At St Andrew’s School, Turi, we have a strong commitment to stop bullying and making the school a safe place for all children to be. We have put part of the power in the children’s hands by creating an Anti-Bullying committee who can feel empowered and play a key role in stopping the bullying in the school.

This was very successful last year and the school was able to discover many things through the words of the committee. This year’s members are fresh and excited to be part of such a great team. They have been announced in chapel and photographs have gone up around the school so that they can be recognised and approached with ease. The committee, so far, have come up with lots of new ideas to help combat and deal with bullying in the school. Many of which we will be rolling out this term.

For example, we are creating duty rotas for the committee members for ‘walkabouts’ during breaks and lunch times to look out for behaviour which does not seem right. We have also discussed ‘safety maps’ and where students feel and where they do not feel safe around the school. This is so helpful for us as a school as we are able to watch over and police these areas even further. Drop-in sessions with the Anti-Bullying Coordinator are being suggested as being available so if any issues arise students can talk in confidence to someone who will be able to take the problem forward. Also suggestions of Anti-Bullying Box in the school or in each tutor base so that students can confidentially share issues that they see or feel are a concern or are worried about themselves.

Bullying is a problem that we cannot do without the help of the children. The committee play a vital role in this and will continue to do our best to fight bullying in any and all ways we can, and are looking forward to doing so in due course.