Anti-Bullying

What is bullying?

At Gooseacre Primary Academy, we do not tolerate bullying of any kind. Bullying can take many forms but includes all three of these characteristics:

• It must be intentional – the behaviour is a deliberate attempt to hurt another person either physically, emotionally or both.
• It must be repeated – these behaviours happen repeatedly over time to the same person or group of people.
• There must be an imbalance of power – the person bullying feels that they have more power than the children being subject to these bullying behaviours.

It is important to remember that there is a clear line between a conflict – a one-off incident such as a fight or a falling out – and bullying. As young people grow up, they can sometimes be unkind to each other as they refine their social skills. Whilst these can be unpleasant, they cannot always be defined as bullying.

Bullying can take different forms and may include one, some or all of the following things:

• Physical bullying, e.g kicking, punching.
• Verbal bullying, e.g. name calling or yelling at each other.
• Relational bullying, e.g. excluding others, rumour-spreading.
• Cyberbullying, e.g. sending hurtful messages over digital devices.

For more information about the definition of bullying, please refer to the following websites: NSPCC | Anti-Bullying Alliance | Childline | GOV.uk

For more information about e-safety, including links to sites with more information on cyberbullying, please refer to our e-safety page.