Feel well, learn well.Feel well, learn well.Our approach to anti-bullyingOur approach to anti-bullying

Matthew Burns – Headteacher, Headlands SchoolMatthew Burns – Headteacher, Headlands School

Our approach to anti-bullying

How we understand?

• Bullying is a behaviour.• Behaviour is an expression of what a child thinks, feels and needs.• A child’s behaviour is heavily influenced by what is going on in their

lives.• Therefore a good place to start is with understanding our children’s

context.

About Headlands School

• Charity, special school with residential care.• Small school population – average class size of 7.• Age range 7 – 19.• Before arriving at our school all pupils will have

experienced exclusion from school.• Often drawn from vulnerable groups of society, which

include: LAC, children with diagnosis of a range of developmental disorders and children who have experienced significant trauma and abuse.

• All of which can make social interaction more difficult.

What does this mean?

Our children are often: •Developmentally younger in terms of their social and emotional skills•Low in self-esteem and confidence •Find the school setting frightening and unpredictable•Hyper-vigilant for signs of conflict, threat or perceived criticism•Find it difficult to exist alongside other young people with differing needs, views and desires•Have learnt unhelpful ways of resolving conflict situations.•Find change and unstructured time difficult to manage

These factors increase the likelihood that these children will be more vulnerable to being bullied or bullying others.

How we intervene? Some examples.

• Intervention strategies – The life space interview

• Prevention strategies – The peer mentoring programme

Case study Michael•Is 11 years old•Multiple care and educational placements•History of trauma and neglect•Lack of safety in his key relationships•Need for power and dominance over others

Interventions•Increasing sense of safety•Consistency, structure and supervision•Modelling caring and respectful relationships•Helping him to understand his impact on others•Exposure to positive experiences

How do we know its working?

Parent feedback In 2012-13 all parents agreed the statement my child is safe in the setting. In previous years there have been a small minority that disagree with this statement, however the most recent survey demonstrates increased confidence

Pupil feedback

50% of the YPs who completed the questionnaire reported that they always feel safe at Headlands. This was the highest 'always' response in three years. An additional 7% reported usually feeling safe. There was a higher response of pupils reporting to 'sometimes' feel safe at Headlands this year,and YPs reported to never feel safe decreased from last year to only 11%. This year the percentage of pupils reporting that Headlands deals well with bullying and increases pupil safety increased dramatically 14% in 2011/12 to over 40% this year. In previous years 'usually' or 'sometimes' has been the most popular answer. It appears that pupils are now more aware of bullying procedures and anti-bullying campaigns and feel that staff do deal better with bullying.

Anti-bullying team meeting

What do Katie and Brandon have to say?

Things that help:•Having something to do with friends at break and lunchtimes.•Knowing older pupils or having older pupils as friends.•Getting advice from other pupils, especially if they have had to deal with bullying too.•When people are saying nasty things pretend they are birds chattering – “it sounds daft but it works!”•Having good, proper friends to keep you from bullying others.

Thank you