KEEP STUDENTS SAFE AT SHOREFIELDS

Bullying

Verbal or physical bullying of students is totally unacceptable in Shorefields. There is a clear bullying policy available from the school. Where bullying takes place, it will be dealt with at the appropriate level and can be resolved quickly and effectively if caught early. Students should not suffer in silence - they need to tell someone and stop it! Shorefields is committed to ensuring that everyone in the school has a positive experience, is happy and safe. All students should be respected and treated fairly, regardless of race, culture, gender, sexual orientation or disability.

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Shorefields School recognises that everybody has the right to live their lives without feeling bullied, threatened or unsafe. The school is committed to providing a caring, friendly and safe environment for all of our students so that they can learn in a relaxed and secure atmosphere.

Bullying of any kind is unacceptable in our school and will not be tolerated.

If bullying does occur, all students should be able to tell a member of staff and know that they will be listened to and that the incident will be dealt with promptly and effectively. Anyone who knows that bullying is happening is expected to take appropriate action.

As part of anti bullying week, students from year 10 discussed bullying and wrote of how bullying has affected them.

Here are some of the things they wrote:

Lukas Narbutas

"Bullying is repeated acts over time that involves real or perceived imbalance of power. It is done to coerce others by fear or threat."

Sammira Mhagrh

"Jealousy is arguably the main cause of bullying.... and I think that it is spiteful... and a selfish way of making people feel upset. Bullying is not right and will get you nowhere in life."

Jack Liu

"It can sometimes feel quite difficult to escape cyber bullying as bullies can use technology to target you at home or on your mobile, even if they’re not right there in the room with you. For the cyber bully, there’s the problem that once you send a bullying message or post something online, everyone can see it and you can’t take it back. Many cyber bullies think that no one will be bale to find out who they are, but that’s not true.

"A lot of young people cyber bully deliberately - they set out to target another user online. But it's important to remember that some cyber bullying is done for a laugh, a bit of a joke. It doesn't mean it hurts any less, but often people just don't think about the consequences of their actions. And there is growing evidence that many young people don't take being online that seriously and hide behind anonymous profiles.

"Types of bullying

Well the one I have seen more often than any other form is the mental bullying. This is the sort of bullying which is done via verbal abuse.

"The abuse can be about you as a person or about family members. The verbal abuse is so tough to take because it hurts and those who say they ignore the verbal abuse are either lying or in denial. The verbal side hurts because you know if you try and hit them for what they have said then you're likely to get into serious trouble so you end up in trouble for lashing out whilst they are sitting there smiling at what they have accomplished.

"I think the most obvious problem with bullying is how much it can destroy a person inside.

"I do not think bullies care who they pick on. The vast majority of the time it is children who will not fight back they pick on.

"The silent children who aim to go through school keeping themselves to themselves and getting on with work and trying to create themselves a career for later on in life.

"Bullies are people who target the weak to make themselves feel better.

"How do I think bullies should be treated? Show them what it feels like to be bullied the same as how the children they are harming feel. This is the insight they need and it might help them understand more clearly the problems they are causing for others. I believe bullies are evil people."

Mia Weaver

"Bullying is a very serious thing that can lead to so many other things like people becoming depressed or having eating disorders.

"If you were to get bullied, you must report it to your parents to sort it out or to your Head of Year if you’re in school. In some schools there is a police officer and so you can report it to them. Also on the school website there is a system called ‘Sharp’. You can write it on there and it can be anonymous."

Salam Khan

"None of us actually knows the impact of bullying until it affects us personally. Bullying is abuse...do not suffer in silence."

John Mawurura

"Bullying is a form of cowardice; most people bully because they see some one has a better life than them and sometimes bullies can see that some is going to be successful in life, so they try to bring them down to their level."