Bullying and its consequences

The following discussion was made between me and the supervisor regarding school’s anti bullying policy, rewards and sanctions along with attendance policy. In addition, a personalised review of the effectiveness of these policies and strategies is also discussed.

Anti-bullying policy

Bullying is a common unwanted, aggressive behaviour that is observed in children and young people. The reason for such behaviour can be various however as a result of this behaviour the victims face tremendous amount of consequences, which in no way is encouraged. Our school has extremely strict policies that prohibits the act of bullying in the school setting. The school has a zero tolerance policy for bullying and have effective measures to control such inappropriate behaviour. The victims of bullying suffer a lot as a result of this inappropriate behaviour.

For young people as 12 years old, it is often observed that pupils show signs of bullying without a purpose or intention. Such signs must be handled with great care and responsibility. The stern actions or measures might effect on pupils mind for a long term. Therefore, the school setting has adopted some strategies and policies, which will efficiently handle the inappropriate behaviours without having a negative impact on the pupils mind.

            The school adopts a hierarchical approach in dealing with behavioural inappropriateness. The different stages prioritise the severity of inappropriate behaviour of an individual. The respective class teacher keeps track of different pupils’ behaviour and take necessary steps accordingly. The action of bullying is recorded in lesson monitor at stage 4 and 5. The stage 4 records the initial stages of bullying or signs of bullying by a pupil. The steps taken in stage 4 of the behavioural management chart makes sure that the particular pupil does not repeat such action again. Informing the pupil’s parent to reporting the pupil, in addition to this, the Head of Year is also informed about the incident and about the particular pupil.

These actions are initiated immediately without any hesitation. The measures adopted in stage 4 are to keep the particular pupil in check and to avoid further act of bullying. However, if the pupil continues this act of bullying then it puts him at stage 5 of the chart. The severity of response for stage 5 is comparatively high. It involves sending letter to pupil’s parent and in addition to this; it involves parental meeting as well. Moreover, in extreme cases it may lead to expulsion of the pupil from school. The measures adopted to avoid and refrain the act of bullying in school setting must not be harsh so that it influences the minds of the pupil and affect him or her negatively.

The school’s anti-bullying policy

If the stage 5 actions further exist then the school has the authority to even expel the pupil on a long-term basis. Such stern measures are bound to be taken, as the continuous act of bullying is not entertained in school. The expulsion of student is a stern measure; however, it is essential to be adopted since the pupil practicing the act of bullying repeatedly may harm others viciously that the school in no way would be tolerating.

The school follows a set of policies that aims in promoting positive behaviour. The policies are constructed in consultation with the pupils, in Form class, Student Council and so on. Therefore, all the policies have a valid reason for its formation. The article 19 ensures that each child should be protected from any act of violence and this includes bullying in high priority. There are universal cases, which evidently states that bullying of any kind have a strong negative influence on a pupil’s mind as well as physically. The consequence of bullying have put forward this action as highly inappropriate. Thus, the school have a set of action plan and policies, which refrain pupils in involving into the act of bullying.

Rewards and Sanctions

The school believes in appreciation of good behaviour as well and this have a positive impact on pupils moral. The students are rewarded with the help of a charter system where an act of positive behaviour earn them an achievement point against their name. An achievement point, a token of acknowledgement always helps a child to achieve and practice a good behavioural pattern for a long term. These strategies are included for accomplishing the behavioural policy mentioned in the article 29. The article 29 states that each child should be encouraged in showing respect to their parents, culture and others culture as well. All the acts are a sign of a good behaviour and positive moral responsibilities. This can be encouraged by the means of appreciation.

A gesture, appreciation languages are always in practice by the schoolteachers and other staff members for the purpose of encouragement. In addition, appreciation of a pupil’s good behaviour on the event of celebration assembly is an efficient procedure through which the school encourages positive behaviour among student. It is observed that pupils tend to show positive behaviour more if they are appreciated for their good behaviour in the first place.

The promotion of good behaviour among children is a responsibility of teachers and other staff members along with the pupils’ parents and pupils’ as well. The effort put together in order to promote positive behaviour among students will be successful when everyone comes together to achieve that goal. Therefore, for the purpose of simultaneous effort a framework is structured for the staff, parents and pupils as well. The main objective of this framework is to provide effective measures and actions to students with the help of which the pupils are able to achieve good behaviour. This supports the article 3 of the behavioural policy, which states that all organisations should work simultaneously for promoting best-suited and appropriate behaviour for a child.

Rewards and sanctions for good behavior

Behaviour Policy

The promotion of positive behaviour in our school follows certain policies and strategies. The school takes the initiative of recording the incidents in a record monitor. The school have a set of responsibilities that strive to promote positive behaviour among pupils. The students in school range from a very tender age and thus, the strategies adopted should not be such that instead of disciplining them and educating them about positive behaviour, further, demotivates them. Demotivation of any sort effect on pupils mind negatively. Hence, it is extremely essential to construct strategies that mildly and gradually improves the behaviour.

The school keeping this in mind has taken the hierarchical behavioural system, which provides various stages for the purpose of categorising distinctive inappropriate behaviour. Each stage has a suggested response which the authority or person-in-charge can take. The segregation made with help of various stages help the authority to analyse and evaluate the severity of inappropriate behaviour. Sometimes there might be a presence of a logical reason for the inappropriate behaviour of a pupil. In such scenario, the school provides support through various professionals. This helps the pupil to overcome his or her issues and ultimately show progress in his or her behaviour.

Attendance and Lateness policy

            The school have a strict attendance policy that encourages students to be regular in class. This policy aims in achieving high level of punctuality and attendance among pupils. The school’s aim is to create a sense of responsibility among pupils from early age and this could be maintained with the help of attendance policy of the school. The responsibility to maintain attendance and lateness policy is equally divided among pupils, pupil’s parents and The Board of Governors. The policy enables students to achieve a sense of responsibility, self-discipline, and so on. Pupil’s absence is allowed only when it is considered by the Board of Governors as an authorized absence, which is in case of illness, hospital confinements and other justified reasons.

Agreed actions

The school should increase the involvement of parents in preventing bullying. The parents should be informed about the forms of bullying. This will not only help the parents to detect that if their child is being bullied even so will help them to identify that if their child is bullying someone. In addition to this, if the parents are able to detect and identify the possible bullying actions then the school should provide a platform where the parents could communicate for the concerned issue.

Promoting positive behavior in school

Task 22. Provide clear and considered feedback on the effectiveness of behaviour management strategies to inform policy review and development

Professional discussion

Discussion topics

• Steps with which behaviour management strategies could be enhanced
• Feedback of schools existing policies

The school’s policies includes satisfactory approach with the implementation of which pupils would be able to achieve positive behaviour. The school provides merit system as well with which encouraging and motivating the pupils to practice positive behaviour is enhanced. However, apart from providing the reward and sanction system in encouraging pupils with good behaviour, the school could also take the initiative of arranging programmes for the students as well as the parents that will educate them about various aspects which could enhance positive behaviour.

Programmes on the subject of Bullying could also be included in school strategies in order to prevent bullying. It is observed that many times, the act of bullying goes unrecognised. This happens as a result of inability to identify different forms of bullying that persist in school setting. The programmes will help educate the parents about various forms of bullying that exists in the school and will provide ways with which they could identify these forms of bullying.

The school could include other procedure with which they could enhance the merit system. Instead of giving pupil appreciation in front of a large mass, a small gesture of appreciation would be more affective. It is evident in many scenarios that appreciation in grand way sometimes embarrass the pupil hence, a small gesture of appreciation is sufficient for such individuals. Appreciation or merit should also be provided to pupils who show progress in managing their behaviour. This will further incite him towards maintaining a positive behaviour. Therefore, the school could include a chart system where the pupil would get a badge of recognition for achieving the required number of badges for his or her progress in behaviour.

The school could take the route of digital technology as well for the purpose of preventing bullying and other inappropriate behaviour. The school can use its official website for alerting and educating parents about bullying. Online programmes will provide the parents to access with ease. It can also open up a feedback option on its official website where parents can drop in their feedbacks regarding schools current policies and strategies. These feedbacks will help enhance and develop even more the behavioural policies of school.

Thus, it is observed from the above discussion that the school setting provides appropriate and satisfactory policies and strategies that aims in promoting positive behaviour among students. The pupils’ age depends a lot in constructing these policies and strategies. The young age makes it difficult for schools to implement harsh rules and regulations as this might put a negative impression on pupils’ mental health. A well-structured framework is provided by the school where every staff members, parents and pupils work simultaneously to promote and achieve positive behaviour.

Various measures are adopted for the prevention of bullying. As bullying is one of the rising issues that surround our society immensely, it is extremely important that pupils from a very tender age must be aware about the consequences of bullying. In addition to this, the action plans and policies are effectively existent for prevention of bullying and promotion of positive behaviour among children a people.