Sexuality and gender are the most common reasons given by secondary students for bullying, according to a new government-commissioned report.
Around a third of secondary students (32 per cent) said the most prevalent form of bullying was based on sexuality or gender expression (31 per cent), a report from Diversity Role Models and the National Council for Voluntary Organisations shows.
The most common forms of bullying reported by primary pupils were related to people’s appearance (15 per cent) and perceived differences (14 per cent).
The research is the culmination of a three-year Department for Education-funded project, which has involved researchers speaking to 10,000 school staff and 8,435 primary and secondary students.
The findings come after the DfE released guidance telling schools that they should not teach about the “concept of gender identity” at both primary and secondary level.
Encouraging students to report bullying
The report says schools need to “prioritise data-driven approaches” to tackling bullying, including “encouraging reporting” by students.
Bridging the gap between students, parents, carers and school staff is also “essential”, with a “particular emphasis on centering student voice through initiatives such as setting up student-led equality groups”, the report adds.
In the research, nearly a quarter of secondary students (23 per cent) said they did not know how to report bullying at school or were not sure they knew.
And 27 per cent of secondary students did not feel that teachers “consistently helped when someone was being bullied”.
There were also differences in student and staff perceptions of bullying, with only half of primary pupils (58 per cent) saying they felt safe in school, whereas most governors (83 per cent) believed all pupils were safe in school.
The report says that “the disconnect between senior leadership and governors and the lived experience of students” shows how “improved reporting of bullying incidents is crucial”.
Secondary students with “marginalised identities and/or those with multiple and intersecting identities” consistently reported higher levels of bullying, the report adds.
Most staff (83 per cent) and governors (83 per cent) believed that students with protected characteristics felt safe at their school.
However, when asked in the study, some students reported being bullied over their protected characteristics.
Almost half of trans and non-binary students (47 per cent), 41 per cent of disabled students, 40 per cent of students from a minority sexuality and more than a third of girls (38 per cent) said that they were bullied due to these protected characteristics.
Both students and staff identified disability and LGBTQ+ as the “areas of diversity which were least covered by the school curriculum ”, according to the study.
The findings come after nearly a third of pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) reported being bullied face-to-face frequently.
Staff ‘need confidence’ in tackling bullying
Members of school senior leadership teams told researchers that their staff would benefit from “increased confidence in responding to incidents to build students’ confidence in reporting bullying”.
Tes reported in 2022 that school leaders felt that the national curriculum “presented barriers” in improving education on bullying and diversity - a problem that still persists, according to the new report.
Some teachers “struggled to see how diversity could apply to their subject” or “felt bound by exam board specifications, which they felt limited their ability to embed diversity”, the report says.
Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “School and college leaders strive every day to provide a safe and inclusive environment for all their pupils, and take bullying extremely seriously. Clearly this is an ongoing challenge, particularly in the social media era and proper regulation of this industry is long overdue.
“It’s important that teachers are free to tailor lessons to suit their pupils and address issues as they occur, while working within the framework of a modern curriculum that reflects our diverse society. Any incoming government should establish an independent curriculum review group to ensure the national curriculum remains fit for purpose.”
Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the NEU teaching union, agreed that “schools do need more support and capacity about how to prevent and respond to bullying well”.
“To help teachers challenge stereotypes and patterns of inequality, we need better representation across the subjects in our curriculum,” he added, “rather than separate one-off lessons on race or LGBT+ or occasional assemblies.”
*An earlier version of this story contained information provided to Tes that was wrongly attributed to the 2024 report but actually came from an earlier publication from the two author organisations.
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