Bullying
Bullying
At St Laurence’s we take all aspects of bullying seriously. Please speak to your teacher or a trusted adult in school if you feel that you are being bullied.
What is bullying?
A bully is someone who hurts another person more than once, by using behaviour which is meant to scare, hurt or upset that person. At our school, we use the word ‘STOP’ to identify bullying which stands for Several Times On Purpose.
This is because single problems and falling out with friends are not bullying.
Bullying is behaviour which is repeated on purpose and is deliberately meant to upset someone.
Types of bullying
Bullying can be different things, and isn’t just hitting or kicking another person. Emotional bullying is hurting someone’s feelings, leaving them out or bossing them about. Physical bullying is punching, kicking, spitting, hitting or pushing someone. Verbal bullying is teasing someone, calling them names or using hand signs. People can also use verbal bullying to be racist or homophobic. Racist means bullying someone because of their skin colour, race or what they believe in. Homophobic means bullying someone because of their gender or sexuality; calling someone gay or lesbian would be homophobic. Sexist means bullying someone because of their sex (whether they are a boy or a girl). Cyber bullying involves sending horrid messages over the internet or by text message. Bullying can be done through another person, by one person asking another person to say nasty things.
If you are being bullied or think someone else may be being bullied, please tell us straight away so we can help. You can tell any adult in school, or write a note and hand it in if you prefer.
You can also go to these websites if you would like to talk to a different safe adult.
The policy below will give you more information on how we can stop bullying in our school. Our main anti-bullying policy can be found on our policies page.