Behaviour & Anti-Bullying

Here at Southwark, we regard excellent behaviour as essential if our children are to learn and achieve their full potential. We also acknowledge our influence in promoting positive behaviour which will enable our pupils to be successful, life-long learners and responsible citizens.

Our whole school community has had input into creating our School Rules which we all try our best to keep to both in school but also at home and in our community. 

Southwark's School Rules

We are helpful, honest, kind and polite.

We respect ourselves, each other, our school, and the environment.

We work hard and try our best.

We play safely, carefully, and sensibly.

Our Learning Behaviours

Focussed, Creative, Determined, Curious, Reflective

Southwark Primary School encourages all staff to provide experiences for the development of a number of personal qualities and attributes. As our pupils enter the Early Years & Foundation Stage, we focus on the ‘characteristics of effective learning’ and as our pupils move further up the school we focus on six main learning behaviours: teamwork, determination, focus, curiosity, creativity and reflection. We promote these learning behaviours through all areas of the curriculum, as well as discuss these in assemblies and explicitly recognising, encouraging and celebrating when these are shown.

Our learning behaviours ‘come to life’ in the form of superheroes named The Unstoppables: Creator (creative), Solo (determined), Scianna (curious), Bullseye (focussed), and Reflector (reflective). Why not ask your child about how these superheroes help them to demonstrate each learning behaviour? Consistency and use of a common vocabulary are central to our success in achieving a dynamic and positive learning atmosphere throughout the school.

Working alongside parents is also essential. Through ‘Assertive Mentoring’ meetings with parents, class teachers are able to engage in high quality dialogue, focussing on academic progress as well as the behaviour and well-being of our pupils. We use the communication tool, Class Dojo, to celebrate these learning behaviours which enables rapid, real time feedback of behaviour as well as opening up lines of communication between home and school.

Anti-Bullying at Southwark

At Southwark Primary School, we are committed to providing a caring, inclusive and safe environment for all of our children to learn in, providing them all with a platform to improve their life chances and help maximise their potential. At Southwark Primary School we encourage open discussions around differences between people; we actively challenge prejudice, and we celebrate diversity. We expect our pupils to act safely, and want them to feel safe, both within and outside of school. We recognise that as children learn and grow together, they may experience fallouts with their peers, but we are committed to supporting our pupils to resolve these ‘relational conflicts’ and stop them from progressing to bullying behaviours. If an incident of bullying does occur, we believe our pupils, parents/carers, staff and visitors must feel confident in reporting it and feel confident that all incidents will be dealt with promptly and effectively. All reported incidents will be investigated thoroughly and effectively. Bullying will never be tolerated at our school.

The school is aware of its legal obligations including the Equalities Act 2010. We are aware of our role within the local community in supporting parents/carers and working with other agencies outside the school where appropriate. This policy has been developed to reflect the most recent Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSiE) Statutory Guidance (Sept 2022) and has been formulated in consultation with the whole school community with input from staff, parents/carers, pupils, governors and external agencies. This policy is available online, on the school website and as a paper copy from the school office upon request. This policy is reviewed and evaluated throughout the academic year and is updated annually.

All staff at Southwark Primary School work tirelessly to minimise the opportunity for bullying to take place.

The following strategies are many of the preventative strategies we deploy to promote positive behaviour and discourage bullying behaviour:

• Clear expectations for high standards of behaviour for all pupils across the school.
• Promotion of British Values and celebrating diversity and difference across the school
• Upholding Southwark’s 11 Key Values including a half termly focus on each value
• Comprehensive and thorough RSE programme from FS – Y6
• Weekly PSHE sessions covering issues such as anti-bullying
• E-Safety taught as well as part of weekly computing lessons, assemblies, whole school parent events,
newsletters, Dojo Posts etc.
• Anti-bullying events held throughout the year including ‘Anti-Bullying Week’ and Termly Assemblies
• Themes such as anti-bullying included within long term plans in subjects such as Reading with texts chosen
appropriately, along such themes
• Staff training related to child-on-child abuse with clarity on how to respond, investigate and deal with any
incidents of child-on-child abuse.
• Clear protocols for staff, pupils, and parents/carers to follow if there are any concerns
• Safer Internet Day in February
• ‘Worry Box’ within each hub with ‘worried about bullying’ sheet next to it.
• Proactive and reactive programmes for vulnerable groups or groups involved in bullying including learning
mentor interventions.
• Support for parents and families through the school website and targeted support for parents affected
• Speak out button on the website for parents/children to alert concerns linked to bullying which sends an email
direct to Head Teacher and DSL.
• Anti-bullying section on the school website for signposting to professionals / charities
• Posters across the school reminding children about what to do if they see or are being bullied

If you think your child (or you if you are reading this!) are being bullied or have worried about friendships in or out of school, let us know straight away.  There are many ways of doing this including Dojo messaging your child's Hub Assistant Head or Mr Skirton, completing the 'SPEAK OUT' form which is available on the school website, putting a comment in the 'Worried About Bullying' box in your child's hub - you can also come and talk to some one you trust e.g. your class teacher or a Learning Mentor you work with.

For more information on our approach to bullying, please read our Anti-Bullying Policy which is attached below.

Here are some useful websites to look at about Anti-Bullying:

https://www.anti-bullyingalliance.org.uk/

https://www.childline.org.uk/info-advice/bullying-abuse-safety/types-bullying/

https://www.nspcc.org.uk/what-is-child-abuse/types-of-abuse/bullying-and-cyberbullying/

https://www.nationalbullyinghelpline.co.uk/kids.html

A copy of the behaviour policy, which is reviewed annually, is available here alongside other related policies and resources.

Suspensions & Permanent Exclusions

Our Suspensions & Permanent Exclusions Policy can be accessed here.