During the first week back I spoke to all students about the importance of feeling safe in their school. I believe that our current arrangement around tackling bullying needs strengthening and attached to this letter is a copy of our new Anti-Bullying Policy. This policy clearly sets out how as a school we will deal with incidents of bullying. This clarity is important for students, staff and parent/carers. It will also ensure staff take a consistent approach. A copy of this policy can also be found on our school website.

I strongly encourage all parent/carers to read the policy and discuss with their child as it clearly explains what they should do if they witness bullying or believe someone is bullying them. We have also centralise our reporting and recording systems so that it will be quicker to identify patterns in bullying and take appropriate action.

Last year Anti-Bullying Student Ambassadors created a Welling School Anti-bullying Website. This website can be found via our main school website under the Parents tab. For your reference below is also a link:
https://sites.google.com/wellingschool-tkat.org/antibullying/home

On the home page there is a link ‘contact us’ which students and parent/carers can click on to report cases of suspected bullying. Students can also still report incidents of suspected bullying to staff who will then complete the online form.

Once a referral has been made this will be given to your child’s Head of Year. In the first instance they will contact home to share that a concern has been reported. The incident will then be investigated. In the policy it sets out the 5 different steps the school we will take to tackle incidents of bullying . For each step there is a defined course of action.

I firmly believe that no child or parent/carer of a child wants to be labelled as a bully and I expect that the majority of work will be carried out at step 1 and 2. However, it is important that there are appropriate steps in place to escalate matters for incidents that are more serious or where there is a repeat of similar behaviour.

As a school we will be implementing this new policy from Monday 4 October. It is really important for the school that we receive feedback on how the new policy is working therefore week commencing Monday 18 October we will be seeking staff, student and parent/carer feedback. A summary of this survey will be communicated to the school community when we return after half term and if required further amendments to the policy will be made.#

I hope that you see that as a school we are committed to having robust systems in place to deal with bullying. Please can I ask that parent/carers do their part and highlight to their child what bullying is and the significant harm it can cause to others.

Mrs Otti, Assistant Headteacher is the senior leader responsible for addressing bullying. Any queries regarding the policy should be addressed to her on leanne.otti@wellingschool-tkat.org. Specific concerns relating to your child should be addressed to your child’s Head of Year or Care & Guidance Assistant. As outlined in the Anti-Bullying Policy, if you would like to escalate your concerns further they should be addressed to the Assistant Headteacher responsible for your Child’s Key Stage. For Key Stage 3 it is Ms Giannini (marie.giannini@wellingschool-tkat.org). For Key Stage 4 it is Mr Sanghera (jasminder.sanghera@wellingschool-tkat.org).

 

Yours faithfully,

Mr R Pett

HEADTEACHER