Older school students would be given mentor training to enable them to “coach” younger boys in recognising and stopping misogyny, under a plan set out by Labour.
The plan, involving mentor training being provided by regional improvement teams, is aimed at ending the “scourge” of sexual harassment in schools, the party said today.
Tes has previously revealed “alarming” levels of sexual harassment being suffered both students and teachers, and there are ongoing concerns about the impact of influencers, such as Andrew Tate.
Labour also said today that it would provide best practice tools to help teachers deal with online harassment and misogyny.
And it reasserted its plans to embed digital literacy in the curriculum for students to deal with online hate and misinformation, provide access to mental health counsellors in every school, and give Ofsted the power to carry out new annual safeguarding checks.
Labour’s announcement comes as analysis from the House of Commons Library shows a growing number of references to misogyny, sexism and sexual harassment in Ofsted reports.
Analysis of the most recent Ofsted school inspection data shows that mentions of the terms “sexism”, “misogyny”, “sexual harassment”, “sexual abuse” and “safeguarding incident” increased by more than 400 per cent between 2019 and 2022.
References to “sexual harassment” increased from 3 to 106 in the same time period.
Bridget Phillipson, Labour’s shadow education secretary, warned that “misogyny is a growing scourge in our classrooms”, adding that “if we fail to tackle it now, we store up huge problems for society in years to come”.
“Parents across the country are rightly concerned about the impact this is having on children, particularly the sexual harassment being suffered by young women and girls,” Ms Phillipson added.
Sexual harassment and misogyny in schools
Dr Patrick Roach, general secretary of the NASUWT teachers’ union, welcomed Labour’s plan to tackle misogyny, which he added must also include “equipping schools to confront sexism and misogyny in the curriculum”.
“We know from reports from members, our casework and research that sexual harassment and sexist abuse towards both female teachers and pupils in schools and colleges is commonplace and that the majority of incidents fail to be reported or dealt with effectively,” Mr Roach said.
Last year MPs called for “urgent action” to address the sexual harassment and abuse of female teachers and students.
This 2023 House of Commons report further called for Ofsted to investigate in school inspections the levels of abuse suffered by female staff.
Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the NEU teaching union, said that schools will “welcome more support about how to respond to the online sexism and sexual harassment which young people encounter”.
However, Mr Kebede warned that safeguarding “is not a role for Ofsted”, saying that instead local authorities should have the “capacity to support all their local schools around harassment trends and responsive strategies, and build good practice”.
