Scoil Naomh Anna

St. Anne’s N.S. Anti-Bullying Policy

Vision Statement
St. Anne’s School seeks to provide a happy Christian environment, in which children grow in self –esteem, learn respect and demonstrate care for themselves and others.

The school aims to foster the intellectual, physical, emotional, social, moral and spiritual development of each student.

We value and encourage co-operation between pupils, parents, staff, management and the local community.

The aim of this policy is to strive to prevent and not just control bullying. Pupils are helped to discriminate between bullying and ordinary rough and tumble of school life.

Objectives:
To raise awareness of bullying as an unacceptable behaviour.

To support the school ethos of St. Anne’s N.S. – which encourages pupils to respect themselves, respect others and respect their school.

To foster an environment of trust and support which encourages all members of the school community to disclose and discuss incidences of bullying.

What is bullying in the school context?
Bullying may be defined as repeated acts of aggression. It may be physical, psychological or verbal behaviour conducted against an individual or group. It may take different forms such as physical aggression, abusive phone calls or text messages, humiliation of peers on BEBO or You Tube, name calling, extortion, isolation or racist comments.

It is important not to confuse bullying with isolated incidents of aggressive or anti - social behaviour, which also must not be condoned. However when the behaviour is systematic and ongoing it becomes bullying.

All members of the school community have a role in the prevention of bullying.

Generally children who are happy in school perform to their best, both academically and socially. Bullied children are not happy and nor is their school life. Emotional bullying is subtle and notoriously hard to 'nail down'. It is usually verbal and can seem quite 'petty' at times – it may be no more than a put down, or exclusion from a game or conversation, a hot / cold friendship, (one day the best of friends, the next day ignored), a hurtful comment about clothing or a nickname etc.

Often the child is adamant that the parent not report this sort of bullying to the school, (and indeed the parent may feel that there is little of 'concrete' that they can report). However it is vitally important that the parent does communicate with the class teacher, or Principal, as this sort of bullying can quite easily 'slip under the radar'. Only if the school knows about it can it be tackled.

We are advising that, in such instances, that the parent ring the school without the child's knowledge and ask to speak to the teacher, (mention to Phil, or whoever answers the phone, the importance of confidentiality – Phil will either fetch the teacher or arrange that you be called back). A strategy for dealing with the bullying can then be agreed.

Likewise, if your child is doing the bullying, it is vital that you stay in communication with the school. Many parents are mortified to discover that their child has been engaging in bullying behaviour, and while that is a natural and understandable reaction, talking to the class teacher can go a long way towards re-channelling and modifying the child's unacceptable behaviour. We are here to support you.

We have decided to introduce some restrictions in order to reduce the number of occasions where pupils might feel hurt or left out.
Strictly no party invitations / presents / cards to be given out in school.
(At Christmas time the class teacher may organise a Kris Kindel, which being inclusive of all, is perfectly acceptable)

Cyber-bullying;
Be aware that 'cyber-bullying' is an emerging problem.
Make sure that you monitor what your child is up to on the computer.
Know your child's password if they are using social-networking sites, (e.g. BEBO / Facebook etc), and check regularly, (checking the 'history' is a good idea).
It is advisable to keep the computer in the 'family area' of the house.
Have a good 'nanny - watch' programme installed, (e.g. K9 / Netnanny etc).
Please note: the permissible ages for these sites are as follows:
1. BEBO: 13 yrs.
2. Facebook: popular with the 20+ age group.
A free booklet 'A Parent's Guide to Social Networking' can be had from the Internet Advisory Board, Free phone 1800 24 25 95.
www.makeitsecure.org is a useful site.

Mobile Phones:
Text bullying is very hard to monitor, but try to be vigilant and ensure that your child is neither receiving nor sending bullying messages / calls.

The role of the Board of Management
The Board of Management is responsible for ensuring that all the members of the school community are enabled to deal effectively with bullying.

The Board is committed to providing time and resources for the implementation of this policy. It will ensure that proper supervisory and monitoring measurements are in place to prevent bullying and to deal with incidents appropriately as they arise.

A sub-committee of the Board, called the Pastoral Committee, will intervene in affairs if required.

School Staff
The school staff will foster an atmosphere of friendship, respect and tolerance. Pupils’ self-esteem will be developed through celebrating differences and achievements. Good behaviour and manners will be the accepted norm and opportunities for success in learning will be provided through differentiation. Teachers will help pupils to develop empathy by discussing feelings and trying to place ourselves in other pupils’ shoes.

Relationships with pupils will be based on mutual respect and trust so that they will have confidence in the fairness of staff. Teachers will be vigilant, respond sensitively and caringly to pupils who disclose an incidence of bullying. They will investigate all disclosed incidents of bullying thoroughly.

Teachers will avail of the opportunity in class to discuss the schools anti - bullying policy with their pupils and use behavioral management strategies, which focus on problem solving. Ideally they will enable pupils to take an active role in finding a solution to problems.

The formal curriculum will also be used to educate all pupils against bullying behaviour through the religion programme, the SESE curriculum, Stay Safe Programme and Circle Time.

Pupil Responsibility
Pupils are expected to be tolerant and to have mutual respect for each other. They must report incidents of bullying to their teacher and parents. At the start of the academic year, all pupils from 3rd Class upwards will sign the Code of Behaviour and Discipline at the beginning of the school year having discussed it with their teacher and their parents.

Parent / Guardian Responsibility
Parents are expected to encourage positive behaviour and discourage negative behaviour both at home and at school. They should encourage their children to solve their difficulties without resorting to aggression. They should encourage their children to share, to be caring and understanding to others.

They should look out for signs that their child is possibly either being bullied or is bullying others. They must sign the Code of Behaviour and Discipline at enrolment and again when their child is in 3rd Class and discuss its contents with their child. Most of all they must support the school in its efforts to prevent and treat bullying.

Procedures for reporting and investigating Bullying Incidents
1.Bullying incidents should be reported to the class teacher or supervising teacher, who will seek answers to who, what, when, where and why. If more than one individual is involved, each person will be interviewed separately. Any further bullying arising due to earlier reporting of the incident will be treated sensitively. (In conjunction with the Stay Safe Programme.)

2.All incidents defined as bullying by the teacher will be logged in class diary and dealt with in the class, and it may be helpful to write down their account of the incident.

3.Where a pattern of complaints is clear, a copy of this diary record will be sent to the Principal.

4.The Principal will meet the pupils concerned and will record the outcome in his diary having heard both sides of the story.

5.If it is concluded that a pupil has been engaged in bullying behaviour, it should be made clear to them that they are in breach of the Code of Discipline and try to get them to see the situation from the victim’s point of view.

6.All staff are encouraged to report any incidents of bullying behaviour witnessed by them or mentioned to them, to an appropriate member of staff.

7.In case of repeated incidents, the parents of the pupils concerned will be contacted by the Principal and a range of age – appropriate sanctions discussed depending on the seriousness and frequency of the incidents.

8.Where cases, relating to either a pupil or a teacher remain unresolved at school level, the matter should be referred to the schools Board of Management.

9.If not solved at Board level the matter will be referred to the local Inspectorate by the Chairperson of the Board of Management.

Evaluation of effectiveness of school policy on bullying behaviour:
St. Anne’s Anti – Bullying Code will be subject to continuous review in the light of incidents of bullying behaviour encountered. It will be included as an item on the agenda for school staff and Board of Management meetings.

Ratified by the Board of Management in 2009.

Review date: December 2011.

Computer Acceptable Usage Policy

1. Why do we need a Computer Usage Policy?
Most staff have access to a PC. This PC is the property of the school and may be used by an employee only in accordance with the policies in place from time to time. All information stored or created on PC's, computer systems or on backup media and all information transmitted via the St. Anne’s N.S. network remains the property of St. Anne’s N.S. and must be treated in strictest confidence. This is the overall or general policy. It should read in conjunction with the other IT polices which are:
Internet and Intranet Acceptable Usage Policy

2. What is the main objective of the Computer Usage Policy?
The policy has 3 goals.
Confidentiality - assuring that sensitive school data is available only to authorised staff.
Integrity - protecting data and software from improper modification
Availability - Ensuring that the school Systems, Networks, Applications and Data are on - line and available to authorised personnel.

3. Use of Computers
Staff may use computers in order to undertake their daily work activities. Computers are provided primarily for educational or business use. However the school understands that from time to time staff may need to use their computer for a personal matter. Personal use of computers must conform to this policy and the related policies set out at 1 above.

In particular computers may not be used to:
(i)Waste services (including time) or cause or be likely to cause disruption to the service or damage to the resource or resources.
(ii)Accept, print or distribute in any way material which is pornographic, defamatory, offensive, racist, sexist, discriminatory, obscene, intimidating, or otherwise inappropriate.

Accordingly, you should use your PC in the knowledge that the school may, in accordance with the schools Internet Acceptable Usage Policy, review your use of your PC.

Removable Media
"Removable media" refers to cartridge and disc - based storage devices which can be used to easily move data between computers. Floppy disks, compact discs and flash memory cards are all removable media. Often Removable Media can contain viruses. It is therefore important that caution is exercised when using removable media in the school system. Always ensure that the media is from a reliable source. Removable media must always be virus checked before use.

How should removable media be disposed of?
If possible, the media should be wiped and reused. If this is not possible the media should be destroyed.

Unlicensed Software
The installation of unlicensed software is not permitted on school computers.

Access to school System
Any abuse of access rights can result in rights being removed from individual users.

School Data
School staff must ensure that all data residing on school computers is held in a manner that complies with the Data Protection Acts 1988 to 2003.

Failure to comply with the Computer Acceptable Usage Policy may result in disciplinary action being taken. In certain instances non - compliance may lead to civil and / or criminal proceedings.