We are committed to ensuring a safe and happy environment for your child.
We support your child’s health and safety through a range of strategies including:
- the behaviour code for students, which outlines the standards of behaviour expected in all NSW public schools
- anti-racism education
- anti-bullying programs
- conflict resolution and mediation training
- peer support
- road safety education
- the Healthy School Canteen Strategy.
For more information, visit the student wellbeing section of the department’s website.
Like all NSW public schools, we promote the healthy development of students through:
- school programs and practices that protect and promote health and safety
- supporting individual students who need help with health issues
- providing first aid and temporary care of students who become unwell or who have an accident at school.
Yass High School – Bullying Policy 2023
Anti-Bullying Plan 2023
Yass High School
Bullying behaviour has three key features. It involves the intentional misuse of power in a relationship. It is ongoing and repeated, and it involves behaviours that can cause harm. The NSW Department of Education requires all NSW public schools to have an Anti-bullying Plan which details the strategies implemented to reduce student bullying behaviours.
Resources
The NSW anti-bullying website (see: https://antibullying.nsw.gov.au/) provides evidence-based resources and information for schools, parents and carers, and students. Schools are encouraged to visit the website to support whole-school prevention, early intervention and response approaches and strategies for student bullying behaviour.
Yass High School's commitment
Our school rejects all forms of bullying behaviours, including online (or cyber) bullying by maintaining a commitment to providing a safe, inclusive and respectful learning community that promotes student wellbeing. Executive staff are committed to establishing evidence-based approaches and strategies that promote a positive climate where bullying is less likely to occur.
School culture and inclusion
All members of the school community are active participants in building a welcoming school culture that values diversity and fosters positive relationships. A key component of a supportive school culture is building respectful relationships and an ethos that bullying is not accepted, in both online and offline environments. School staff will actively respond to student bullying behaviour.
Our school engages in the following practices to promote a positive school culture.
Student assemblies
Student bullying and expectations about student behaviour will be discussed and information presented to promote a positive school culture where bullying is not accepted.
| Dates | Communication topics |
|---|---|
| Term 1 | Behaviour code for students - Describe expected behaviours against school values of Respect, Responsibility and Honesty. |
| Term 2 | PBL Respect focus and school procedures: What is bullying? How does a responsible, respectful and honest school member take a stand against bullying? 'Backflips For Bullying' program. |
| Term 3 | PBL Responsibility focus and school procedures: What are the steps to take if you are being bullied? |
| Term 4 | PBL Honesty focus and school procedures: Revise bullying procedures for reporting and acknowledging personal actions. |
Staff communication and professional learning
Staff will be supported with professional learning that provides evidence-based ways to encourage and teach positive social and emotional wellbeing and discourage, prevent, identify, and respond effectively to student bullying behaviour.
| Dates | Communication topics and Professional learning |
|---|---|
| Term 1 | PBL and RIOT (Resilience In Our Teens): Teaching and reinforcing respectful relationships |
| Term 2 | School anti-bullying plan linked to DoE Policy and YHS Procedures. |
| Term 3 | Work, Health and Safety Review |
| Term 4 | Supporting students at risk |
New and casual staff
New and casual staff will be informed about our school’s approaches and strategies to prevent and respond to student bullying behaviour in the following ways:
When new staff enter on site they are provide a staff information handbook which contains information on YHS procedures. An executive staff member speaks to new and casual staff when they enter on duty at the school and th principal speaks to new executive staff when they enter on duty at the school, as part of the induction process.
Partnerships with families and community
Effective schools have high levels of parental and community involvement. This involvement is strongly related to improved student learning, attendance and behaviour. Our school proactively builds collaborative relationships with families and communities to create a shared understanding of how to support student learning, safety and wellbeing.
Website
Our school website has information to support families help their children to regulate their emotions and behaviour and develop socially. Information is provided to assist if children have been involved in bullying behaviour (as the person engaging in bullying behaviour, as the person being bullied or as the person witnessing the bullying behaviour).
The following are published on our school’s website:
- School Anti-bullying Plan
- NSW Anti-bullying website
- Behaviour Code for Students
Communication with parents
Our school will provide information to parents to help promote a positive school culture where bullying is not acceptable and to increase parent’s understanding of how our school addresses all forms of bullying behaviour.
| Dates | Communication methods and topic |
|---|---|
| Ongoing | Parent meeting (P&C, parent/teacher night) - Defining student bullying and school supports |
| School website school Facebook and/or school newsletter - Bystander behaviour |
Support for wellbeing and positive behaviours
Our school’s practices support student wellbeing and positive behaviour approaches that align with our school community’s needs.
Social and emotional skills related to personal safety, resilience, help-seeking and protective behaviours are explicitly taught across the curriculum in Personal Development, Health and Physical Education (PDHPE).
Examples of other ways our school will embed student wellbeing and positive behaviour approaches and strategies in practices include the following:
- Invited guest presenters throughout the year including 'Backflips Against Bullying'.
- Student Support Officer and Wellbeing Team assembly items addressing Bullying.
Student wellbeing
Like all NSW public schools, we provide safe learning and teaching environments to encourage healthy, happy, successful and productive students.
The department is committed to creating quality learning opportunities for children and young people. These opportunities support wellbeing through positive and respectful relationships and fostering a sense of belonging to the school and community.
The Wellbeing Framework for Schools helps schools support the cognitive, physical, social, emotional and spiritual development of students and allows them to connect, succeed and thrive throughout their education.
Positive Behaviour for Learning
At our school, we use Positive Behaviour for Learning – a whole-school approach for creating a positive, safe and supportive school climate where students can learn and develop. Our whole school community works together to establish expected behaviours and teach them to all students.