Setting

Aviation House 125 Kingsway London WC2B 6SE T 0300 123 1231 F 020 7421 6855 enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk www.ofsted.gov.uk

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Mrs A Cebunka Headteacher St Matthew’s High Brooms Church of England VC Primary School Powder Mill Lane Tunbridge Wells TN4 9DY

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bullying practice in schools

Thank you for your hospitality and cooperation, and that of your staff and pupils, during my visit on 5 October 2011 as part of our survey of schools’ work to create a positive school culture and prevent and tackle bullying.

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bullying practice in schools

The visit provided valuable information which will contribute to our national evaluation and reporting. Published reports are likely to list the names of the contributing institutions but individual institutions will not be identified in the main text without their consent.

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bullying practice in schools

This letter briefly summarises our discussion at the end of the visit.

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Strengths of this aspect of the school’s work

 The school has worked hard to secure the involvement of parents in their anti-bullying strategies and this is now a clear strength of their work. The school policies are well written and they differentiate between the different kinds of behaviour which constitute bullying. The actions which will be taken in response to any incident are unambiguous and the pupils know and understand these.  The school has a planned and coordinated curriculum which makes good provision for the social and moral development of the pupils. There is appropriate progression and topics are revisited in different ways to reflect the pupils’ changing interests and experiences.  The ethos of the school is developed through regular acts of collective worship and circle time builds on the guiding principles set out there. The school uses its approaches flexibly so that teachers can respond to any immediate concerns voiced by the pupils.

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Strengths of this aspect of the school’s work

 The pupils know how they are expected to behave and how to treat others. They speak of ‘being kind’ and that they should make sure that ‘…everyone is involved’ in activities. Most have faith that when incidents are reported to an adult in the school action will be taken to help them.

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Areas for improvement, which we discussed, include:

 developing a central log to record bullying incidents so that frequency and type can be monitored and any trends explored  using the results of pupil and parent questionnaires to inform curriculum planning  providing planned opportunities for pupils to consider the use of inappropriate language and develop their confidence in challenging it.

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Areas for improvement, which we discussed, include:

I hope that this visit has been useful in the further development of this aspect of the school’s work.

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Areas for improvement, which we discussed, include:

As explained previously, a copy of this letter will be published on the Ofsted website. It may be used to inform decisions about any future inspection. A copy of this letter is also being sent to your local authority.

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