In September 2023 we were awarded Anti Bullying Silver Schools Status as part of the United Against Bullying Programme that we have worked towards for sixteen months since March 2022. In September 2022 we received recognition of our participation but no standard. We are incredibly proud of the progress we have made over the last academic year.
331 schools across the UK took part in the programme last year (22/23) and only 2% were awarded Gold Standard which equates to 6 schools, many of which are primary schools. 14% of the participating schools were awarded the Silver Standard; which equates to 46 schools, Millais included. 279 schools (84%) were awarded Bronze status or recognised with a certificate of participation.
To attain the Silver School status, we evidenced our work towards reducing bullying incidents and improving the wellbeing of all students.
Through the action plan and associated steps, we showed excellent improvement from our starting point in March 2022 and provided the ABA with detailed examples and evidence to support each measure.
We openly asked students about their experience including levels of bullying and wellbeing of at-risk groups and in our first part of the programme (February 2022 – June 2023) we had a total of 97 students complete the Pupil Questionnaire across Y7-10.
During our first full year of the programme, thanks to the support of the Personal Development Team we had 695 students taking part across Y7-10. An increase of nearly 600! (Year 11 do not take part as they will not be here to complete the second Questionnaire at the end of May.)
Our final Pupil Questionnaire showed good improvement in wellbeing and reductions in bullying.
We provided two high quality case studies that will be shared with other schools and showcased the thoroughness of the processes undertaken in terms of staff training, enabling the reporting of incidents and a clear set of procedures embedded in the school.
The next steps for Millais involve building on from our strong foundation that has been recognised by the ABA and continuing to develop one of the most important strands which is the role of the student ambassadors. In October this year 15 students received their whole day training session from the Diana Award and this was instrumental in getting our ambassador programme established.
