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The Anti-Bullying Policy training is still being reviewed and isn’t open to staff yet. It will appear in your PD Modules when it is released.
← Back to PD ModulesWhat bullying is, how to tell it apart from ordinary conflict, and exactly what you do when a student, parent or colleague tells you about it — based on the AISA Anti-Bullying Policy (revised May 2026).
On a Sunday evening a Grade 8 student posts an edited photo of a classmate in a group chat, from home, on a personal phone. By Monday morning half the grade has seen it and the classmate won’t come out of the library at break. Is this the school’s business?
Yes. AISA commits to a safe and healthy environment for all learners, recognising and accommodating the diverse needs of its students — including those with additional learning needs. Every student, whatever their learning profile, has the right to feel safe and comfortable in school. A culture of kindness, courtesy and cooperation among students and staff is how we get there.
Everyone in the AISA community — students, faculty, administrative staff and other school personnel. It covers bullying student-to-student, student-to-staff and staff-to-student.
On campus, and on all AISA-provided networks, accounts and devices — plus off-campus digital behaviour that disrupts the school environment, in line with ADEK Safeguarding Policy 5.8. The Sunday-night group chat counts.
This course exists because Joel Hunter asked for it and supplied the policy and the training outline it is built from. Thank you, Joel.
Quick check
Back to the Sunday-night group chat. Which statement is accurate?
Two Grade 4 friends fall out over a football game and call each other names at lunch. The next morning they’re playing together again. Meanwhile, a quieter student in the same class has had their pencil case emptied onto the floor by the same group of older students most days this month.
The policy defines bullying by three elements, all present together:
Perceived or real — age, size, popularity, numbers, status — between the aggressor and the target, an individual or a group.
Hurtful or aggressive behaviour aimed at a specific person or people.
The target is consistently having things said or done to them.
Two friends falling out, on roughly equal terms, once, is conflict. It still needs handling, but it isn’t bullying. The pencil case emptied by an older group most days is a power imbalance, intentional, and repeated: bullying. Being able to tell the two apart stops you over-reacting to the first and, more importantly, under-reacting to the second. If you’re not sure, report it anyway and let the Committee decide.
Quick check
Which of these has all three elements of bullying?
A Grade 6 student has been called the same name several times a week for about a fortnight. Their parent mentions that they’ve started asking to stay home on PE days. Nobody has been hurt.
The policy grades bullying by duration, frequency and impact. You don’t decide the level — the Committee does — but knowing the scale helps you see why reporting early matters.
Initial, relatively minor incidents: a single or a few instances, not yet a clear pattern. Mild, temporary upset without real disruption to wellbeing or school. e.g. an isolated name-calling; being left out of a game once or twice. Early intervention is crucial here.
Repeated harmful behaviour with clear intent over days or weeks, forming a pattern. Emotional distress, anxiety, reluctance to attend school or specific classes. e.g. persistent teasing several times a week; consistent exclusion; regular negative messages. Needs structured intervention, counselling and monitoring.
Weeks to months, or daily; severe psychological distress, physical injury, disruption to attendance or learning, or a serious threat to safety. e.g. credible threats or hate speech; coordinated campaigns; repeated assaults or extortion; sexual bullying; sharing explicit or private content. Demands immediate, multi-faceted intervention, possibly including discipline, external support or legal action.
Why this matters to you: most bullying starts at Level 1, and Level 1 is when it is easiest to stop. A Level 1 report is never a waste of anyone’s time.
Quick check
Which level best describes the Grade 6 scenario — the same name several times a week for a fortnight, now avoiding PE?
As the bell goes, a student hangs back and tells you that someone in another class has been taking their snack and pushing them in the line every day. “Please don’t tell anyone — it’ll get worse.”
Any member of staff can receive a report — in person, by email or by phone, from a student, a parent or anyone else. You don’t have to be the right person. You do have to pass it to the right person.
Listen, and take it seriously. Thank them for telling you. Reassure them it will be handled with discretion — but don’t promise to keep it secret, because you have to pass it on.
Pass it to a member of the Behaviour Management Committee — the school counselor, or the appropriate Assistant Principal or Principal.
Use email or Google Chat where you can. In person is allowed, but the policy prefers a written message so there is a record of what was reported and when.
Then step back. The Committee starts the investigation. Your part now is to watch, support and pass on anything new.
Students and families who don’t feel comfortable reporting to a person can use the AISA Anonymous Online Reporting Form. Every anonymous report with enough information is fully investigated. Point students to it if they’re frightened to be named.
Retaliation against anyone for reporting bullying is strictly prohibited and leads to disciplinary action. Intentionally false reports also carry consequences under the Parent–Student Handbook.
Quick check
The student asked you not to tell anyone. What do you do?
You’ve passed a report to the counselor. The next day, the accused student is in your lesson. You’re tempted to keep them back at the end and get to the bottom of it yourself.
Don’t. Teachers do not investigate on their own. The Assistant Principal or Principal leads every bullying investigation, with the Behaviour Management Committee’s support. Here is what they do:
Initial report. The person reporting completes a Report of Bullying Form, with help if a student can’t do it alone, and a Committee member reviews it with them. For an anonymous report, a printout of the online form stands in.
Statements. Statements are collected from everyone involved — the target, the accused and witnesses. Teachers may be asked for one. Camera footage, written notes and relevant emails and messages are gathered too.
Investigation form. The AP or Principal leading it completes a Bullying Investigation Form.
Committee review. The Committee meets formally to review everything collected.
Decision and action. If bullying is confirmed, the AP or Principal acts under the Student and Parent Handbook.
Records. The incident is logged in PowerSchool under the reporting student’s profile. Originals go to the school counselor, who scans them into the grade-level Drive folder; the AP or Principal keeps copies for any discipline follow-up.
Why you shouldn’t investigate: a well-meant conversation can tip off the accused, put pressure on the target, contaminate witness accounts, and leave no record. If you have more information, give it to the person leading the investigation.
The Counseling Department also keeps an anonymised tracking matrix of frequency, severity and how incidents happen online, reviewed every year to target prevention.
Quick check
Who leads a bullying investigation?
A parent emails you on Saturday with screenshots: messages sent to their child in a group chat, including one saying “we know where you live, wait till Monday”. The parent says they’re going to ring the other family tonight.
Most cyberbullying is handled internally like any other report. But any cyberbullying that poses an imminent threat to a student’s physical or emotional safety, or amounts to severe maltreatment, must be escalated outside the school.
The Child Protection Officer (CPO) or the Principal reports it to the ADEK Child Protection Unit (CPU) and the Ministry of Interior – Child Protection Center (MoI-CPC) through the digital safety concern portal, within 24 hours, as required by UAE Federal Law No. 3 of 2016 (Wadeema’s Law).
You don’t make that report yourself — but the clock starts when someone suspects. Pass it on immediately, not on Monday. If you believe a child is at risk of harm, follow the safeguarding procedure and contact a Safeguarding Lead too.
Screenshots, messages, usernames, dates. Forward what you’ve been sent to the Committee member, and ask the family to keep the originals and not delete anything.
Monitor their child’s internet, social media and messages; report straight to a trusted adult at school; preserve evidence; and not confront the other student or their family — it escalates things and can interfere with AISA and ADEK investigations.
Quick check
It’s Saturday, and the screenshots include a threat. What’s the right response?
The Committee has confirmed a case involving two students in your class. You get an email asking teaching teams to be “extra vigilant”. What happens to each student now — and what does that ask of you?
This “Level 3 violation” is the Handbook’s behaviour scale — separate from the policy’s three severity levels in Section 3.
Parents of everyone involved are notified and counselled on supporting a change in behaviour. The Counseling Team follows up with all parties weekly for two to six weeks, and may refer outside depending on severity.
Teaching teams and outside duty staff are told so they can watch. Notice seating, group work, corridors and break; let a VIP-pass student go without fuss; and report anything new — including any sign of retaliation — the same way as the first report. Don’t discuss the case with other students.
Staff alleged to have bullied are investigated promptly and impartially; confirmed cases lead to action matched to severity — professional development, formal warnings, suspension or, in severe or repeated cases, termination, under AISA’s employment policies and local labour law. Staff who are targeted get support, including counselling referrals and measures for a safe workplace; students who bully staff face the Level 3 student consequences above.
Quick check
Which support does the policy name for a student who has been bullied?
A student with a learning plan for social communication keeps grabbing a classmate’s belongings and laughing when the classmate gets upset. Another student in the same grade, who also has a learning plan, is regularly mimicked by a group at lunch.
Whether a student with additional learning needs is the target or the one engaging in bullying behaviour, the SEN department and/or relevant support staff are consulted. Interventions and support plans are built with Student Services and the Head of Inclusion, so they fit the student’s learning and communication needs.
Particular attention to emotional wellbeing — specialised counselling or support to process what happened and build coping strategies.
Interventions look for underlying social, emotional or communication challenges, and use strategies from the student’s learning plan where relevant.
Your part: report it the same way. A learning need doesn’t make it “not bullying”, and it doesn’t mean you handle it differently on your own — it means the right specialists join the response. If you know the student’s plan, mention it when you pass the report on.
Quick check
A student with a learning plan is engaging in bullying behaviour. Which is right?
In a Grade 9 lesson a student makes a “joke” about a classmate’s accent and a few others laugh. It isn’t bullying yet. What you do in the next ten seconds tells the whole room what is acceptable here.
Reporting deals with bullying once it happens. Prevention is what makes it rarer, and most of it happens in ordinary lessons.
Anti-bullying weeks, positive behaviour support, and character and moral education, embedded in curricula and extra-curricular activities — chosen because research shows they work.
Age-appropriate digital citizenship and student-protection resources, built into classroom teaching and counselling sessions, to get ahead of cyberbullying.
Kindness, courtesy and respect, shown by adults to students and to each other. Name unkind behaviour when you see it, calmly and every time.
Quick check
Back to the Grade 9 “joke”. What’s the best response?
Answer all ten, then check your answers. You need 8 out of 10 to continue. If you don’t get there, you’ll see which ones to revisit and can try again — the options are reshuffled each time.
AISA Anti-Bullying Policy (revised May 2026) · staff job aid
Listen and thank them. Take it seriously. Promise discretion, not secrecy.
Pass it on the same day to the counselor, Assistant Principal or Principal — by email or Google Chat, so there is a record.
Staff involved? Staff-to-student → Principal or Head of HR. Student-to-staff → your supervisor or the Principal. Staff-to-staff → your supervisor or Head of HR.
Online, with a threat or severe harm? Tell the Principal or CPO immediately — ADEK and MoI must be told within 24 hours. Keep the screenshots. Risk of harm → safeguarding procedure too.
Don’t investigate and don’t confront the other student or family. Give a statement if asked.
Afterwards: stay vigilant in lessons and on duty, watch for retaliation, and report anything new the same way.
Students and families can also use the AISA Anonymous Online Reporting Form.
Please confirm your acknowledgement of the AISA Anti-Bullying Policy.