Bullying

​​Rationale


Marymount Primary actively seeks to provide safe, supportive learning environment that is free from all forms of intimidation, harassment and oppression. Our school also seeks and affirms each persons worth and dignity and bullying strikes at the very basis of these values, preventing students reaching for every dimension of life. Bullying in all its forms will not be accepted within the Marymount Primary school community. Please refer to our Marymount Primary Bullying Policy for more details about how you can held educate your child about bullying.

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Definition​


National definitions have been developed by the MCEETYA ‘Safe and Supportive School Communities’ management group and used in the National Safe Schools’ Framework (2011), and form part of BCE’s lexicon: 

Aggression:

Aggression is words or actions (both overt and covert) that are directed towards another and intended to harm, distress, coerce or cause fear. 

Bullying:

Bullying is repeated verbal, physical, social or psychological behaviour that is harmful and involves the misuse of power by an individual or group towards one or more persons. 

• Cyber bullying refers to bullying through information and communication technologies. 
• Conflict or fights between equals and single incidents are not defined as bullying. 
• Bullying of any form or for any reason can have long-term effects on those involved including bystanders. 


What is NOT Bullying? 


There are also some behaviours, which, although they might be unpleasant or distressing, are not bullying: 


• Mutual conflict - which involves a disagreement, but not an imbalance of power. Unresolved mutual conflict can develop into bullying if one of the parties targets the other repeatedly in retaliation. 

• Single-episode acts of nastiness or physical aggression, or aggression directed towards many different people, is not bullying unless it becomes a pattern of behaviours. 
• Social rejection or dislike is not bullying unless it involves deliberate and repeated attempts to cause distress, exclude or create dislike by others. ​



Response to Bullying


The BCE Student Behaviour Support System allows for frequent behaviour incidents to be tracked effectively and all high level incidents should be recorded within this database. 


Keeping records of bullying and harassment incidents will enable the school to: 
• Manage individual cases effectively; 
• Monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of strategies; 
• Celebrate the anti-bullying work of the school; 
• Demonstrate defensible decision making in the event of complaints being made; 
• Engage and inform parents and other services as necessary. ​


Procedural steps in responding to bullying/harassment incidents

 

The development of clear procedural steps for responding to bullying/harassment incidents are required to: 
• Prevent, de-escalate and/or stop any continuation of harmful behaviour 
• React to incidents in a reasonable, proportionate and consistent manner 
• Protect the student who has experienced the bullying/harassing behaviour and provide appropriate support for the student 
• Apply the appropriate Student Behaviour Support procedure for the student/s who has engaged in bullying/harassing behaviour and ensure that there is a positive outcome, adequate follow up and that relationships are restored for all involved. ​​​

​Marymount Primary Bullying Policy .pdf