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Annual
Surveys of Racist and Bullying Incidents in The City
of Edinburgh |
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The
City of Edinburgh Council (CEC) has the most experience
in Scotland of recording bullying and racist incidents.
In 1999, the Council published a set of guidelines,
including a reporting form. Earlier this year a report
was published based on the figures collected, and
a review of procedures is now taking place. The CEC
Policy lists the following advantages of collecting
figures of racist and bullying incidents at Authority
level: informing future procedures, programmes and
policies; assisting in the effective targeting of
resources and supporting establishments; possibly
indicating the need for action in relation to a particular
sector and/or type of incident and aiding the identification
and dissemination of good practice. In addition a
number of issues will have to be tackled: even with
a  standardised
reporting form headteachers will still record incidents
differently. Some will be highly sensitive to bullying
or racist behaviour and will record more incidents.
This may lead to the situation where schools with
an apparently high incidence of bullying and racism
have a greater awareness of the problem and more effective
strategies than those recording a lower number of
incidents. Improvements in policy and practice could
lead to an increased level of reporting. These figures
must be interpreted carefully and sensitively. Another
issue is that of openness. The CEC has adopted a policy
of openness which seems to be successful. The attitude
of the media to the figures is another factor to be
taken into account. Definition of the type of bullying
incidents recorded should also be considered. How
broad or narrow? Dealing with these issues will require
staff training; ongoing discussions at school and
authority level to clarify the type of incident to
be reported and most importantly, the development
of a consensus around the idea that the effort involved
in recording incidents is indeed worthwhile.
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Further
information is available from:
Roy Jobson
Director of Education
City of Edinburgh Council
10 Waterloo Place
Edinburgh EH1 3EG. |
City
of Edinburgh Council
University
of Strathclyde
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Coping
with Bullying |
In
our last newsletter we mentioned research being carried
out by Simon Hunter at the University of Strathclyde.
Since then, Simon has twice visited 10 Primary and 5
Secondary schools, looking at
how coping strategies influence self-esteem and depression,
as well as what strategies pupils think are best for
dealing with different types of bullying. Over 1400
P5, P6, S1 and S2 pupils completed surveys, and initial
results suggest that even children experiencing short-term
peer aggression report lower self- esteem and heightened
levels of depression, reinforcing the early-intervention
message. More details from: Simon Hunter, e-mail simon.hunter@strath.ac.uk
Phone: 0141-548 4391 |
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