Anti Bullying
As part of our on-going Anti-Bullying Initiative here at the Venerable Bede School, I would like to keep you updated on what we are doing as a school to tackle bullying and our plans for the future.
At the start of the Year we asked for volunteers from Year 9 to set up a new Bully Buddy scheme that is now in place. The students have been trained in how to deal with confidential issues, how to mediate between peers and how to give advice on bullying. There is now a rota in place where these students are available at a meeting room in school to chat every break time.
The students also set up a new bullying record form and a drop box at the school office for any issues to be flagged up. The Bully Buddy group also now have their badges so that they can be clearly identified to anyone in the school in need of advice. There is also an email group ‘bullybuddies’ should anyone wish to report any bullying via email.
Our work during anti bullying week in November led to a huge number of ‘Venerable Bede School against bullying’ wristbands being sold. The anti-bullying group also held a parents talk on anti-bullying which was a huge success. They have plans to host further, similar events in the future. The group won the city “Anti-Bullying Week Most Innovative Award” which was presented by the Deputy Mayor in December.
Outside of our school, we have started to deliver anti-bullying workshops to local primary schools and had a successful pilot at St. Paul’s Primary School in December. There are more plans to visit other schools in the coming months.
The group wants to continue to grow and have recently obtained the national BIG award and have worked with their advisors to write a new anti-bullying policy for the school. We also ran staff anti-bullying training in January to ensure that all staff are aware of the anti-bullying work being done around the school.
Finally, the anti-bullying group have also recently been shortlisted for the Sunderland Young Achievers Award which will take place in March.
Copies of our school anti-bullying policy are available on request from Mr Roddy, Anti-Bullying Co-ordinator & Head of Year 9. We are determined to ensure every child at the Venerable Bede School feels safe and any comments on our anti-bullying work would be gratefully received.
