that we take every report of bullying seriously and will act upon it, even if it occurred outside the school. We will keep records of what has happened, and consult you and support you in whatever action we take
• Remember being bullied is not your fault – nobody ever deserves to be bullied
• If you feel you are being bullied by a member of staff you should take the same action as if it were another student, that is, report the matter to someone you trust. All forms of bullying are
  unacceptable and all reports of bullying are investigated and dealt with irrespective of who the person responsible for the bullying incident might be

If you know that someone else is being bullied :

• Talk to a member of staff, so that the school can take steps to help the victim
• Stand up for them – studies show that one of the most effective ways of stopping bullying is for fellow pupils to show their support for the victim
• Be sceptical about rumours concerning other pupils. Don’t add to them. Put yourself in the position of the person targeted
• Don’t be drawn into simply standing by. Many perpetrators will not persist in bullying unless they have an audience to play to, and by not taking action it could be argued you are condoning what is happening

What the school will do

The exact course of action will vary with each situation. The immediate objective should be that bullying incidents are brought into the open and strategies agreed to help resolve the problem,
encouraging all involved to return to responsible, caring behaviour.

• All reports of bullying will be taken seriously and investigated immediately
• It is not possible for any person who receives a report of a bullying incident to promise that it will be kept confidential. However, the action to be taken will be discussed with the victim atevery stage
• Everything that happens will be carefully recorded
• The most important thing is to stop the bullying and ensure the victim is safe
• We aim for a peaceful resolution: revenge is not helpful for the victim or appropriate
• The victim will be supported throughout the process
• Sanctions may be imposed (see below) but guidance and help will also be available for the perpetrator(s) to help change her/their behaviour
• Staff will monitor the situation to ensure that the bullying does not continue. If bullying recurs, further action will be taken
• The school will keep a log of all bullying incidents which is monitored in order to identify trends and inform preventative work in the school and future development of policies and Procedures.

Sanctions

It is important that those found responsible for bullying are held to account and accept responsibility for the harm caused. They too may need help. Action taken in response to bullying will be intended to communicate unambiguous disapproval of the bully’s activities, and this will usually include sanctions. Sanctions help reassure the victim that the bullying will stop; they  help those responsible recognise the harm caused by their behaviour and deter them from repeating it; they demonstrate to the school community that bullying is unacceptable and that the school has effective ways of dealing with it, so deterring others from behaving in a similar way. If sanctions are warranted, the person(s) responsible will receive a sanction in accordance with the school’s behaviour policy. Any sanctions imposed will be fair, proportionate and reasonable, take account of any special educational needs or disabilities that pupils may have, and consider the needs of vulnerable pupils.

In any serious case of bullying the Director will be informed and the school will work with the parents of both the victim and the perpetrator. The school will remain in regular contact with parents until the situation is resolved.

In the most serious cases, the sanction may be a temporary exclusion.
A bullying incident will be regarded as a child protection concern when there is ‘reasonable cause to suspect that a child is suffering, or is likely to suffer, significant harm’ (Children Act 1989).

Partnership with Parents

We believe that working with parents/guardians is essential to establishing the school’s anti bullying ethos and resolving any issues that arise.

• Parents are encouraged to reinforce the principles of the Anti-Bullying Policy at home
• Parents are asked to let the school know directly if they have cause for concern, either on behalf of their own children or because of rumours about others
• In any serious case of bullying, parents will be informed by the school and may be invited in to discuss the matter. We will keep in regular contact with parents until the issue is resolved.

Links to other policies

This policy operates in conjunction with:

• Behaviour Policy
• Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy

Monitoring and evaluation

The effectiveness of this policy and the school’s anti bullying strategies will be evaluated annually through a review of the bullying log.