Guest Author: Dr. Amy Grosso
Bullying is defined by the Anti-Bullying Alliance as “The repetitive, intentional hurting of one person or group by another person or group, where the relationship involves an imbalance of power. Bullying can be physical, verbal or psychological. It can happen face-to-face or online.”
Bullying can happen in a variety of ways.
- Physical Bullying: This involves actions like hitting, kicking, pushing or tripping another person. It also encompasses damaging personal property.
- Verbal Bullying: This occurs when someone is repeatedly mocked, insulted or threatened using words. Such verbal attacks are intended to demean or intimidate the victim.
- Emotional Bullying: This type includes social exclusion, isolation and manipulation, as well as actions like ridicule or coercion that target a person’s emotional wellbeing.
- Sexual Bullying: This form involves unwelcome or inappropriate physical contact and may include homophobic comments or actions.
- Cyberbullying: Taking place in the digital realm, this involves the use of electronic communication to bully others. With the rise of social media, messaging apps and other online platforms, cyberbullying has become increasingly prevalent.
- Indirect Bullying: This occurs when someone is manipulated or used for the benefit of others, often without direct confrontation.
Although bullying can affect anyone, certain groups of children and young people are more vulnerable. Those at greater risk include refugee children, those who receive free school meals, children in care and children with disabilities.
Impact of bullying on student wellbeing
In 2023, the Anti-Bullying Alliance published a report detailing the impact of bullying on students throughout England, based on responses from over 65,000 students. The findings revealed that 71% of students had experienced bullying at some point, with 23% facing frequent incidents. Key highlights from the report include:
- 72% of participants reported experiencing cyberbullying.
- Male students reported being bullied more often than female students.
- Verbal bullying emerged as the most common form.
- Bullying rates varied by school type; secondary school students reported higher levels of both victimisation and perpetration compared to those in primary and infant schools.
A crucial insight from the report is the significant effect bullying has on student wellbeing. Students who had the highest wellbeing scores were those who neither experienced bullying nor engaged in bullying others. This pattern was consistent when considering cyberbullying. Notably, secondary school students reported the lowest wellbeing scores.
Protecting children from all forms of bullying
The lack of a specific legal definition of bullying does not mean that bullying is not addressed within the legal framework. Instead, various regulations and policies are in place to provide guidance on how to protect children from bullying in schools within the UK.
- The Department for Education offers guidance to schools on how to effectively respond to and prevent bullying, including strategies for addressing cyberbullying.
- As outlined in section 89 of the Education and Inspections Act 2006, schools are mandated not only to prevent bullying but also to promote positive behavior.
- Under the Public Sector Equality Duty of the Equality Act 2010, schools are required to address and prevent the use of discriminatory language.
- According to section 175 of the Education Act, schools have a legal obligation to safeguard student wellbeing.
Ensuring the protection of children from all forms of bullying is crucial for schools. The Anti-Bullying Alliance offers resources to help schools adopt a comprehensive approach to combat bullying. This strategy involves everyone in the school community, including students, teachers, parents and the board of governors. The resources provided include guidance on crafting effective policies, developing anti-bullying curriculum, managing bullying incidents on transport between home and school, and implementing peer support strategies.
How technology can help address bullying concerns
Effective safeguarding software can play a pivotal role in helping to monitor concerns around bullying and identify child-on-child abuse in schools.
CPOMS StudentSafe allows you to operationalise your safeguarding, attendance and wellbeing policies. The easy-to-use software is engineered to be fully customisable to your setting with comprehensive reporting capacity. With all data in one secure repository, staff can quickly review and gather the necessary evidence for plans including education, health and care (EHCP), attendance and individual pupil risk assessments.
Staff can log concerns and manage investigations across all student wellbeing policies such as bullying, child-on-child abuse, self-harm, criminal exploitation, pastoral care, online safety and so on. Robust dashboards and reports available in StudentSafe put critical data at your fingertips for more effective collaboration, thorough reporting to Ofsted or other Auditors and heightened urgency when referring to the appropriate agencies.
Adding to this, CPOMS Engage provides a platform to facilitate secure safeguarding information sharing between schools and local authorities. Safeguarding, child protection, pastoral and welfare information can be shared swiftly and with complete user access control across via an automated CPOMS Share Contract, allowing for fast and effective crisis support for vulnerable children.
To find out more about how safeguarding software from CPOMS can help your setting monitor and address bullying concerns, book a demo today.
