Hundreds of pupils flee school bullies

Hundreds of desperate pupils are trying to move schools after falling victim to bullies.

A Sunday Post investigation has revealed at least 28 parents a day apply to local authorities in the north of England to transfer their children to a different school.

Astonishingly, in some areas as many as 14% cite bullying as the reason. Children’s charities last night blamed social media for the scandal.

Claude Knights, of Kidscape, said: “It has added a new dimension to bullying. It is the same old horrors that are put upon people but there is much more flexibility as to when it is done.

“There is more opportunity, there is that 24/7 aspect.

“Before, a bullied child would go home and be supported and not have any more anxiety until the next day. But this now goes out on the internet.

“Now it is even on games platforms that have chat rooms the possibility for misuse is endless.”

The Sunday Post sent freedom of information requests to 16 local authorities across Lancashire, Cumbria, North Yorkshire and the North East to find out how many pupils had moved schools and why. Of the 14 which provided a response, the majority could only supply figures for the number of applications or completed moves without providing reasons.

But two local authorities Gateshead and Darlington went into more detail.

In total there have been 50,501 applications to move schools over the last five years.

Almost 4,000 of those came from parents in Gateshead, of which of which 269 were for bullying equivalent to 7%.

In Darlington’s primary schools there have been 694 completed moves over the last three years, of which 87 related to bullying. The two areas’ secondary schools saw 103 moves, of which 27 related to bullying or not settling in, giving an overall total of 14% of transfers being made because pupils’ lives were being made a misery.

If this trend was repeated across the region it would be equivalent to more than 7,000 bullied youngsters attempting to switch schools.

Professor Cary Cooper, a psychologist at Lancaster University, said the effects of bullying had not changed, but parents must be more vigilant than ever in an age of social media.

He said: “In terms of social media, it is more the parents’ concern because they should be more savvy and know more about what’s going on and what social media they are using.

“Young people are trying desperately to be accepted by their peer group. “If one of them is getting at them, it is horrendous. They have a strong need for belonging.”

Prof Cooper has carried out research which shows bullying at school is linked to similar adult behaviour in the workplace. “We did a study which showed a link between bullying in school and work,” he said.

“Sometimes the bully at school remains a bully at work. But it can be somebody who has been bullied may be in charge of people and become a bully.”

A spokesman for the National Association of Head Teachers said: “Schools are acutely aware of bullying as an issue and the vast majority of schools have robust policies and procedures included in their statutory behaviour

policies. There will not only be procedures for dealing with allegations of bullying but proactive approaches in which bullying is dealt with in the curriculum.

“An increasing number of schools are becoming ‘rights respecting schools’ and the concept of ‘do unto others’ is a core principle.

“Other schools employ restorative justice as a means of dealing with the aftermath of bullying incidents which is reactive in a sense but is proactive in giving children an opportunity to learn from their errors and hence not repeat the conduct.

“This is not an alternative to punishment.”

Suzie Hayman, of Kendal, Cumbria, a trustee of charity BullyingUK“Children actively participate in the digital world. The majority have social media accounts and communicate daily online via smart phones.

Cyberbullying, like all bullying, can have a devastating impact on a child’s confidence and self-esteem. These effects can be long-lasting and may have a negative impact on a child’s performance at school.

Sometimes, children are bullied online by people they have met face-to-face, or even friends. Bullies may use online technology as it’s more difficult to recognise senders.

For all people involved, it may get out of hand very quickly because it is not easy to identify who is responsible and children may find themselves caught up in the cyber mob mentality. The charity recently saw calls relating to cyberbullying increase by 77% over 12 months.

In an online survey, BullyingUK found that 43.5% of respondents aged between 11 and 16 had been bullied via social networks such as Facebook, Bebo, Myspace and Twitter. 51% felt that blocking the bully from further contact or communication was a vital tool.

Parents are now contacting Family Lives and BullyingUK to express their concern about new and ever-emerging pernicious websites which enable any child or adult to see names, photographs and personal details of children as young as 13 and post comments that range from insults to sexual advances and threats of violence.

This is deeply worrying.”

According to charity Kidscape there are a significant range of traits a child may display if they are being bullied.

Among them is being frightened of walking to and from school, changing their usual route, not wanting parents to go to the school bus, or begging to be given a lift to school. They may start to feel ill in the mornings, begin truanting, doing badly at school and become withdrawn and lacking in confidence.

The charity recommends a range of ways parents can help, starting with asking a child directly if they are being bullied. Parents should also take care to try to find the full facts about an incident without agreeing to keep the bullying quiet.

They should talk to a teacher about what is happening and teach children strategies to deal with confrontations, such as shouting “No”, walking confidently or running away.

It even recommends offering to take bullied children to self-defence classes as a way of rebuilding their confidence.

A mum who claims her children were terrorised by bullies at school has been threatened with legal action over their poor attendance.

Tracey Hamilton, 41, says her 16-year-old daughter Chloe has skipped school and turned to self-harming in the run-up to her GCSEs, because she is being subjected to vile abuse.

Ms Hamilton, of Blackpool, Lancashire, claims her 13-year-old son Jordan is also being abused sparking the pair to refuse to attend.

The supermarket worker, originally from Scotland, revealed she had become so desperate she wrote to governors at St George’s School, requesting they be allowed to move but it was not approved. Blackpool council wrote to her warning she faced prosecution if her children’s attendance did not improve.

She said: “They have had some time off ill and I’ve doctors’ notes for that but the majority of the time they say they won’t go in because of the bullying.

“The other children are name-calling, throwing stuff at them and getting them in headlocks. It breaks my heart. Chloe ended up in hospital last year because of it.”

Dan Berry, head teacher at St George’s School, said: “This is an extremely complex case in which the school will continue to work with the family to resolve all of the issues.”