We are very pleased to announce that our school was awarded the All Together Programme GOLD award for our efforts to reduce bullying and improve the wellbeing our pupils. We are very proud to be one of only fifteen schools in the city to have achieved the gold standard.

The All Together Programme is a whole-school anti-bullying programme offered to schools in England. The programme includes a special focus on reducing bullying of disabled children and those with SEN but aims to reduce bullying of all children and young people. The All Together Programme is funded by the Department for Education and delivered by the Anti-Bullying Alliance with support from the Council for Disabled Children, Contact and Achievement for All.

One of the initiatives that came from our efforts to achieve All Together status was that we wanted students to have an element of ownership regarding any bullying in school. We decided to establish an Anti-bullying Champion within the student population. Their role is to act as an additional area of support to anyone who might be feeling vulnerable at school. The Anti-bullying Champions are given some initial training about bullying and safeguarding which is then on-going for as long as they are at St Matthias.