Behaviour / Bullying

Our school values drive our expectations for behaviour.  The staff, parents and others who visit our school are encourage to model and reinforce these values at all times.  These values are:

1. Learning: achievement, engagement, participation, independence, critical thinking, curiosity, fun
2. Community: whanaungatanga, aroha, giving, respect, kaitiakitanga, teamwork, fa'aaloalo, tufa'atasi, acceptance
3. Identity: languages, cultures, diversity, belonging, confidence, resilience, honesty, rangatiratanga
4. Creativity: innovation, communication, self expression, problem solving
5. Leadership: service, initiative, mana, courage, responsibility, integrity, empathy, tuakana-teina
Through our Health programme (inlcuding the NZ Police Kia Kaha Programme), we explicitly teach children that bullying is not acceptable behaviour, and what to do if they, or others (no 'bystanders'), are bullied.  

There are three main types of bullying:
  • physical (hitting, kicking, taking belongings)
  • verbal (name calling, insulting, racist remarks); and
  • emotional / indirect (spreading nasty stories / excluding from groups)
Bullying behaviours are:
  • deliberate and hurtful;
  • repeated; and 
  • difficult for those being bullied to defend themselves against.
The main strategy we teach children to use if someone is doing something they don't like is to:

1. Use their words - confidently tell the person what it is they want them to stop doing.Depending on what the behaviour is, children are also encourage to:
2. Ignore the behaviour or
3. Walk away 
Finally, if they have not been able to solve the problem themselves, children are taught to:
4. Ask for help - find a friend, playground peer mediator or an adult they feel comfortable talking to, to help them.

Each year we anonymously survey children to find out about our school climate. We ask:

1. Has anyone bullied you at school this week?

2. Has anyone bullied you at school this term?

3. Have you bullied or been unfair to other people this week?

4. Have you bullied or been unfair to other people this term?

5. Have you helped other children at school this week?

6. Have you helped other children at school this term?

7. Have other children helped you at school this week?

8. Have other children helped you at school this term?

9. Do you know what to do if someone bullies you?

10. Do you feel safe at school?

When children were surveyed in 2008, 89% of them said that they knew what to do if they were bullied and 89% said that they felt safe at school.  As the survey was anonymous, we don't know the reasons behind the answers the children gave, so in 2009 we will randomly select 10% of children to discuss these questions with, while the rest complete the questions anonymously.  While teachers do their best to ensure the happiness and safety of the children in their class, they do not always know what is happening. 

If your child tells you of an issue, please encourage them to use the strategies outlined above, or if they have not been able to resolve the issue, please contact your child's teacher in the first instance, or a member of the senior management team.