Book Description

There has been an increasing awareness over the past few decades of bullying and the effect it has on the educational and social achievements of children and young people. The Committee's report examines the progress that has been made to address this problem since the introduction of the 'Don't Suffer in Silence' pack in 1994, the barriers that prevent schools from tackling bullying effectively, issues of prejudice-driven bullying including SEN-related, homophobic and faith-based bullying, and cyber-bullying. The report finds that defining what bullying is and identifying instances of bullying is the first potential barrier to successfully tackling the problem. Teachers and staff, pupils and parents should all be aware of their school's definition of bullying and how this affects their own behaviour, with the attitude and engagement of head teachers vital to tackling bullying. The focus of anti-bullying guidance should be tackling bullying behaviour and making it clear that such behaviour is not acceptable, rather than attempting to change the behaviour of the victim. The DfES should issue new guidance to local authorities and schools on when the use of exclusion is appropriate. The lack of accurate reliable data on bullying is another barrier to more effective anti-bullying work, and the Government should commission a long-term study of a number of schools, looking at both general trends in bullying and also the effectiveness of different approaches in different circumstances. The report also recommends that the Government needs to foster a culture where schools are encouraged to be open about incidents of bullying, have effective ways of dealing with bullying when it occurs and provide support the victims of bullying, rather than fearing reporting incidents of bullying will damage their reputation.