England’s worst areas for school bullying during lockdown have been revealed in new research that has explored the number of exclusions across the country, and the Isle of Wight has ranked as number 7 in the top 10.
Using the latest Department for Education data, Oxford Home Schooling identified the regions which have experienced the biggest increases and decreases in bullying exclusions between 2018/19 and 2019/20.
The Isle of Wight saw a 114% increase in exclusions of pupils found to be bullying another, reaching the same percentage increase as Peterborough.
Across England, 10 local authorities saw their figures more than double.
The local authorities that reported the biggest increases in bullying exclusions were:
- Barking and Dagenham – 200%
- North Tyneside – 143%
- Trafford – 138%
- Milton Keynes – 123%
- Stoke-on-Trent – 122%
- Peterborough – 114%
- Isle of Wight – 114%
- Kensington and Chelsea – 100%
- Halton – 100%
- Sutton – 100%
However, the national picture looks far more positive, largely due to school closures affecting the amount of contact time students had together. In England, the number of bullying exclusions dropped by 31% from 3,450 to 2,456 – equivalent to 63 such exclusions a week, compared to 91 the year before.
In 2018/19, there was 1 bullying exclusion per 2,327 pupils in the country, but this has risen to 1 per 3,385.
In fact, every English region saw its figures plummet. Schools in the South West are the best performing in this regard, with the area experiencing 41% fewer bullying exclusions in the last year compared to the previous period.
Greg Smith, Head of Operations at Oxford Home Schooling, said:
“These new exclusion figures cover the whole of the 2019/20 school year, but with the final term being conducted during lockdown, it’s interesting to see how the data compares to previous totals.
“In many ways, the measures introduced during the pandemic, like reduced class sizes and increased supervision, have helped address the country’s bullying problem, so it will be interesting to see if schools try to adopt some of these permanently, even though restrictions are easing.
“Anecdotally, nearly half of the parents who enrol their children with Oxford Home Schooling list bullying amongst their reasons for doing so. If your child is being bullied at school, then home education is a viable solution.”
Says alot about the island & those who have been relocated here when we’re now ranked alongside major cities and large metropolitan areas for school bullying.
Could be worse, you could live in Ventnor.
Sandown is scum central, not Ventnor.
Actually whole of Wight East of Newport, Chavland.
Bullying has been an issue on the Island since I was in school in the 80’s.
Please don’t use your xenophobia as an excuse.
You seem to be blaming the problem on people who have moved to the Island as we are ranked alongside cities and metropolitan areas, you go on to state “Could be worse, you could live in Ventnor”.
Basically you come across as being something of a bully yourself, by attacking people from the mainland and insulting Ventnor.
Bullying is never acceptable be it in or out of school, youngsters or adults.
Nobody is getting relocated here my friend.
I don’t know where you get this information but it’s completely untrue
People will want to move here and that happens but not by help from the councils I can assure you.
Hey I live in Ventnor! Could be worse, you could live in Sandown.
I’d wager 75% of those cases were from CTK, worst school on the island for bullying.
School bullying has always existed here, but it was never reported. I’m aware of loads of incidents that would be taken very seriously now, but young people from my time, would never have thought about reporting it to an adult or risking the reputation of being a snitch, which would have been incredibly unfair, but would have happened.
Could be because the teachers don’t want to actually manage a class and go immediately go to the nuclear option and exclude a child.
Sadly in schools on the island much of the management is done by bullying so it then means heads that are bullying ignore bullying by children !
as the definition of bullying has been increased to include all sorts of whiny and pathetic things, such as the odd insult, then it comes as no surprise at the increase.
when these weak children arrive in the adult world, they will be walked all over by those determined to succeed – it is a dog eat dog world when you grow up – household bills need paying, food needs buying and if there is one place available with higher pay, then weaker people get left behind.
What a surprise Not. Society of do gooders are to blame along with the parents You cannot discipline the children in schools anymore and the bullying children know that their parents won’t do anything as they just want the kids out of their hair.
The step is to stop calling it bullying and start calling what it is. Assault and intimidation. And the next step is always, especially in the case of violence, get the police involved. The current clement, that has been the way for as long as there has been schools, is to trivialise it. The problem with the way it is, is that you teach the violent minority that it is alright to behave in this way. And if the parents are unwilling to deal with the issue, for children under the age of culpability, the children should be taken into care. But this costs money they do not want to spend.
Kids were nasty bullies in Ryde schools way back in the fifties and sixties. When I eventually told my mother about horrible gangs of girls who made my life a misery for the whole ten years of the time I was at school, my auntie went to the school to see the teachers but it made no difference and my mother bullied me even more as she thought my auntie had made a fool of herself by going to the school on my behalf. The reason I got bullied was because I was quiet and shy and polite and they didn’t like that, you were expected to be rough and foul mouthed and I couldn’t be like that, i was nice to them but got picked on.
the difference is that up to the 1980’s you could still receive corporal punishment and that did keep a lot of the knuckle draggers in check.
those that consistently refused to comply with school rules, were simply expelled and sent to “special schools” or simply ignored, as they were not worth the bother
This article only shows that people do not read what’s in front of them and are easily misled by statistics. So many comment about ‘imported chavs’ and ghetto towns but the article does not address the prevalence of bullying in schools, only the number of exclusions and so suggests that the IOW is less tolerant and more likely to exclude bullies. Research on the actual amount of bullying would be more useful but why confuse popular opinion with facts? As for ‘imported chavs’, next on the list is Kensington and Chelsea.