COUNCILLORS have called for better anti-bullying policies in schools because current policies are not working.
Members of Wakefield Council’s lifelong learning overview and scrutiny committee discussed on Monday a list of 10 recommendations for improving policy sent for cabinet approval.
The list includes encouraging schools to opt into a bullying database and designate a school governor specifically for bullying, and to consider introducing awards for schools which demonstrate good anti-bullying policy.
The committee also want schools to review the way pupils use phones and the internet in school, to try and combat ‘cyber bullying’ which is said to be on the rise.
The last review into bullying was carried out by the committee in 2008.
It concluded that anti-bullying policies were not working, and that even the best policies were seen as successful by just 53 per cent of children.
Co-opted member Terry Walsh said parents needed to be confronted when their children were found to be bullying others.
He said: “Bullying happens everywhere in our society. It’s important to bring parents into school and confront them. What a child does in the school is very much what’s happening in the home.
“Children need to respect each other and schools have an uphill task in the society we live in.”
The meeting was told there is no statutory obligation for local authorities to have anti-bullying policies.
And yesterday Coun Olivia Rowley said bullying needed to be tackled in the same way as domestic violence.
She said: “Although violence is reducing, domestic violence is increasing, particularly in the young. I believe bullying is more or less an extension of that. We are becoming more aggressive with each other.
“We try to encourage schools to adopt these policies wherever possible.”
Comments