At St John Rigby, we believe it is every child’s right to enjoy their school life feeling safe, secure and free from hurtful or harmful experiences. We aim to provide a safe, caring and friendly environment for all our pupils, to allow them to learn effectively, improve their life chances and help them to maximise their potential. We are committed to fostering healthy personal relationships and create a positive, caring and supportive community.

Bullying is always undesirable behaviour and is never tolerated.

We aim to:

• Ensure all staff, pupils and parents have a clear understanding of what bullying is;

• Inform pupils and parents of the school’s expectations and to foster a productive partnership, which will help to maintain a bully-free environment;

• Show commitment to overcoming bullying by taking all incidents of bullying seriously and laying out processes for dealing with them consistently and effectively;

• Promote a secure and happy environment free from threat, harassment and bullying.

We are an open, caring school and encourage pupils to share their concerns or worries with adults within the school, including members of our pastoral team. Anyone who knows or suspects that bullying is happening is expected to tell the staff.

Everyone has a right to be treated with respect and no one deserves to be a victim of bullying. Pupils who are bullying need to learn different ways of behaving. We take our role very seriously to prevent bullying.