Bullying in England

A new report has been published to mark the beginning of Anti-Bullying Week in England. It examines how bullying, or the fear of bullying, is the cause of a third of all truancies.

Snapshot of the findings:
· 20,000 kids truant everyday because of bullying
· 1 in 3 truants (36%) blame bullying
· Two in five young people (42%) who are bullied, admit to skipping school at least once
· Overall a third of all 11-17 year olds in the England admit to skipping school at least once because of the fear of bullying

John Quinn, Director of beatbullying said: “The most significant finding from the research is that 20,000 kids are truanting everyday to avoid their bullies. This figure equates to 36% of all truancy. Therefore over a third of all truants are missing lessons because they are being bullied.”

The other significant finding from the report is that almost half (42%) of bullied young people admit to avoiding school at least once, so if 69% of young people are bullied, that means that a third of all young people in the UK have truanted, faked an illness, or otherwise skipped school because of bullying

Children and young people who are not in school; are most vulnerable to academic failure, are easily drawn into crime and anti-social behaviour and are more likely to be unemployed after leaving school. For the third of young people who truant to escape being bullied, many of them persistently, lack of bullying prevention decreases their chances of fulfilling their potential and going on to be happy and productive citizens.

The report also highlights the authorized absences element, those young people who stay away from school with their parent’s permission, to avoid bullying. These include parents who are too scared to send their children to school because of their bullying and young people who fake illnesses to avoid bullies.

John Quinn continued: “In this report, young people have told us how they want the Government to beat bullying, they want their schools and education professionals to see truanting as a symptom of bullying and not only the behavior of lazy and trouble-making young people.”

On the campaign, Sara Cox said: “Sometimes you still hear people say that bullying is just a part of growing up, that it is just child’s play, well I hope that beatbullying’s work changes that attitude. Bullying is not only having a serious social and emotional effect on Britain’s young people, but now it is proven that it is affecting the life chances and education of the future workforce of Britain.

“I’m proud to be a patron of beatbullying, they are really making a difference to the lives of bullied kids. They don’t provide helplines or counsellors; what beatbullying do is even more important, they prevent bullying from starting in the first place. During Anti-Bullying Week, from Nov 20th, beatbullying is asking schools all around the country to get involved in anti-bullying lessons or fundraising for beatbullying.”

beatbullying argues that if schools set out to prevent bullying rather than try to end it once it starts, then the problem will never take hold. beatbullying takes a unique peer to peer approach to shaping attitudes and ultimately changing behaviours of the whole school rather than focusing on those involved specifically in bullying incidences. This approach is proven to work with schools reporting a drop in bullying of 39% and an increase in reporting of bullying of 60% after working with beatbullying.

The report is available here:
http://www.beatbullying.org/reports/bullying-truancy-report-2006.pdf

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