Schools need to do more to train staff to deal with bullying, says Ofsted.
In a new report, No place for bullying, the Government’s education watchdog argues that most schools tend to provide general training on the issue which does not always take account of the different types of bullying that are commonplace. This leads some staff to feel that they do not have the confidence to tackle all types of incidents.
Research suggests that pupils with disabilities and SEN are more likely to be bullied and Ofsted found that casual use of language that discriminated against these groups of pupils was prevalent in many of the schools visited.
The report looks at what schools can do to create a positive school culture and to prevent and combat bullying. It can be downloaded from the Ofsted website:
www.ofsted.gov.uk
A teacher in New York was teaching her class about bullying and gave them the following exercise to perform. She had the children take a piece of paper and told them to crumple it up, stamp on it and really mess it up but do not rip it. Then she had them unfold the paper, smooth it out and look at how scarred and dirty is was. She then told them to tell it they’re sorry. Now even though they said they were sorry and tried to fix the paper, she pointed out all the scars they left behind. And that those scars will never go away no matter how hard they tried to fix it. That is what happens when a child bully’s another child, they may say they’re sorry but the scars are there forever. The looks on the faces of the children in the classroom told her the message hit home.