Action on Bullying

Action on bullying A review of the effectiveness of action taken by schools to address bullying on the grounds of pupils’ protected characteristics June 2014 The purpose of Estyn is to inspect quality and standards in education and training in Wales. Estyn is responsible for inspecting: nursery schools and settings that are maintained by, or receive funding from, local authorities; primary schools; secondary schools; special schools; pupil referral units; independent schools; further education; independent specialist colleges; adult community learning; local authority education services for children and young people; teacher education and training; Welsh for adults; work-based learning; and learning in the justice sector. Estyn also: provides advice on quality and standards in education and training in Wales to the National Assembly for Wales and others; and makes public good practice based on inspection evidence. Every possible care has been taken to ensure that the information in this document is accurate at the time of going to press. Any enquiries or comments regarding this document/publication should be addressed to: Publication Section Estyn Anchor Court Keen Road Cardiff CF24 5JW or by email to [email protected] This and other Estyn publications are available on our website: www.estyn.gov.uk © Crown Copyright 2014: This report may be re-used free of charge in any format or medium provided that it is re-used accurately and not used in a misleading context. The material must be acknowledged as Crown copyright and the title of the document/publication specified. Contents Page Introduction 1 Background 1 Main findings 4 Recommendations 7 1 Pupils’ experiences of bullying 8 2 Ethos and values 12 3 Curriculum 14 4 Policies and procedures 16 5 Staff development and attitudes 21 6 Cluster arrangements and transition processes 24 7 The wider community 26 Appendix 1 – Evidence base 30 Appendix 2 – Anti-bullying checklist 32 Appendix 3 – Research and references 35 Glossary 38 The remit author and survey team 39 Action on bullying June 2014 Introduction This report is published in response to a request for advice from the Welsh Government in the Minister’s annual remit letter to Estyn for 2013-2014. The report examines the effectiveness of action taken by schools to address bullying, with particular reference to bullying on the grounds of pupils’ protected characteristics (age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation). The report includes case studies of best practice illustrating how the best practice schools deal with bullying. Pupils shared their experiences of bullying readily with the team, but case studies of pupils’ experiences have been written in such a way as to avoid identifying individual pupils. The report is based on evidence from visits to 21 schools, scrutiny of documentation and evidence from the current inspection cycle. A further seven schools provided policies and strategic equality action plans for scrutiny. See Appendix 1 for further details of the evidence base. The report is intended for the Welsh Government, headteachers and staff in schools, local authorities and regional consortia. It may also be of interest to teacher trainers and church diocesan education authorities. Background The Equality Act 2010 The Equality Act 2010 (the Act) replaced116 different equality and anti-discrimination statutes with a single Act. The majority of the Act came into force on 1 October 2010. The nine main pieces of legislation that were merged into the Act were: the Equal Pay Act 1970; the Sex Discrimination Act 1975; the Race Relations Act 1976; the Disability Discrimination Act 1995; the Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations 2003; the Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2003; the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006; the Equality Act 2006, Part 2; and the Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2007. 1 Action on bullying June 2014 The Act creates anti-discrimination legislation covering nine 'protected characteristics', which are: age; disability; gender reassignment; marriage and civil partnership; pregnancy and maternity; race; religion or belief; sex; and sexual orientation. The Act requires local authorities and other public bodies, including schools, to have due regard for the need to: eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and other conduct that is prohibited by the Act; advance equality of opportunity between people who share a relevant protected characteristic and those who do not; and foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not. Strategic equality plans and equality objectives An equality duty was created by the Equality Act 2010 and replaces the race, disability and gender equality duties. The duty came into force in April 2011 and covers age, disability, gender, gender reassignment, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief and sexual orientation. Since April 2012, all public bodies, including local authorities and schools, have a duty under the Act to develop and publish equality objectives and a Strategic Equality Plan. The latter replaces previous plans, such as the disability equality duty and race equality policy, although these may form part of the new plan. The purpose of the objectives and plan is to enable the delivery of measurable equality outcomes that will improve the lives of individuals and communities. A school’s equality objectives should link to its general work on improvement and inclusion and with its school development plan. If a school chooses not to publish an equality objective covering each of the protected characteristics, it is required to justify this choice. For example, having a single objective to tackle identity-based bullying may make more sense than having five separate objectives to deal with anti-disabled, homophobic, racist, religious, and transphobic1 bullying. Local authorities and schools are required to consider what information they hold, and what further information they would need to collect, in order to demonstrate compliance with the equality duty. For example, schools should examine and use 1 See glossary 2 Action on bullying June 2014 any relevant school census information, performance data and pupil and parent questionnaires. In addition, they should make use of national resources, such as annual population surveys and reports relating to issues affecting protected groups. Schools should use this information to set realistic objectives and assess the impact of their strategic equality plans. A local authority should use its information to create a picture of the needs of local communities that can be broken down by the protected characteristics. Bullying In this report, we use the Welsh Government’s definition of bullying set out in ‘Respecting Others: Anti-Bullying Overview (2011)’. ‘There are many definitions of bullying, but most consider it to be: deliberately hurtful (including aggression); repeated often over a period of time, while recognising that even a one-off incident can leave a learner traumatised and nervous of future recurrence; and difficult for victims to defend themselves against. Individual learners’ perspectives on what constitutes bullying are also a key element to take into account. Bullying can take many forms, but the three main types are: physical – hitting, kicking, taking belongings, sexual harassment or aggression; verbal – name-calling, insulting, making offensive remarks; and indirect – spreading nasty stories about someone, exclusion from social groups, being made the subject of malicious rumours, sending malicious e-mails or text messages on mobile phones.’ Responsibility to tackle bullying Education providers have a responsibility to tackle bullying in all forms under the Education Act 2002. Individual schools, colleges and universities are required to put in place an anti-bullying policy, which sets out how they will: record bullying incidents; investigate and deal with the incidents; support victims; and discipline bullies. Schools should provide staff training on how to identify, prevent and manage bullying. Local authorities are required to produce an anti-bullying policy for their area, identifying any particular trends in the area and stating how they will support schools. Monitoring and recording incidents of bullying In its publication ‘Respecting Others: Anti-Bullying Overview (2011), the Welsh Government identifies best practice in monitoring and recording incidents of bullying: 3 Action on bullying June 2014 “Most schools have mechanisms for recording incidents of bullying. Monitoring incidents of bullying enables a school to identify patterns of behaviour and the extent of bullying, and then take pro-active steps to challenge it. It is best practice that school record all incidents of bullying, as well as specific types of bullying. Schools that use monitoring processes are able to modify their bullying policies to respond to specific trends and issues.” Main findings Pupils’ experiences of bullying 1 Too many pupils suffer from bullying at some point during their time in school. The effects of being bullied can be short or long-term, psychological or social, and often result in underachievement or attendance problems. Certain groups of pupils are at a higher-than-average risk of being bullied, including: pupils with special needs

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