(Title Image: schoolsweek.co.uk)
A leading expert in bullying, Bangor University’s Prof. Judy Hutchings, has called for a national-level strategy to deal with bullying after a school health survey found 10% of children in Wales were bullied on a weekly basis and 35% were targeted within the last two months.
Bangor University has piloted a strategy from Finland called KiVa in some schools resulting in a reported 40% decrease in bullying. There have now been calls for it to be rolled out across the country.
Children’s Commissioner, Dr Sally Holland, said “I don’t want parents to be put off sending the children to some schools because they seem to have high levels of bullying.
“If schools are recognising bullying they may end up recording higher levels than schools that aren’t and as a parent myself I would be more confident in schools that recognised bullying was going on than one that swept it under the carpet.”
