Bullying & harassment

In short

KSIM does not tolerate bullying in any form. If your child is being bullied, or knows someone who is, they should tell a parent and a teacher immediately. All reports are recorded and dealt with immediately, and parents are kept informed.

What bullying means here

Bullying and harassment means any unwelcome verbal or physical behaviour or communication — particularly when the behaviour is repeated and is one-sided — directed at a person that is offensive to them and mocks, humiliates, harms, or denies a person’s dignity and respect.

The school’s stated position is that bullying affects many young people and happens in many schools, but that the way it is dealt with makes the difference between life being tolerable or a misery.

The forms it takes

• Hurting someone physically by hitting, kicking, tripping, pushing, pinching, poking and so on
• Forcing someone to do something
• Stealing or damaging another person’s things
• Ganging up on someone
• Teasing in a hurtful way about looks, accents, clothes, toys, homes
• Cyber-bullying — personal attacks through mobile phones, blogs and vlogs, websites, online chat rooms and similar
• Using put-downs, such as insulting someone’s race, religion, or sexual nature
• Sexual harassment — remarks, gestures or actions that are sexual in nature
• Spreading rumours about someone, or sharing personal, private information about an individual
• Leaving someone out on purpose, or trying to get other students not to play with someone

Bullying can happen anywhere — at school, travelling to and from school, on teams, on school trips, on social network sites, or at home.

What to do

• If your child feels they are being bullied or teased, or knows someone who is, they should tell their parents and teachers immediately.
• All reports of incidents of bullying and harassment by a student are recorded by the school and dealt with immediately.
• Students are encouraged to seek advice or assistance about peer harassment or teacher/student harassment by contacting a counsellor, a teacher, or the Head of School.
• Parents are kept informed of any issues of bullying as may be appropriate, to assist in the process of stopping the bullying.

What happens next

• Any student, employee, parent or volunteer who subjects another student, employee, parent, volunteer or visitor to personal harassment may be subject to disciplinary action, up to and including dismissal from employment or exclusion from school.
• The student who was bullied is supported and helped to deal with future incidents.
• Those disciplined for bullying are taught how to stop their behaviour and how to behave more appropriately.
• The consequences of any bullying incident are set by the progressive discipline plan — bullying appears at Level 2 and, where it involves extortion or threats of violence, at Level 3.

If your child sees it happening

Students are not responsible for disciplining other students. But students who observe a bullying situation are encouraged to communicate appropriate behaviour to those involved, and/or to report the incident immediately to a proper authority within the school.

The wider commitment

KSIM aims to prevent bullying by creating a supportive, safe, caring and nurturing learning environment based on sensitivity to, and respect for, all members of the student body. Students are to be treated with dignity, respect and fairness, and interactions are to be free from physical, emotional and social abuse.

Every student should know that bullying is unacceptable, and that they will be listened to and that reports of bullying will be acted upon.

See also diversity, equity & inclusion and safeguarding & child protection.