Fair Discipline Policy

The School Discipline Policy provides a detailed account of what is expected by the children when attending MBPS. The complete policy including School Rules is available for your perusal by contacting the school office.

Behaviours that may warrant withdrawal from the Playground

• Insolence or rudeness
• Inappropriate and offensive language
• Fighting – Physical/verbal
• Out of bounds, after ‘fair warning’
• Inappropriate behaviour towards others – bullying, ridicule, exclusion, racial comment or taunting
• Damaging property or equipment owned by the school or other pupils
• Interrupting the class – disruptive behaviour, constant talking, stopping others from learning.

Definition

Definition of Bulling: ‘Bullying is the conscious desire to hurt, threaten frighten or exclude someone by physical or verbal means’. Bullying includes:

• Name calling
• Physical violence, eg pushing, shoving and hitting
• Spreading nasty rumours about another student
• Damaging another student’s property
• Threatening other students
• Extortion, eg stand over tactics to obtain money and/or food
• Forcing another student to do something they do not wish to do
• Teasing another student about their options
• Intimidating another student or group of students
• Racial discrimination

Bullying includes:	Bullying is not:
Name calling	Mutual conflict: In mutual   conflict situations, there is an argument or disagreement between students   but not an imbalance of power.
Physical violence eg pushing,   shoving, hitting
Spreading nasty rumours about   another student
Damaging another student’s   property	Social rejection or dislike:   Unless the social rejection is directed towards someone specific and involves   deliberate and repeated attempts to cause distress, exclude or create dislike   by others, it is not bullying.
Threatening other students
Extortion, eg stand over tactics   to obtain money and/or food
Forcing another student to do   something they do not wish to do
Teasing another student about   their opinions	Single-episode acts of nastiness   or meanness, or random acts of aggression or intimidation: Single episodes of   nastiness or physical aggression are not the same as bullying. If a student   is verbally abused or pushed on one occasion they are not being bullied.
Intimidating another student or   group of students
Deliberately excluding a student   from group play
Racism

 

Procedures to Deal with Bullying

Not all incidents will attract consequences and sanctions. Many incidents are successfully dealt with by the teacher in the classroom and playground. Where bullying persists and initial interventions are not successful, the following actions may be taken.

• Interviewed by class teacher or teacher on duty, grade supervisor and/or Deputy Principal and Principal
• Parents being contacted
• Detentions, loss of privileges
• Interviews with Parents/Guardians/School Counsellor
• Suspension

Policy & Procedure

Bullying in any context is unacceptable. At MBPS every student:

• has the right to expect that he or she will spend the school day both in and out of the classroom – free from bullying
• has the right to feel happy and safe at school
• is responsible for their own behaviour
• is required to respect other individuals
• is to do their personal best

Bullying – (The Do’s and Don’ts), The STAND Program

At Marie Bashir Public School we are taking a STAND against bullying.

S – Stay Calm

T – Try to ignore

A – Ask to stop

N – Never fight

D – Duty Teacher

We want children to STAND up for themselves and become upstanding citizens by:

• Learning how to become strong bystanders
• Demonstrating outstanding self-control
• Understand how we manage being bullied