Bullying

Bullying is a form of harassment, and usually refers to intimidating behaviour between school students, but may involve staff. If the bullying involves staff and students, the Harassment procedure is followed. All members of the school, including students, have a responsibility to recognise bullying and to take action when they are aware of it happening. If students are being bullied, they need to feel supported and know what to do.

Bullying is deliberate and harmful behaviour that is repeated, or continues over a period of time. It may include:

• verbal bullying (e.g. name-calling, teasing, mocking, threatening)

• physical bullying (e.g. hitting, kicking, stalking, taking belongings)

• social bullying (e.g. social exclusion, spreading rumours, damaging relationships)

• discrimination based on ethnicity or race, gender, sex and variations of sex characteristics, sexuality, religion and beliefs, health status, disability, age, etc.

• cyberbullying, for example, posting negative comments on social media, publishing or sending inappropriate messages or images, sending mean or intimidating texts and emails.

To effectively prevent and respond to bullying behaviour at Gorge Road School we: 

·       create a safe, inclusive, and respectful environment

·       promote digital citizenship to our students 

·       provide guidelines for managing and dealing with bullying 

·       identify and acknowledge bullying/intimidating behaviour, including cyberbullying, and do not tolerate it

·       deal with incidents of bullying through the school's behaviour plan.

Cyberbullying

Gorge Road  School has strategies in place to prevent cyberbullying where possible and respond to it if it occurs.

Prevention

• Ensure a whole-school focus on an inclusive and supportive environment.

• Promote good digital citizenship  both inside and outside the classroom. For example: 

  • Teach students about safe and responsible technology use

  • Develop class contracts about appropriate use of technology, included if, how, and when mobile devices may be used at school

  • Have students, staff, and/or parents sign ICT digital technology use agreements

  • Provide ongoing education and advice to parents and whānau about how to protect their children online, and inform parents and whānau about any cyberbullying incidents at the school.

• Ensure teachers understand the surrender and retention of digital devices guidelines.

• Engage teachers in ongoing professional development about technology in learning environments.

• Provide guidance to students about how to stay safe online. For example: 

  • Activate privacy settings on social media sites

  • Only give personal information to people they know and trust

  • Use available online safety options (e.g. website blockers and email/spam filters)

  • Avoid sharing images of themselves they wouldn't want distributed further

  • Know how to contact a service provider to report abuse or problems.

Response

• Get offensive or inappropriate online material removed if possible: 

  • Request filtering from N4L

  • Request the service provider or website owner to remove the page or information

• Emphasise to students that they can talk to an adult they trust 

• Report inappropriate text messages to the student's service provider, or support the student in doing so.

• Use the behaviour management policy to deal with incidents of cyberbullying.