Rushen school - incidents of bullying & exclusions/meaures

Summary

A request for bullying statistics and exclusion data at Rushen Primary School was partially fulfilled, with specific incident counts withheld to protect personal data, while general figures and internal procedures were disclosed.

Key Facts

• The total number of confirmed bullying incidents at Rushen Primary School across 2015/2016, 2016/2017, and the start of 2017/2018 was fewer than five.
• No pupils were permanently excluded from the school due to bullying incidents.
• Between one and five pupils were suspended during the 2016/2017 academic year for bullying-related issues.
• No victims of bullying were moved or removed from their class or school.
• The school utilizes a digital whole school behaviour log and runs PSHE/Citizenship curricula including SEAL and Jigsaw programs.

Data Disclosed

• fewer than five
• zero
• 1 and 5
• 2015/2016
• 2016/2017
• 2017/2018
• 2014-2015
• 2015
• 2017
• 2017-10-05
• 2017-10-26

Exemptions Cited

• Section 25 of the Act
• Section 39(1) of the Act (exempt personal information)

Data Tables (1)

Data Tables (reformatted)

Full Response Text

26 October 2017

Dear

Re: Freedom of Information Request – Reference Number IM105738I

Your Request:-

This is specifically for Rushen Primary School, - this request is not for the publicly available 'Anti Bullying' or 'Behavioral' Policies.

1) I would like to know and how many individual instances of bullying where reported in the both the last two full school years 2015/2016, 2016/2017, and since start of 2016/2017 term. A) Of these instances how many were result in exclusion for the person deemed to be offender. B) how may resulted in the victim being moved or removed from the class or school.

2) I would like to see what internal procedure or practices they have in place to support their 'Anti Bullying' policy. Any records of staff training to support this.

3) I would also like to have copies on any internal procedure/practice on how the school specifically deals with, or assists in the identification and any subsequent supporting action of, children that that are disruptive within the class or social environment - these may include children showing signs or indications of emotional / behavioral or potential autistic spectrum disorders (or similar).

As some aspects of the information sought were not clear to us we have sought confirmation of these from you and you have advised:-

Q1 - you have since confirmed that the time period for the last term referred to at the end of question 1 should in fact be the 2017/18 period

Q2 - you have since confirmed that the information sought relates only to evidence of ongoing staff training in anti-bullying policy procedures or practice.

Q3 – you have since confirmed that this relates to social environment situations within school time, but excluding class time attendance, i.e. before/after school periods, lunch or break periods and any trips or off school site occasions.

Department of Education and Children

Rheynn Ynsee as Paitchyn

Chief Executive Officer Ronald Barr

Department of Education and Children Hamilton House Peel Road Douglas IM1 5EZ

Department Response

1. Instances of bullying - while our aim is to provide information whenever possible, the Department is refusing to disclose some of the information requested in your Freedom of Information request on the grounds of exemptions under sections 25 and 39 (1) of the Act (exempt personal information).

This is because the relatively low number of incidents ultimately assessed as bullying at the school may make identification of an individual or individuals possible. This would constitute personally identifiable data to which you are not entitled and disclosure of this data would likely cause damage or distress to the data subject(s).

However the Department can advise that the number of individual incidents of bullying at Rushen Primary School over the academic years 2015/2016, 2016/2017, and since start of 2017/2018 term is fewer than five overall. (Please note that this figure does not include any incidents of alleged bullying which were investigated but not proven, or were not directly managed within provisions of the anti-bullying policy.)

1A. No. resulting in exclusion – the number of instances resulting in exclusion from Rushen Primary School was zero, as it is not the Department’s policy to permanently exclude or expel pupils from school as far as is possible.

However appropriate actions were carried out by the School in respect of the above reported number of instances of bullying, which included the suspension of between 1 and 5 pupils in the 2016/17 academic year. (As above, this information is provided in this form to support the data protection principles regarding personally identifiable data.)

1.B Removal from school or class – no victims of bullying were moved or removed from the class or school by the School or the Department.

1. Internal procedures or practices – the following procedures/practices and measures are in place at Rushen Primary School to support their anti-bullying policy:-

 Staff record incidents in a digital whole school behaviour log. This log includes the members of staff involved, findings from the investigation (including dates and times) and actions taken (e.g. what happened, children involved, contacts with parents of each party, child/ren’s consequences, etc…) and the details of any follow up at a later date.

 Whole school delivers the recommended curriculum for PSHE and Citizenship curriculum (SEAL 2014-2015) and Jigsaw (2016-date). These programmes include Anti-Bullying Week assemblies and age-appropriate lessons.

 School reviews school behaviour policy on a two year cycle, including practice and procedures (2015 and again 2017).

 The previous review of the school’s behaviour policy (before 2015) saw the introduction of Playground Patrol and a playground Friendship Bench (i.e. Children volunteer and receive some training in helping other children at playtimes to, for example, play games, find a friend, share equipment, help solve minor conflicts, etc…)

 The Headteacher seeks the views of parents through a parent questionnaire annually, the results are shared with parents via newsletters (example question: Does your child feel safe at school?) Very few returns and none raised issues that the HT was not already aware of/currently addressing.

 The Headteacher records incidents and all other correspondence for individual children in electronic folders.

 The Headteacher reports to School Governors (at least termly).

Records of staff training – the following information is taken from the School’s staff training log:-

2015 – 2016
(Appraisal cycle changed to September 2015 – July 16)  20.1.16 DHT attended IOM Team Teach (positive handling) training course  20.4.16 2 Staff members attended IOM Team Teach (positive handling) training course  11.5.16 Staff member attended IOM Team Teach (positive handling) training course

2016 – 2017
(Appraisal cycle September 2016 – July 17)  6.9.16 INSET includes review of behaviour policy. Action resulted in:  28.9.16 Leadership team meeting to action plan the review of school behaviour policy  28.9.16 Teacher appraisal target set - To establish a Playground Activity Leaders (PALs):

A Playground Activity Leaders group was established, trained and is recognized by the whole school through:  Research and reading effective resources and activities  Meetings with children  Training sessions for the children to learn new games, improve communication  New jumpers were designed, agreed by adults and children  Display about PAL is present showing the PAL motto  A whole school assembly was used to introduce PAL  Leaflets are designed, produced and distributed to PAL to confirm their status  Certificates were designed, produced and distributed to PAL at the end of the year as a reward  Staff meetings were used to share the progress of developing PAL and collect feedback  Selection of children across the school gave regular feedback on the impact of PALs- leading to ‘Hands of friendship’ bench and PAL hats to allow them to stand out.

 12.7.17 Teacher appraisal review of target - met

 29.9.16 Police invited to school to talk to KS2 class groups about unsociable behaviour and possible consequences regarding the law and relative to age.

 5.10.16 Twilight- Invited [redacted] (Assistant Head, Education Support Centre, Glencrutchery Road) to support school with a revised positive behaviour policy and to provide training and support with de-escalation strategies

 1.11.16 Discuss concept of a school rules poster at LT meeting

 2.11.16 Staff meeting to share writing a new school rules

 9.11.16 Staff meeting to revise and confirm details for the new school rules

 w/c 13.11.16 Teachers share new school rules with classes and display poster

 25.11.16 New school rules poster shared with parents via children’s learning logs and newsletter

2017 to date Staff meetings/MLT meetings:

 26.9.17 MLT - Context in terms of acceptable behaviour and challenges, solutions, role of MLT 

 27.9.17 SM - Discussion regarding Interim Behaviour arrangements, the role of the CT, MLT and SLT

 3.10.17 MLT - Context, challenges and solutions

 4.10.17 SM - Values and beliefs about behaviour, Rewards, Consequences and Think and Fix

 11.10.17 SM - Interim Behaviour arrangements, Thresholds for consequences and behaviours at each level

 18.10.17 SM - Think and Fix, Reflection Space

 November Newsletter - Interim behavior policy (introduce Reflection space for children to discuss, think about and modify behavior - ‘Think & Fix’)

(Key: DHT = Deputy Headteacher, SLT = Senior Leadership team, MLT = Middle Leadership team, CT = Class Teacher, PALs = Playground Activity Leaders, SM = staff meeting)

1. Internal procedures or practices – there are no specific additional procedure or practice documents in issue but the following additional measures are promoted to assist in the identification/supporting action of children that that are disruptive within the class or social environment:-

 Any disruptive behaviour in class (whilst in our care – i.e. playground, transition between classes, trips, etc.) is addressed by following the school’s positive behaviour policy, which is inclusive.

 With parental consent, school may place a child on the Special Educational Needs register (refer to SEN policy).

 Additional support and advice may then be sought from external agencies (e.g. Social Services, Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services, Educational Psychologists, etc.)

The information provided within this response letter will also be published on the Government website in due course should you wish to revisit the information.

If you are unhappy with this response to your Freedom of Information request, you may ask us to carry out an internal review of the response, by completing a Review/Complaint form and submitting it electronically or by delivery/post to:

Mr Andrew Shipley, Legal and Administration Manager, Hamilton House, Peel Road, Douglas, Isle of Man, IM1 5EZ.

An electronic version of our Review/Complaint form can be found by going to https://www.gov.im/about-the-government/freedom-of-information/

Your Review/Complaint request should explain why you are dissatisfied with this response, and should be made as soon as practicable. We will respond as soon as the review has been conducted.

Appeal Process

If you are not satisfied with the result of the review, you then have the right to appeal to the Information Commissioner for a decision on;

1

Whether we have responded to your request for information in accordance with Part 2 of the Freedom of Information Act; or 2

Whether we are justified in refusing to give you the information requested.

In response to an application for review, the Information Commissioner may, at any time, attempt to resolve a matter by negotiation, conciliation, mediation or another form of alternative dispute resolution and will have regard to any outcome of this in making any subsequent decision.

More detailed information on your rights to review is on the Information Commissioner’s website at https://www.inforights.im/contact-us/

Should you have any queries concerning this letter, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Further information about Freedom of Information requests can be found at www.gov.im/foi

Yours sincerely