Feel well, learn well. Our approach to anti-bullying Matthew Burns – Headteacher, Headlands School Feel well, learn well. Our approach to anti-bullying Matthew Burns – Headteacher, Headlands School

Our approach to anti-bullying How we intervene? How do we know its working? How we understand?

Bullying is a behaviour. Behaviour is an expression of what a child thinks, feels and needs. A child’s behaviour is heavily influenced by what is going on in their lives. Therefore a good place to start is with understanding our children’s context.

About Headlands School Charity, special school with residential care. Small school population – average class size of 7. Age range 7 – 19. Before arriving at our school all pupils will have experienced exclusion from school. Often drawn from vulnerable groups of society, which include: LAC, children with diagnosis of a range of developmental disorders and children who have experienced significant trauma and abuse. All of which can make social interaction more difficult.

What does this mean? Our children are often: Developmentally younger in terms of their social and emotional skills Low in self-esteem and confidence Find the school setting frightening and unpredictable Hyper-vigilant for signs of conflict, threat or perceived criticism Find it difficult to exist alongside other young people with differing needs, views and desires Have learnt unhelpful ways of resolving conflict situations. Find change and unstructured time difficult to manage These factors increase the likelihood that these children will be more vulnerable to being bullied or bullying others.

How we intervene? Some examples. Intervention strategies – The life space interview Prevention strategies – The peer mentoring programme

Case study Michael Is 11 years old Multiple care and educational placements History of trauma and neglect Lack of safety in his key relationships Need for power and dominance over others Interventions Increasing sense of safety Consistency, structure and supervision Modelling caring and respectful relationships Helping him to understand his impact on others Exposure to positive experiences

How do we know its working? Anti-bullying team meeting

What do Katie and Brandon have to say? Things that help: Having something to do with friends at break and lunchtimes. Knowing older pupils or having older pupils as friends. Getting advice from other pupils, especially if they have had to deal with bullying too. When people are saying nasty things pretend they are birds chattering – “it sounds daft but it works!” Having good, proper friends to keep you from bullying others.

Thank you