Without doubt one of the most cowardly acts that can be perpetrated and one that I have hated all my life is Bullying.
Britain was the only country in a UNICEF report where less than half of all young people found their peers kind and helpful. Equally, The Children’s Society Good Childhood Inquiry revealed that, since 1986, the number of teenagers with no best friends has increased from one in eight to one in five In short Bullying has become a major threat to the happiness and well-being of Britain’s children, and it must be tackled more effectively if we are to ensure that schools are environments where children thrive. Research points to a figure of 55.5 per cent of young people having been bullied. A similar study found that, depending on the definition of bullying used, 60 per cent of young people have been bullied. 20,000 young people per day truant because they are being bullied.
In 2005, Child Line reported that over 32,000 children had contacted them as a result of bullying.
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About 70 per cent of all reported bullying occurs in schools. Over half of both primary and secondary school Pupils report that bullying was “a big problem” or “quite a problem” in their school.54 per cent of pupils in Year 5 and 28 per cent of pupils in Year 8 report being personally bullied during the previous term. In 2004/05, there were 7,680 suspensions and 130 permanent exclusions of children who were bullying persistently.
Bullying of homosexual and disabled pupils are a significant problem in schools. In the UK, 82 per cent ofyoungsters with learning disabilities are either bullied at school or when they go out in the evening, 85 per cent of Secondary School teachers are aware of verbal homophobic incidents in their schools.
This is having a substantial impact on their well-being: nearly one in ten fifteen year olds say they “feel like an outsider or left out of things”. Fewer than 20 per cent of British children report “liking school a lot”, well below the average of OECD countries.
For victims of bullying, the effects can be profoundly disturbing. Primary school children who are bullied can experience bed wetting, headaches and stomach aches, while studies of adolescents have pointed to physical health and psychological problems. Sometimes, bullying can even lead to suicide. It is estimated that sixteen children in the UK take their own lives each year because of bullying. Estimates tell us that more than one in five severely bullied children will attempt to take their own life.
Being bullied makes pupils dislike and avoid school. It has been further estimated that 42 per cent of school non-attendance is in some way related to bullying. 215,000 secondary school pupils were classified as ‘persistent absentees’ during 2005/06 – 7 per cent of pupils. This may help explain the fact that being bullied at school is inversely associated with wages received in adulthood. Even for the perpetrators, the effects are extremely damaging. Bullies tend to be aggressive, with positive attitudes to violence. In their recent report on bullying, the House of Commons Education and Skills Committee found that “casual attitudes to violence seem to be becoming more common”. Evidence suggests that they often have a background of domestic violence, a domestic environment where their views go unheard, and - in the case of boys – uninvolved fathering. Bullying is recognised as a response to the deep frustration felt by individuals who have been exposed to conflict and violence. People who bully can sometimes be the victims of bullying themselves. They are also far more likely to become involved in crime.
Thus, to improve children’s happiness, we must have robust policies to tackle bullying in schools. Schools are required by law to have an anti-bullying policy. However many strategies are simply ineffective, with much confusion over definitions of bullying and the action to take in the case of bullying. One study showed that over a quarter of secondary schools lack a definition of bullying in their anti-bullying policies, and less than a fifth set out the responsibilities of non-teaching staff if they know of bullying.. We need to learn from those schools that have the best anti-bullying strategies. Schools with successful policies to tackle bullying include:
• Dedicated staff whose main role is to enforce good behaviour
• Swift and timely sanctions applied when rules are broken
• Boundaries clearly drawn and an escalating scale of sanctions for those who transgress
• Dedicated rooms for those who have to be taken out of class for discipline reasons.
We believe that we must approach the issue from two angles. First, schools should take stringent action against those who persistently bully. Second, schools should take measures to promote positive attitudes between children, cultivating respect between pupils, so bullying can be prevented before it occurs. |
