When a community is made aware of bullying prevention taking place in school, for a considerable time afterwards any case of student on student anti-social behaviour becomes ‘bullying.’ Awareness of how to get help however outweighs this misconception and it is important to send the message that anyone who feels threatened should talk to a friend, parent, form tutor, teacher or Head of Year to get help quickly.
BISS Puxi has an excellent culture amongst its students, but we are never blind to human behaviour and therefore there are clear polices in place to deal with bullying. You can find these on page 10 of the parent handbook, which is linked to at the bottom of this post.
Bullying is such an emotional issue that all our staff are aware of the need to quickly notify form tutors and Heads of Year of any suspicions, and these are then discussed quickly with the students. Speed of response and regular conversations with students about what to do when bullying occurs, is vital to ensure that students help prevent bullying or identify it and seek help.
There are of course plenty of worthy websites dedicated to giving help and advice to parents and students, but as a school community we want to make everyone aware that we are not blind to an issue that is common in schools and we are well prepared to deal with it. Thankfully bullying is something that does not arise often in our school, but cannot be ignored.
We are very proud of our student-led initiatives and in the secondary school we are following up the staff and parents anti-bullying awareness week with our own Blue Shirt non-uniform day. The day is being organised, and was first suggested last year, by our own pupils. Form time throughout the week will be dedicated to what to do about bullying and who to approach for help. On Monday all students will be asked to wear a blue t-shirt or top to show solidarity and an understanding that at BISS Puxi we are against bullying. We still have the anti-bullying posters up around school that were designed last year. The message is on-going, but blue shirt day and the staff training is a timely reminder.
Finally, the link between parents, students and teachers is very important. We are scheduling counselling training for some staff volunteers and our Heads of Year to cover the range of issues that our students and families deal with, and we will update you on this soon.
If you have any concerns at all about your child please contact their form tutor or Head of Year in the first instance. For ease of reference, below are the Heads of Year and their contact details if you have any serious academic or welfare concerns.
Have a wonderful weekend.
- Chris Share, Head of Secondary
Year 7: Ms Tanya Selden t-selden@bisspuxi.com" style="font-size: 1em; line-height: 1.5;">t-selden@bisspuxi.com
Year 8: Ms Katherine Temple k-temple@bisspuxi.com">k-temple@bisspuxi.com
Year 9: Mr Chris Baker c-baker@bisspuxi.com">c-baker@bisspuxi.com
Year 10: Ms Angela Sharrock a-sharrock@bisspuxi.com">a-sharrock@bisspuxi.com
Year 11: Ms Lisa Cavanagh l-cavanagh@bisspuxi.com">l-cavanagh@bisspuxi.com
IB: Mr Thomas Housham t-housham@bisspuxi.com">t-housham@bisspuxi.com