A wide-ranging report into bullying in Islington’s schools will be presented to Islington Council’s executive this week.
The council’s cross-party overview and scrutiny committee produced the report titled Management of Bullying and the Effect on Educational Achievement. It includes recommendations on how incidents of bullying can be reduced, and support for schools can be increased.
The committee spoke to headteachers, staff and pupils in Islington, as well anti-bullying charity Beat Bullying as part of the extensive research that formed the conclusions and recommendations in the report.
The report concludes that whilst school bullying is a problem in Islington, a lot of good work is already being done to tackle this. This include anti-bullying toolkits produced by Cambridge Education @ Islington which are tailored for primary and secondary schools and provide step-by-step guidance on how to put effective anti-bullying measures in place. Advice is also provided on how pupils and teachers can report incidents of bullying and how parents and carers can recognise if a child is being bullied and what action they can take.
A total of 17 recommendations are made in the report, suggesting strategies the
council could put in place to help reduce bullying in Islington schools. Among these recommendations are:
·That the council should look into the possibility of having a support worker at each school on a part time basis, who can focus on children with problems connected to bullying and attendance. This is a strategy already used in some schools in Islington and has proven to be very effective.
·That more staff are trained in ‘restorative justice’ order. This brings the bully and victim together to help both understand bullying and the negative impact it has. It’s an effective measure that has already been introduced into some of the secondary schools in the borough.
·That the council should investigate the growing problem of online cyber bullying with a view to offering training packages to schools, pupils and parents on how to combat and deal with cyber bullying.
·That the council looks at the ways parents can get information on bullying and report incidents. This information should be available in major community languages.
Cllr Andrew Cornwell, chair of Islington’s scrutiny committee said:
"Just like everywhere else in the country, bullying is sadly a serious issue in Islington schools with over half of pupils saying they have experienced bullying.
"The good news is that a lot of excellent initiatives are now underway in our borough to tackle the problem. I hope this report will help to spread that good practice across all Islington schools so we can reduce this problem."
The report will be presented at this Thursday’s (17 September) executive meeting.
Islington Council’s executive member for children and young people, Cllr Paula Belford said:
"I welcome this report into bullying. Every child has to right to feel safe and secure not only while at school, but also on their way to and from it as well. Any actions we can take to reduce levels of bullying in the borough should certainly be looked into."
ENDS.
Page Last Updated: 15 September 2009