Collect a bystander account by listening to what the pupil directly saw or heard, attributing anything they learned from someone else, and recording what remains unknown. Check immediate safety and pass concerns to the responsible adult. Pupils must never be asked to gather evidence, question peers, monitor others, retrieve abusive material or investigate. Adults own the response. A pupil can tell you something important without being able to explain the whole event.
This receiving-adult record is a suggested method for pastoral and behaviour leaders, DSLs and SENCos in England. It supports first receipt of an account about possible bullying. It isn't an investigation form or a test of truth. If information raises a safeguarding concern, follow the school's safeguarding policy and speak to the DSL or deputy without delay. For immediate danger, call 999; use the appropriate local safeguarding route when needed. Don't wait to finish the record.
Anti-Bullying Week 2026 runs from 16 to 20 November. Before it begins, agree who receives bystander accounts and how that adult confirms a safe handoff. Campaign activity must never delay a response.
Listen without filling the gaps
Give the pupil a calm, private opportunity to speak with a trusted adult. Listen without supplying missing details. Use open prompts consistent with safeguarding training and avoid leading questions. Don't promise secrecy: explain, accessibly, who may need the information and what will happen next. Repeated retelling can add burden without answering the professional question.
Keeping children safe in education 2026 sets the safeguarding framework, including responding to concerns and child-on-child abuse. The school's bullying response must also attend to protection and support. A receiving adult doesn't need agreement between pupils before sharing a concern. Keep safeguarding and disciplinary processes distinct, with coordinated human oversight where both apply. This record can't determine a sanction, diagnosis or referral.
A six-field receipt the next adult can read
Keep each field attributable and brief. Record who received the account, when and how, and distinguish the receipt time from the event time. Use the school's approved record and access controls. The following annotations explain what belongs in each field.
- Directly seen or heard. Preserve the pupil's own words or established communication as faithfully as possible. Identify which part they personally witnessed. Record uncertainty about time, sequence or wording. A paraphrase should be identified as the adult's summary, with any clarification recorded separately.
- Information learned from someone else. Attribute the account and its route where known. Keep this separate from direct observation. If the source isn't known, record that gap. Don't send the pupil to ask who started the story or obtain another child's statement.
- Unknowns and disagreement. State what the pupil didn't see, couldn't hear or isn't sure about. Preserve differing accounts separately. A missing detail, correction or disagreement doesn't establish dishonesty, agreement or the absence of harm.
- Immediate safety. Record the concern, action taken and who is providing protection or support now, including for the pupil reporting. Check whether telling has left them worried about further harm. Don't make their safety conditional on providing more detail. Follow urgent safeguarding or emergency procedures immediately.
- Adult handoff. Record the receiving DSL, deputy or responsible leader, time of contact and acknowledgement. An unanswered message leaves a handoff unresolved. Follow the school's escalation and cover arrangements. The pupil's task ends with telling an adult; they aren't responsible for securing the adult response.
- Owned review. Identify who will check that the handoff and agreed support happened, when they will check, and what would bring action forward. Keep the pupil's accessible route for further concerns clear. Record the later decision and reasons, including anything still unresolved.
What changes when the support record arrives?
This composite is wholly invented. It describes no pupil, family, school or customer. A pupil tells a pastoral adult about a peer exchange. The pupil directly heard part of it but learned the alleged earlier events from someone else. They couldn't hear the whole conversation. The adult records those boundaries and routes the concern through the school's safeguarding procedure, without asking the pupil to return for more evidence.
An existing behaviour entry describes a raised voice. It doesn't record what preceded it. The SENCo then checks the communication and support arrangements staff are permitted to review: extra processing time and access to a familiar adult were agreed, but delivery hasn't been confirmed. This changes the professional enquiry. Did adults provide the agreed access, and how can each pupil give their own account accessibly?
The added context doesn't decide whose account is true, explain the raised voice or prove bullying. The pastoral leader confirms support delivery with the responsible staff member; the DSL owns the safeguarding response. No account, incident count or combination of records automatically determines a sanction or referral. Behaviour, SEND and communication records sharpen questions for authorised professionals. They can't diagnose need or establish intent.
Offer each pupil an age-appropriate choice of trusted adult and established communication method, with processing time and SENCo input where needed. Record how the account was communicated and where meaning remains uncertain. The SEND Code of Practice and Equality Act advice for schools inform access and reasonable-adjustment duties. SEND doesn't excuse harm, and a disciplinary response doesn't remove those duties or safeguarding responsibilities.
Seek parent or carer knowledge where relevant, safe and lawful, following the DSL's communication decision where safeguarding is involved. Attribute it separately and record disagreement. Don't infer consent or family agreement from an unanswered message. The SEND bullying guide examines recognition and accessible reporting in more depth.
Close the handoff, keep the enquiry with adults
In this invented example, the pastoral leader checks acknowledgement before the next relevant school activity and confirms delivery of the agreed support with its owner. A trusted adult offers a private check-in afterwards. These are suggested review points for this example, never national deadlines. The DSL sets timing appropriate to the actual concern. New information, unresolved contact or further harm brings action forward.
At review, distinguish support offered from support delivered and record what the pupil says about access and safety. Silence doesn't show that harm has stopped. Don't ask pupils to watch another child, compare stories, inspect messages or collect screenshots. If abusive material is mentioned, follow the safeguarding procedure; don't ask a pupil to retrieve, forward or circulate it. Authorised adults decide any further enquiries through the proper process. Staff authorised under school policy may need to investigate bullying; this first receipt method doesn't replace that process or any agency-led safeguarding investigation.
Keep sensitive detail in the restricted source record. Share only what each adult needs for their action through approved channels. A general behaviour entry doesn't need a copy of a safeguarding narrative. The separate guides on peer conflict and safeguarding routes and reviewing protective arrangements address later decisions. This receipt preserves what was reported and who accepted responsibility.
Student Radar Safeguard supports chronology and source-case review for permitted users. Access remains restricted. It can't establish truth or decide the safeguarding or disciplinary response. Explore safeguarding recording and casework to assess whether that record workflow fits your school's arrangements.
Sources and further reading
- DfE: Keeping children safe in education 2026, statutory guidance for England, effective 1 September 2026.
- DfE: Preventing and tackling bullying, July 2017 advice; publication page updated 9 July 2026.
- DfE and Department of Health: SEND Code of Practice, 0 to 25 years, January 2015 statutory guidance for England; publication page updated 12 September 2024.
- DfE: Equality Act 2010 advice for schools, May 2014 advice for school leaders and staff in England; publication page updated 28 June 2018.
- Anti-Bullying Alliance: Free Anti-Bullying Week 2026 packs are now available, published 7 September 2026; used for the organiser's dates.