Feel well, learn well. Our approach to anti-bullying Matthew Burns

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Feel well, learn well.Our approach to
anti-bullyingMatthew Burns Headteacher,
Headlands School
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Our approach to anti-bullying
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How we understand?

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

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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.

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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.

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How we intervene? Some examples.

• Intervention strategies The life space
  interview
• Prevention strategies The peer mentoring
  programme

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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

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

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• Thank you