Whole school approach to anti-bullying in schools

Click on the links to access information, guidance and resources that can be applied to a whole-school approach, including an audit tool and an action plan.

Try these 'quick wins' before thinking about anything else to get you started and see the difference you could make.

• Think about first impressions! Add signs and clear messaging that bullying is never acceptable in your school - display these messages at your school gates, welcome area and on your school website. You can find some simple information and signposting to load onto your school website in this padlet.
• Implement a peer-led approach to bullying behaviour in your school by planning in anti-bullying activities that support students to develop new skills. To access all resources to achieve this, click on the links below: primary and secondary.
  • Primary - CYP Action Group: Anti-Bullying Campaign
  • Secondary - CYP Action Group: Anti-Bullying Campaign
• Ensure all staff have consistent and effective ways to tackle different types of bullying behaviour e.g. racism-related bullying behaviour, homophobic bullying behaviour, cyberbullying behaviour. The Anti-Bullying Alliance offers free staff training.

Watch at this "Anti-Bullying Top Tips for Teachers" video, created by some young people who have experienced bullying, for more top tips!

Audit tool

Use the whole-school approach audit tool (Word doc) [921KB] to identify areas of good practice and identify areas for improvement.

The action plan will provide you with guidance and resources (Word doc) [942KB] for every area to ensure you achieve a measurable impact.

If you need any bespoke support and guidance, or have a CYP or a group of CYP experiencing bullying, we are happy to help and can be contacted at inclusionandsend@norfolk.gov.uk.

Evidence highlights that a whole-school approach is most effective to tackle bulling in schools. Guidance from the anti-bullying alliance (ABA) provides evidence-based information on the following topics and much more!

• Ten key principles
• Top tips for teachers
• Anti-bullying policies
• Anti-bullying in the curriculum
• Peer support strategies

There are two anti-bullying awards that can help you work towards a whole school / setting approach to anti- bullying, already used by some of our Norfolk schools:

• United Against Bullying (UAB) Programme (fully funded for schools until August 2024)
• The Diana Award

While there isn't one single approach to follow with anti-bullying, you should aim to embed the following elements across your school / setting:

Communication:

• All staff, volunteers, CYP and families should be made aware of the anti-bullying policy as part of their induction. It should be kept on the agenda for staff, governor and school council meetings.
• All staff should be aware of their role in reducing the risks of bullying, and of school policy, procedure and practice. This can be done collectively to begin with by having an anti-bullying policy launch: perhaps holding an assembly or event where everyone is informed and the school's stance on bullying is explored and clearly stated.
• You could also set up a regular working group to discuss how successful the school's approach to Anti-Bullying is in reality.
• These free resources can be used to engage the whole-school community work together to understand and define bullying.

Ground rules:

• These should be devised by the CYP and focus on how they should interact with each other and what they will do if they experience bullying. These ground rules will differ depending on the ages of the CYP involved, but may include statements such as: "We will respect each other and our differences" and "When we see someone being bullied, we will try to help".
• These should be prominently displayed for all to see and if bullying behaviour occurs or relationships are negative, the behaviour can be checked by reminding CYP of the statements.

Visual reminders:

• Posters and badges could be placed around the school to reinforce the messages around anti-bullying.
• These should also be on school or organisational websites if possible, providing a clear commitment to equality and diversity.

Peer supporters and anti-bullying ambassadors:

• Peer supporters can be recruited and trained to set up a peer support group, working closely with an 'adult befriender'.
• Anti-bullying ambassadors can be recruited and trained to set up a peer action group to steer and promote the schools' anti-bullying strategy.
• Ensure these groups are especially prepared for key points of the year such as Anti-Bullying week and transitions.

Displays and resources:

• Update displays and ensure that images shared around school represent the diversity of the school community and celebrate every kind of success.

Safe spaces in school:

• A safe space in school is one where the CYP has some control over what happens next, where for a few moments they can press pause and gather their emotions, somewhere they feel less threatened and overwhelmed by what is happening, a space where they can talk to someone without fear of being judged or exposed. These can include:
  • Breaktime quiet spaces
  • Wellbeing rooms
  • An alliance space - could be for specific protected characteristics or more broad
  • Year 7 only playground
  • A multifaith / reflection space

Relationships:

• Ensure all CYP have an adult they feel comfortable to talk to if they have an issue.
• Role-modelling and self-awareness amongst adults is important. The relationship between adults and CYP should also mirror these values.
• Children will model their behaviour on what they are witnessing and we should always be mindful of this. Lead by example.

Identity awareness and cultural competency:

• CYP should feel safe to bring their authentic self to school.

Procedures including recording and reporting:

• Your school needs to be proactive in preventing and tackling discriminatory bullying for those with 'relevant protected characteristics' under the Public Sector Equality Duty of the Equality Act 2010. These include age, disability, sex, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief and sexual orientation.
• There needs to be clear processes in place to respond to bullying incidents which are used consistently across the school. See the Anti-bullying padlet for guidance.
• Bullying incidents should be reviewed individually and a number of different practices will probably need to be adopted to find the most effective response.

See further guidance on ethos and environment at "Creating the right environment" (respectme.org.uk).

Anti-bullying week

Actively demonstrating your commitment to preventing and addressing bullying is important. This can be done by pledging your support for Anti-Bullying Week and using this as a basis for creating a pledge that is bespoke to your setting.

Ensure the pledge is coproduced and is shared with the whole school community so it accessible and understood by all. Consider:

• A pictorial version
• Online presence
• How CYP Participation / Voice work will help delivery of this pledge.
• Governor awareness
• Can this become a 'Golden Thread'? Ensure it is visible in the different physical spaces in the school, with all staff understanding that their subject / area of responsibility can support the delivery of the pledge and that bullying can affect them in some shape or form.

There should be a senior lead who coordinates your approach to anti-bullying and oversees all responses to bullying incidents.

• The school community should know who they are and they should be written into the anti-bullying and/or behaviour policies.
• All staff should know the contact details for this person and there needs to be clear routes of communication.

Refer to these Anti-Bullying Alliance (ABA) leadership resources for further guidance and resources in relation to leadership.

There should be a named governor who oversees all responses to bullying incidents. This governor should be provided with time to understand the data around bullying incidents within your setting to be able to inform appropriate future support / provision.

Refer to these ABA governance resources for further guidance and resources in relation to school governance.

Key guidance

The Ofsted Common Inspection Framework continues to place an emphasis on the safety and well-being of CYP. The effectiveness of school's leadership and management will be judged on whether they 'actively promote equality and diversity' and 'tackle bullying and discrimination'. Inspectors will want to see:

• Records and analysis of bullying, discriminatory and prejudicial behaviour, either directly or indirectly, including racist, disability and homophobic bullying, use of derogatory language and racist incidents.
• Grade descriptors for 'personal development, behaviour and welfare' maintain a strong focus on successful management of bullying including the active involvement of young people.

See the FAQs section for more guidance linked to Ofsted.

Behaviour in schools guidance outlines that all members of the school community create a positive, safe environment in which bullying, physical threats or abuse and intimidation are not tolerated, in which CYP are safe and feel safe and everyone is treated respectfully.

The DfE statutory guidance "Keeping Children Safe in Education" emphasises the importance of tackling bullying (including cyberbullying) and also highlights that children with SEND can be disproportionately impacted by bullying. It also states the importance of teaching children to stay safe online and ensuring they don't access inappropriate material.

Using this toolkit will help schools align with the Ofsted framework, meet 'Keeping Children Safe in Education' statutory guidance and promote the wellbeing of students. It will also help schools meet the requirements of the Equality Act (2010) which places a duty on all public bodies to 'have regard to the need to eliminate discrimination, harassment and victimisation and promote equality of opportunity'.

There should be good working relationships with the police, and with voluntary sector organisations and networks concerned with bullying and other harassment issues.

Consider engaging with your local Safer Neighbourhood Teams via Your Area | Norfolk Constabulary. This is a way for local people to work with local police and partners to identify and deal with issues of concern in their neighbourhood.

All schools have a legal duty to prevent bullying - this should be outlined in policy. All schools should have a carefully considered anti-bullying policy that is put into action on a daily basis, this is vital for the protection of children and young people (CYP) and staff.

The Anti-Bullying Alliance has created some guiding principles when writing or updating your Anti-Bullying policy.

Your policy should:

• Be easy to understand for CYPs, parents and staff. The policy should be available in school and on the school website as well as communicated via numerous means to staff at least annually
• Be provided to staff as part of their induction
• Be reviewed on an annual basis
• Have a clear definition of bullying that is understood by all members of the school community
• State that bullying is never acceptable behaviour and set clear expectations about how all CYPs, staff and parents should treat each other
• Reference the Equality Act 2010 and show your commitment to preventing and responding effectively to the bullying of protected and vulnerable groups of CYP including disabled CYP / CYP with SEN
• Reference action to prevent and respond to bullying outside of school (e.g. cyberbullying, journeys to and from school)
• Include strategies to prevent bullying and typical response strategies (including for home-to-school transport and online bullying)
• Clearly align with other relevant policies (e.g. behaviour, safeguarding, SEND, acceptable use)
• Include a range of methods by which CYPs and parents can report bullying (including a named contact)

Your policy will need to set out the different methods used to address bullying behaviour and repair relationships of those involved. These might include:

• Restorative Practices and Solution-Focused Approaches
• Peer Mediation

Your policy will need to consider:

• Consequences
• When the police need to be involved: there may be a case for police involvement if a crime has been committed. See further guidance in "When to call the police: Guidance for schools and colleges.

Revise other existing policies and documents to ensure they acknowledge and reflect your whole school approach to anti-bullying and do not disadvantage certain CYP or put them at greater risk of bullying or feeling excluded:

• Hair and uniform policy
• Charging policy
• ICT/Mobile phone policies
• Attendance policy
• Physical activity policy
• Homework policy

School policies should also cover children accessing the internet on their own mobile phones whilst at school. A key theme in the Keeping Children Safe in Education guidance is around child-on-child abuse and, in particular, sexual violence and sexual harassment. Child-on-child abuse includes bullying, physical abuse, sexual violence and sexual harassment, the non-consensual sharing of indecent images/videos, and so-called initiation ceremonies. The guidance is very clear that the school's approach to these issues must be in their policies stating how the risk of child-on-child abuse is going to be minimised, how these incidents are recorded, investigated and dealt with and how the victims, and perpetrators, are to be supported.

Guidance and legislation to be aware of

• The Education Act 2002 Section 175 placed a legal duty on maintained schools and Local Authorities to safeguard and promote the welfare of children (legislation.gov.uk)
• Equality Act 2010 (legislation.gov.uk)
• Keeping children safe in education (www.gov.uk)
• The Department for Education (DfE) has produced Guidance: Preventing bullying for all schools, including academies and free schools, which outlines its duties towards preventing and tackling bullying in schools (www.gov.uk)
• A bullying incident should be addressed as a child protection issue under the Children Act 1989 when there is "reasonable cause to suspect that a child is suffering, or is likely to suffer, significant harm." These concerns must be reported to the member of staff in school responsible for child protection and then reported to the local authority's children's social services. (legislation.gov.uk)
• Section 89 of the Education and Inspections Act 2006 states that maintained schools must have measures to encourage good behaviour and prevent all forms of bullying amongst CYP. Some schools choose to include this information in an anti-bullying policy, whilst others include it in their behaviour policy. These measures must be communicated to all CYP, school staff and parents. The head teacher must follow through and adopt the policy and all students, parents and teachers should be notified of it once it has been decided.
• The Independent School Standards (England)(Amendment) Regulations 2012 state that the proprietor of an academy or other independent school is required to ensure that an effective anti-bullying strategy and health & safety strategy is drawn up and implemented.

It is vital that anti-bullying work is shaped by the people who are most affected by the issue - children and young people (CYP) themselves. Having CYP lead on campaigns or initiatives makes the work more meaningful, and ensures the problems being addressed are relevant and the solutions effective. It's important that all adults involved in CYP's lives (teachers, parents, carers, youth workers etc) listen to young people and take their views seriously.

The anti-bullying policy should be co-produced with CYPs and be communicated via numerous means to CYPs (by CYPs) at least annually.

Key steps to collecting CYP voice and empowering them to lead activities:

1. Set up a CYP reference or action group. Make sure you involve a range of CYP - the CYP in your group will provide ideas, understanding and knowledge, and will act as a representative voice for their peers when it comes to online bullying issues. Involving different perspectives in your group will help make anti-bullying activities more inclusive. It is vital you include groups who have historically been marginalised, focusing on removing barriers to participation. When forming a group, you need to consider:
   • Numbers
   • Age range
   • Diversity
   • Experience of bullying
2. Gather information about bullying in the school through a survey or focus groups. There are a variety of ways that you can collect information, please see resources and guidance in the primary consultation pack (Word doc) [2MB] and secondary consultation pack (Word doc) [1MB].
3. Plan and market the anti-bullying work.
4. Do the work. Top tips for effective CYP participation:
   • Take care of yourself and the young people you're working with
   • Be mindful with your language
   • Remember, children and young people have a right not to be bullied
   • Listen to what the young people are saying
5. Evaluate the work and share the story.

Access these Anti-Bullying Alliance (ABA) resources about supporting CYPs to be actively involved in anti-bullying initiatives (e.g. including awareness raising, peer support).

These practical activities from The Diana Award can support with implementing a peer-led approach.

Think B4 You Type is a free toolkit to help you support secondary school-aged children and young people to design and lead their own campaign around online bullying.

Please see this padlet for guidance around how to respond to a specific incident of bullying.

Children and young people (CYP) should be made aware of their rights and responsibilities and the school's expectations regarding bullying. In addition to curriculum content this can be done through conference days, topic boards or assemblies where bullying can be discussed and the message that bullying is never acceptable can be reinforced.

CYP must be able to access information, advice and guidance around bullying and should know how to ask for help with bullying; for themselves and peers.

This support should be highlighted within the relevant lessons and also be promoted in key spaces in school such as toilets, entrances and via the school website.

See Young Minds guidance for CYP on how to deal with bullying and get help.

Impact of bullying

Bullying can be harmful and affect CYP's mental health in a number of ways, including making CYP feel depressed or anxious, have angry outbursts or low self-esteem, among others. Bullying can also have long-lasting effects on CYP's academic performance and other long term impacts on mental health, physical health and relationships.

• Bullying should be understood by all as a barrier to learning, a potential safeguarding issue and a wellbeing issue. See further guidance from the Anti-Bullying Alliance (ABA).
• CYP absence from school should be monitored as a possible indicator of bullying. If school absence is found to be due to bullying, then this should be formally recorded and action taken to support those CYPs. See these ABA resources about CYP absence and bullying.

Families should be supported if they have any concerns around bullying. It can be helpful to promote the Anti-Bullying Alliance's (ABA) Information tool for parents and carers; this ABA flyer can also be used.

Families should be made aware of their responsibilities and the school's expectations around bullying - this can be communicated clearly through your policy.

They should be fully aware of what will happen if a bullying incident occurs involving their child and their responsibilities in relation to this.

• This can be done through parent/carer meetings and conferences or by asking the CYP to develop information leaflets that will be shared with parents and carers and added to the website.

Information, advice and guidance should be provided to families electronically via the website, email, newsletter and displayed in prominent areas around the school. See some helpful signposting below:

• This parent pack provides information about bullying, tips about what to do if parents are worried about bullying, and tools to help them talk to their children about bullying.
• Some top tips for parents around bullying from the Anti-Bullying Alliance and UNICEF.
• Support for parents whose child is being bullied from Action for Children.
• Information and advice to help children deal with bullying and cyber- bullying from NSPCC.

Issues linked to bullying are complex and need a whole school approach in which the RSHE curriculum plays a vital part. You should take a cross-curricular approach as this is more effective than a standalone or one-off anti-bullying lesson.

Learning about different types of bullying (including online) is a statutory RSHE requirement. This includes the impact of bullying, responsibilities of bystanders to report bullying and how and where to get help. This also crosses over with how you can teach about abuse, harassment and discrimination within your RSHE curriculum.

Your school's RSHE curriculum should deliver the skills, strategies and values to address bullying.

A safe teaching and learning environment must be established for lessons that seek to discuss bullying. The PSHE Association have outlined key steps and best practice principles to help you create a safe classroom environment, and plan and teach RSHE effectively.

RSHE, assembly and other cross curricula opportunities should be used to celebrate difference and diversity of all CYPs. Explore the Anti-Bullying Association (ABA) resources about celebrating difference and diversity.

Primary school

By the end of primary school, students should know:

• About making friends, kindness, how to manage falling out, and what to do if they witness unkind behaviour.
• The value of friendships, overcoming challenges and how to respond to bullying behaviour.
• About including others, communicating respectfully, the impact of bullying and how to seek support.

High quality resources about bullying - Primary

• This Bullying and belief Toolkit Booklet Aug 2020 provides lesson ideas and resources for both primary and secondary (natre.org.uk)
• The Anti-Bullying Alliance provides school resources to support schools during anti-bullying week (anti-bullyingalliance.org.uk)
• The Literacy Shed provides a collection of videos and images which can be used to stimulate discussion around bullying

Secondary school

By the end of secondary school, students should know:

• How to maintain positive friendships, develop empathy, and prevent or challenge bullying.
• About friendship challenges and ways to resolve them; and learn about similarities and differences between people.
• How to recognise and challenge bullying in a range of contexts; about challenging unhealthy attitudes towards bullying; and, where to seek support.

High quality resources about bullying - Secondary

• This Bullying and belief Toolkit Booklet Aug 2020 provides lesson ideas and resources for both primary and secondary (natre.org.uk)
• The Anti-Bullying Alliance provides school resources to support schools during anti-bullying week (anti-bullyingalliance.org.uk)

High quality social and emotional learning resources to challenge bullying

Learning about emotional wellbeing is also a statutory RSHE requirement. This includes social and emotional learning; knowledge skills and values that build self-esteem, understanding and managing feelings, self-regulation, problem solving and promoting resilience. This can reduce the impact of bullying, increase the chance of bystanders reporting bullying and of help being sought.

• Activities such as role-play, art work, drama and literature can provide further reinforcement that bullying is wrong and provide an empathetic approach to those who have been bullied or those who witness bullying.
• Discussion around topics such as what is bullying, who would you tell, and the impacts of bullying can help to develop appropriate attitudes and create an environment where bullying is unacceptable. Examples can be taken from the media or put forward by the CYP themselves.
• Get CYP to discuss how bullying is perceived in popular culture either using art, drama or part of class presentations. You can also explore issues such as prejudice, racism and homophobia using this approach.

Training and support should be provided to ensure that everyone understands their roles and responsibilities in relation to the anti-bullying policy. This should form part of new staff induction packages.

All staff should have CPD which raises awareness, increases confidence and builds skills about bullying. They need to understand:

• The impact of bullying on children and young people (CYP)
• Who may be more at risk of bullying
• Preventing bullying
• The levels of bullying in their setting
• Responding to bullying

All staff should be encouraged to and practice exemplary conduct towards each other and CYP. This will be reflected in staff inductions and includes external organisations who provide services within school. For example, after school club staff. See further guidance from the Anti-Bullying Alliance (ABA).

CPD opportunities include the following:

• If you would like to increase your knowledge on understanding bullying, please see the guidance from the Anti-Bullying Alliance.
• There is a free CPD training course offered as part of the United Against Bullying (UAB) whole-school anti-bullying programme. It aims to develop your understanding of bullying and those most at risk and improve confidence in preventing and responding to bullying. The final session of the course is an optional workshop for schools registered on UAB to provide practical support on the programme.
• The Anti-Bullying Alliance has developed free CPD-certified anti-bullying online training for anyone that works with children and young people.
• ABA provides guidance for Teaching Assistants (TA) on how to provide good support to children and young people who have experienced bullying, and receive TA support.
• Trauma and Attachment Aware Practice training is available through the Norfolk Virtual School for Children in Care and Previously in Care. Contact the team on virtual.schoolscwsw@norfolk.gov.uk for further information.
• All staff should be trained in active listening to enable CYP to talk to whichever adult they feel comfortable with if they have an issue. Samaritans provide a one-hour online learning session on active listening called "DEAL: developing listening skills".
• The Anti-Bullying Alliance have developed specific CPD around identity-based bullying (anti-bullyingalliance.org.uk).
• It would also be beneficial to complete the CASEL course called "An Introduction to Social and Emotional Learning" (casel.org).
• Support staff to develop their awareness around unconscious bias - this is a key consideration when supporting staff to respond appropriately to individual / groups of CYP involved in a bullying incident.

If you engage with Educational Psychology and Specialist Support (EPSS), consider discussing whole school training / approaches to anti-bullying with them during your core consultation.

The information we hold in schools can provide valuable insights and help us to refine provision and support around bullying.

Use of online reporting

• Using systems such as CPOMs allows all staff to log bullying incidents and receive feedback around actions taken if necessary.
• Designated Safeguarding Leads (DSL) and other pastoral staff can have elevated access to the site, are alerted to all incidents, this helps to build a picture of what is happening for all children and young people (CYP) involved.
• Advantages to using a system like CPOMs means reports can be generated and data can be analysed more easily.
• When a CYP leaves and enrols in a new school or college, transfers of the individual CYP account can be made electronically if both schools are using the system.
• These online systems are particularly useful for recording bullying as they help support schools to collate incidents that can be easily analysed to determine patterns and emerging trends which may require further action by the school.

Filtering and monitoring systems

• Schools are required to have in place systems to keep CYP safe from harmful content online. Schools will use a range of tools to do this. Schools should also monitor devices to ensure that bullying is not occurring whilst CYP are using apps such as Teams and Google Meets that allow messaging between CYPs.
• See guidance on filtering and monitoring within paragraphs 141-143 of Keeping children safe in education 2023
• Understand what standards your school or college should meet on filtering and monitoring through "Meeting digital and technology standards in schools and colleges" (www.gov.uk).

Reporting to the police

Most bullying incidents are not crimes. But some types of bullying are illegal and should be reported to the police:

• This includes bullying that involves violence or assault; theft; harassment and intimidation over a period of time including calling someone names or threatening them, making abusive phone calls, and sending abusive emails or text messages (one incident is not normally enough to get a conviction); and anything involving hate crimes.
• Some cyberbullying activities could be criminal offences under a range of different laws, including the Malicious Communications Act 1988 and the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 (legislation.gov.uk). There have been some instances of such prosecutions in the UK.
• See further guidance in "When to call the police: Guidance for schools and colleges.

Priory Fields School have achieved the Diana Award. They introduced Anti-bullying Ambassadors who have been involved in a number of different projects including creating anti-bullying display boards, badges and a child friendly anti-bullying policy. Find out more at Priory Fields School - Anti-Bullying Ambassadors.

West Exe School have achieved the Anti-Bullying Quality Mark and the Diana Award. They have set up anti-bullying student ambassadors, parent advocates and staff anti-bullying champions. Find out more at Ted Wragg Multi-Academy Trust - West Exe School awarded national anti-bullying award (tedwraggtrust.co.uk).

I'm worried about my upcoming Ofsted inspection because I know bullying has happened at my school. What do I do?

Preventing and responding appropriately to bullying is a key component of school inspections. It is important that schools can evidence their anti-bullying policies and interventions. The Education Inspection Framework sets out how Ofsted will inspect state schools, further education and skills providers, non-association independent schools and registered early years settings in England.

Anti Bullying Alliance Advisory Group member Mark Holliday from Wandsworth Borough Council has compiled a breakdown of all the elements of the updated 2021 Inspection Handbook for maintained schools and academies that reference bullying so schools are able to prepare for these following elements.

Information that schools must provide by 8am on the day of inspection

82. The inspection support administrator will also send the school a note requesting that the following information is available to inspectors by 8am the next day, at the formal start of the inspection:

• Records and analysis of bullying, discriminatory and prejudiced behaviour, either directly or indirectly, including racist, sexist, disability and homophobic/biphobic/transphobic bullying, use of derogatory language and racist incidents.

Pupil and staff questionnaires

105. Inspectors have a duty to pass on disclosures that raise child protection or safeguarding issues and/or when there are concerns about serious misconduct, bullying of staff or criminal activity.

Talking to and observing pupils outside lessons

132. During informal conversations with pupils, inspectors must ask them about their experiences of teaching, learning and behaviour in the school, including the prevention of bullying and how the school deals with any form of harassment and violence, discrimination and prejudiced behaviour, if they happen.

Behaviour and attitudes

228. The judgement focuses on the factors that research and inspection evidence indicate contribute most strongly to pupils' positive behaviour and attitudes , thereby giving them the greatest possible opportunity to achieve positive outcomes. These factors (include):

• An environment in which pupils feel safe, and in which bullying, discrimination and child-on-child abuse - online or offline - are not accepted and are dealt with quickly, consistently and effectively whenever they occur.

Sources of evidence specific to behaviour and attitudes

238. The pupil and staff surveys used in inspection contain questions about safeguarding, behaviour and discipline, bullying, how respondents feel about the school and how well supported and respected they feel they are in the school. Inspectors will meet school leaders to account for the results of the interviews and surveys of pupils and staff.

Grade descriptors for behaviour and attitudes

240. In order for behaviour and attitudes to be judged outstanding, it must meet all of the good criteria securely and consistently and it must also meet the additional outstanding criteria (including):

• Pupils behave with consistently high levels of respect for others. They play a highly positive role in creating a school environment in which commonalities are identified and celebrated, difference is valued and nurtured, and bullying, harassment and violence are never tolerated.

241. In order to judge whether a school is good or requires improvement, inspectors will use a 'best fit' approach, relying on the professional judgement of the inspection team (including):

• Leaders, staff and pupils create a positive environment in which bullying is not tolerated. If bullying, aggression, discrimination and derogatory language occur, they are dealt with quickly and effectively and are not allowed to spread.

Behaviour and attitudes are likely to be inadequate if any one of the following applies (including):

• Incidents of bullying or prejudiced and discriminatory behaviour, both direct and indirect, are frequent. Pupils have little confidence in the school's ability to tackle harassment, bullying, violence and/or discriminatory behaviour successfully.

Safeguarding

301. The following are examples of what ineffective safeguarding might include:

• Incidents of bullying or prejudiced and discriminatory behaviour are common.
• Leaders protect staff from bullying and harassment.

Grade descriptors for leadership and management

315. In order to judge whether a school is good or requires improvement, inspectors will use a 'best fit' approach, relying on the professional judgement of the inspection team (including that):

• Leaders protect staff from bullying and harassment