Sydney Boys High School

Anti Bullying Plan

At Sydney Boys High School we believe that our students should be nurtured to become autonomous, engaged and successful learners, striving to maximise their potential. At High we want to create positive relationships with and among our students and with our staff to ensure shared meaning and create a sense of accomplishment at our school.

However, we understand that there may be students who will be victims and/or perpetrators of bullying at High.

We believe that all school stakeholders, particularly staff, students and parents, need to be aware of strategies to identify and respond to incidents of bullying.

"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 person. Cyber bullying refers to bullying through information and communication technologies.

Bullying can involve humiliation, domination, intimidation, victimisation and all forms of harassment including that based on sex, race, disability, sexual orientation or gender identity.

Bullying behaviour can be:

• verbal eg name calling, teasing, abuse, putdowns, sarcasm, insults, threats.
• physical eg hitting, punching, kicking, scratching, tripping spitting.
• social eg ignoring, excluding, ostracising, alienating, making inappropriate gestures
• psychological eg spreading rumours, dirty looks, hiding or damaging possession, malicious SMS and email messages, inappropriate use of camera phones.

School staff have a responsibility to:

• respect and support students
• model and promote appropriate behaviour
• have knowledge of school and departmental policies relating to bullying behaviour  https://antibullying.nsw.gov.au/
• respond in a timely manner to incidents of bullying

Students have responsibility to:

• behave appropriately, respecting individual differences and diversity
• behave as responsible digital citizens
• follow the school Anti-bullying Plan
• behave as responsible bystanders
• report incidents of bullying according to their school Anti-bullying plan

Parents and caregivers have a responsibility to

• support their children to become responsible citizens and to develop responsible on line behaviour
• be aware of the school Anti-bullying Plan and assist their children in understanding bullying behaviour
• support their children in developing positive responses to incidents bullying
• report incidents of school related bullying behaviour to the school
• work collaboratively with the school to resolve incidents of bullying when they occur

All members of the school community have a responsibility to

• model and promote positive relationships that respect and accept individual differences and diversity within the school community
• support the school’s Anti –bullying Plan through words and actions
• work collaboratively with the school to resolve incidents of bullying when they occur.

Responding to Bullying at Sydney Boys High School

Reports of bulling are informed verbally, by email or through the Student Portal to the Year Adviser. The Year Adviser will perform a preliminary investigation. If considered bullying, the matter is referred to the Deputy Principal for appropriate disciplinary response, parental contract and wellbeing record recording. The bully and victim and then referred to the school counsellor or back to the Year Adviser for mediation. The Deputy Principal will give positive recognition to "Upstanders" in the school's student recommendation system (STAR).

An Upstander is someone who does something about bullying - either at the time by speaking up or later by reporting it.

Bullying with respect to Child Protection

Please note that if at any stage there is a child protection concern, the NSW Mandatory Reporting Guide will be used by the member of staff who received the initial report to determine whether a report to the Principal and the Child Protection Helpline is required.