Gloucestershire schools in fight against bullies
THE fight against bullies in Gloucestershire was given official recognition yesterday as schools picked up awards for their work to combat the abuse.
Pupils joined teachers, governors and education workers to celebrate the work done to raise awareness of bullying.
-
Beaufort Community School representatives,left to right,Jack Hardman,Kelly Dixon,Tom McGuinness,Clare Hankey,Assistant Headteacher,and Paul Robinson, with their South West Anti-Bullying Accreditation Award presented at a ceremony held at the Brickhampton Golf Club on Thursday
The event, at Brickhampton Court Golf Complex in Churchdown, was also aimed at encouraging children to speak up about their experiences.
Five schools picked up the anti-bullying accreditation. Those honoured were Beaufort Community School, Tuffley, Sir William Romney's School in Tetbury, The Cotswold School, Chipping Campden and Tewkesbury School.
The accreditation is only in its third year and this latest crop brings the total of schools with it to 10.
Members of the Youth Parliament spoke about their charter on anti-bullying and pupils read poems on the issue.
The Milestone Special School, Longlevens, also did a presentation.
Tom McGuinness, of Beaufort, said his school has a blog for students to talk about bullying worries and it also has a mentoring scheme for younger pupils.
Gloucestershire County Council's director of learning and development, Jo Grills said: "We have got real commitment and an ethos where young people will be able to speak out when they are being bullied and this will be taken seriously. We need to create schools and a society where people feel they can tell people about it."
8 Comments
View all
by helen, bourton
Tuesday, November 24 2009, 1:46PM
“i would encourage parents who do not agree with their schools implementation of the policy to get in touch with the school.
schools are not naive in thinking they will eradicate bullying, lets not be idealistic and unrealistic, but hopefully the majority of cases are resolved successfully to satisfy all involved.
one disatisfied parent should not tarnish the good practice which goes on most of the time.”
by nnns, tewkesbury
Monday, November 23 2009, 1:55PM
“from very recent experience bullying in tewkesbury school is very rife. the heads of department try extremely hard to cover this up to the point that the head of the school doesn't realize how bad it is. the children are made to feel that they are lying. no child would admit to being bullied if it wasn't the last resort when they can't cope themselves with the situation. it is no wonder that a certain child wrote a letter describing the need to end everything cos no one was listening. the heads of departments should be ashamed of themselves, they are entrusted with the well being of our children. I was lucky enough to be in the position to move my childen to a different school where they do sort out any problems and communicate brilliantly to us parents. My daughter was hurt by another child the other day at the prefered school. they rang me and informed me or what happened and punished the offender. SIMPLE.”
by Anon, Cotswolds
Sunday, November 22 2009, 2:35PM
“The Cotswold School has an appalling record as far as bullying is concerned.
They hide it as much as possible only acknowledging it when the damage is already done.
It comes from the top and this needs to be dealt with by the Governors'.
Also, what exactly do they tell Ofsted about this?”
by anon, glos
Sunday, November 22 2009, 9:22AM
“Almost laughable,my son was sent home Thursday after being beaten up and it was from one of the schools above!!! If this incident would of happened between two adults on a night out it would of resulted in an assault charge ,but because it was children it is bullying.As far as i am concerned my son was assaulted ,lets not dress it up to appear any less i have no faith in this system and until a severe punishment is found it will continue .”
by JN, Gloucester
Friday, November 20 2009, 8:20PM
“How anyone can recommend Beaufort School as a good example of bullying control defies bedlief. The staff there are the worst bullies of all the elements that make up the school. How can they justify placing a student in endless detention in his first term at the school. I thought Hitler and the SS had been removed at the end of the second world war. As an ex qualified teacher I say they need to analyse the way they treat their pupils. They are failing this lad and others horendously and will only drive him and others to anti-social behaviour and probably worse. You will hear from me as the disgusting saga develops.”