Area Meetings on Anti-Bullying Policy

WHEN?

The meetings took place in late April and May 2007 at 3 venues across Worcestershire

WHERE?

April 24th-   Fownes Hotel, Worcester
May 1st  -   Kidderminster Harriers football ground
May 9th. -   Church Hill Community Centre, Redditch

WHO ?

150 people attended the meetings, 67 in Worcester, 28 in Kidderminster and 55 in Redditch. Audiences were made up of staff from the following settings/agencies/services:

• Mainstream schools across all phases, special schools, independent schools, Pupil Referral Units, Further Education Colleges
• Residential Homes, Youth Centres, Integrated Services for Looked After Children, Educational Psychology, Schools’ Health Services, Teenage Pregnancy
• Parent Partnership, LID/MET, WANDS, Surestart, Extended Schools, Early Years team, SPACE,

Worcestershire Youth Offending Service, Connexions, West Mercia Police, Fostering Services, Social Care teams

Apologies to anyone we’ve missed!

PURPOSE OF MEETINGS

• To raise awareness of the Children’s Services Anti-Bullying Policy for staff within Children’s Services and the wider community
• To emind staff of their obligation regarding reporting and recording incidents of bullying
• To remind staff about the Anti-Bullying pages on the Children’s Services Web site
• To promote discussion of bullying issues
• To see some children and young people’s perspectives on bullying
• To provide information, details, contacts, reference materials

PRESENTATIONS

• Chris Golbourn (SDM for Vulnerable Children), Kathy Roberts (SDM for Additional Needs) and George Smith (Children’s Services) put Anti-Bullying work  into context through a Powerpoint presentation.  (1.04 MB)
• A thought–provoking and powerful  DVD  (“Silence is Easy”) produced by students at Stourport Language College was used to illustrate the dilemmas faced by all those involved in bullying incidents
• At the Kidderminster meeting, pupils from Franche Middle School presented the results of a survey on bullying which they had carried out, read out some poems they had written and talked about steps they had taken to tackle bullying
• A workshop activity on recording incidents provoked some helpful and constructive debate about data collection, reporting protocols and procedures

FEEDBACK AND COMMENTS

WORCESTER meeting:

• Much of the feedback focused on the Bullying Incident form. The general feeling was that too much sensitive and confidential information was being requested, that data protection issues needed to be addressed and that schools had their own systems in place for data collection.
• Staff wanted further guidance on how to complete the forms, and it was suggested that a periodic report of the number of incidents could be sent in, with other details kept on file locally.
• One delegate reported that the policy had been really valuable, and that it formed the basis for re-writing their own school’s policy.

KIDDERMINSTER meeting:

• Mixed reaction to the form – some saw it as a useful way of recording incidents, with the checklist on the reverse being useful as prompts. Others felt that too much information was required, and expressed concern about the details being kept on bystanders, as well as perpetrators
• The session was seen by some as being too short, with too little time for discussion
• Some felt the session was very useful, a really positive step and would help to develop and promote best practice in supporting perpetrators and victims
• The issue of protecting young people from their peers outside school was raised, as was the need for considering how bullying should be managed in residential and voluntary settings

REDDITCH Meeting:

• Concerns over the amount and type of information being recorded on the form – issues of confidentiality, data protection, etc
• Much of the work done in addressing a bullying incident is investigative, and is carried out way before you would even consider filling in a form such as this…
• Guidance would be helpful on the level of responsibility schools have in reporting incidents on the way to and from school, and outside school hours
• How much responsibility do Extended Schools settings have – should it be channelled through the host school?
• One of the keys in addressing bullying is to ensure that there is high quality training for teachers in how to deal effectively with the problem
• Posters with positive Anti-Bullying messages for display around schools and settings would be a good idea
• A thought-provoking session – let’s hope we get it right!

WHAT HAPPENED NEXT??

• Ongoing work, review and development of the Policy
• An evening meting was held early in the autumn term, which was a repeat of the afternoon meetings which took place in April and May
• A Worcestershire Anti-Bullying DVD was filmed and produced, focusing on action which can be taken to stop bullying in schools, youth centres and the wider community.
• The Anti-Bullying, Models of Good Practice DVD was launched during last years Anti-Bullying Week,  November 19 –23^rd 2007.