Anti-Bullying Week

Next week (18-22 November) is Anti-Bullying Week, an annual event established by the Anti-Bullying Alliance. If you've got an interest in this topic then the Guardian's Teacher Network site has put together some suggestions for teaching resources, or you might want to have a look at my bookmarks on bullying, which contain links to various relevant reports and websites.

Anti-Bullying Week

19 - 23 November is Anti-Bullying Week, an annual event established in 2006 by the Anti-Bullying Alliance. The theme for this year's Week is We're Better without Bullying, with a focus on how bullying can impact on achievement at school. Already a piece of research commissioned for the event has made headlines by suggesting that some children hide their talents for fear of being bullied, while Eurydice has released a new briefing entitled Strategies to Counter Bullying, which examines how other countries tackle the issue.

For further information on bullying, you can view previous relevant posts on this site by clicking on 'Bullying' in the Hot Topics menu on the right of the page. Alternatively, you may want to look through my bookmarks on this topic, which will give you 25 links to get started!

Protecting Children Online

Protecting Children Online: Teachers’ Perspectives on eSafety is a new report from the NFER which analyses responses from a recent online survey - topics covered include e-safety, cyberbullying, pupil use of mobile phones and social networking. You can choose to read either the full report or a summary version is also available.

Anti-Bullying Week

Today is the beginning of Anti-Bullying Week, an annual event supported by various charities and other organisations to raise awareness of the problems that bullying can cause. So it's with good timing that the NFER has just published Sticks and Stones May Break my Bones but Being Left on my Own is Worse - this report covers the results of a survey which asked children whether they had experienced bullying over the last 12 months, and if so why they think they may have been bullied.

To see a list of all previous posts on this subject, click on 'Bullying' in the 'Hot Topics' menu on the right of the page.

Anti-Bullying Strategies

The Department for Education has recently published The Use and Effectiveness of Anti-Bullying Strategies in Schools. This project was conducted by the Unit for School and Family Studies at the University of London, and examined how successful different schools in England have been in their approach to tackling episodes of bullying.

Prevention and Response to Bullying

The Equality and Human Rights Commission has published a new study which examines the issue of prejudice-based bullying of children, on the grounds of disability, gender, race, religion or belief or sexual orientation. Among the findings are that such forms of bullying are widespread and can have long-lasting consequences on victims, and that schools require further guidance and support to prevent this type of bullying.

To read the full text of the report, click here.

Something for Everyone

Bear with me, today's update is going to be a monster. I've been away for a week, during which it seems that the childcare sector has gone into overdrive, so here's a simple update of significant news stories and new research with summaries where available:

• Today the government have announced a review of the Early Years Foundation Stage, which could have wide-ranging implications for all professionals who work with young children. Yet the results of research published today by the Daycare Trust show that the EYFS has strong support among childcare providers.

• A brief research report looking at free schools in Sweden (the model for the proposed changes to many schools in the UK) argues that they have no impact on the achievement of poor or immigrant children. The summary of research evidence by Rebecca Allen of the Institute of Education can be read here.

• This week (Monday 5th July - Sunday 11th July) is National Childhood Obesity Week. To find links to previous research on this topic, take a look at the 'Hot Topics' section in the right-hand column and click on 'Child Obesity.'

• Eurydice has published a new, extensive report entitled Gender Differences in Educational Outcomes: Study on the Measures Taken and the Current Situation in Europe.

• ICT bods may be interested in new research from the NFER entitled Children and Young People's Views on Web 2.0 Technologies.

• The National Centre for Social Research has published Characteristics of Bullying Victims in Schools, which assesses the relative importance of a range of factors that can lead to the bullying of young people.

• Engaging for their Futures and our Society is the title of a new report from the Children's Communication Coalition, and examines how to improve the life chances of children with speech, language and communication needs.

• The Centre for Policy Studies has published Cutting the Children's Plan, a report which suggests areas where savings in children's services can be made in the forthcoming public sector cuts.

• The latest official set of statistical data on children with special educational needs has just been released; very useful if you have an interest in this area!

• Teaching enthusiasts may find Behaviour for Learning useful; this is a research anthology which examines the different learning styles of pupils and teachers' attitudes towards them.

• The National Childminding Association (NCMA) has launched a free childminder engagement tool, to enable childminders and children's centres to collaborate more closely.

NSPCC Research Briefings

The NSPCC has recently been issuing a series of research briefings on various child protection topics. These are excellent introductions to the subjects they cover, as they summarise the main issues of each one, as well as containing plenty of suggestions for further reading. To have a look at the latest batch, just click on the links below.

• School Bullying

• Key Facts about Child Maltreatment

• The Impact of Abuse and Neglect on the Health and Mental Health of Children and Young People

• Children and Young People Disclosing Sexual Abuse: an Introduction to the Research
  

New from NSPCC Inform

The NSPCC Inform website (see previous post for details) has published a collection of new briefing papers. Among those which should interest readers are advice on reporting child abuse and a round up of literature relating to school bullying.

Anti-Bullying Week

This week is National Anti-Bullying Week, which means that a number of organisations are seeking to raise awareness of issues surrounding all forms of bullying. This year seems to have a particular emphasis on cyber-bullying, with the appearance of a number of new reports and resources devoted to this subject.

The Anti-Bullying Alliance sends out a resource pack containing various materials to schools at this time each year, and all of the contents can be downloaded from this link. Meanwhile, Bullying UK has launched a mobile version of its cyber-bullying site, which enables children to access advice and information while on the move.

For new research, take a look at Virtual Violence: Protecting Children from Cyberbullying, a new report from the Beatbullying charity; the study aims to highlight the true extent of cyberbulling in the UK. Also, Teachers TV has commissioned a new programme entitled The Bullies Playground, which conducts a detailed study of cyberbullying.

For official guidance on tackling all types of bullying, the Teachernet website has compiled this list of links to various documents and sources which have been issued in recent years. Or for further information, you could just click on the 'Bullying' link in the 'Hot Topics' menu in the right-hand column of this page, which will give you a list of all blog posts which have dealt with this topic.

Sir Alan Steer's Behaviour Review

No doubting the big story in education over the last couple of days - the publication of Sir Alan Steer's review of pupil behaviour issues, entitled Learning Behaviour: Lessons Learned. Altogether the report makes 47 recommendations for improving behaviour within schools, although so far the report has met with a mixed response from teachers.

Perhaps it's appropriate that yesterday also saw the publication of new guidance for teachers on dealing with cyberbullying. More information on this topic can also be found from a dedicated section on the Digital Citizenship website.

Cybermentors

The Beatbullying charity has launched a new website dedicated to tackling the growing problem of cyberbullying. Entitled Cybermentors, the site enables victims of bullying to seek help and advice from hundreds of secondary school and further education students who have been trained especially for this task. Also on the site are a collection of videos and links to relevant news stories.

For further information on bullying and cyberbullying from previous blog posts, click on the 'Bullying' link under the 'Hot Topics' heading on the right hand side of this page.

Children's Services / Bullying

Here's a round up of several items of interest from recent weeks, which fall into two broad areas: children's services and bullying.

Last week saw the Children's and Young Persons Act 2008 pass into law. The act contains provisions in relation to well-being of children and young people, private fostering and much more. Like most legislation, the Act itself is very detailed and pretty hard to follow, so this set of explanatory notes may be of use to may readers.

On a similar theme, The Centre for Excellence and Outcomes in Children and Young People’s Services (C4EO) has recently published three separate scoping studies on improving outcomes for children by examining effective practice in integrating various early years services. You can find links to each of the studies by clicking here.

Those of you with an interest in bullying have two new documents to look through. The National Healthy Schools Programme has just released a booklet entitled Anti-Bullying Guidance for Schools, while the Beatbullying charity have published a report entitled Interfaith Report. This contains research which investigates the extent of bullying among children belonging to different religious groups.

Children on Bullying

A new Ofsted report claims that increasing numbers of children are resorting to carrying knives and even bottles to protect themselves against bullies. Among other issues highlighted by the research were the perception that bullying is on the increase, and that technologies such as mobile phones and social networking sites are also being used to intimidate some children. You can read Children on Bullying in full online. To look at previous posts on this topic, use the 'bullying' link from the Hot Topics area on the right of the page.

New Cyberbullying Campaign

The DCSF has launched a new campaign to tackle the problem of cyberbullying. The homepage for the campaign can be viewed here, while a full set of guidance entitled Safe To Learn has been issued for use by teachers and other school staff. Advice for these members of staff is also available from the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) - click here for details.

This blog has dealt with cyberbullying resources before - click here for further sources of information on this topic.

Cyberbullying

A worrying story from the BBC website suggests that the problem of cyberbullying has taken a new twist with teachers now also becoming victims.

As a relatively new phenomenon, there currently appears to be little available research in this area; to date, cyberbullying research has focused on cases where children are the victims. In July last year the Anti-Bullying Alliance published An Investigation Into Cyberbullying, which is possibly the first major UK study to look in detail at the problem.

In response the DfES has issued a set of guidelines to help schools, parents and pupils prevent and tackle cyberbullying. A free information sheet with similar tips is also available from the Anti-Bullying Network, while if you're completely new to the subject then Becta's article What is Online Bullying? should bring you quickly up to speed.

Bullying Resources

The latest report from the parliamentary Education and Skills Committee is the result of an investigation into bullying. The final document stretches to 288 pages, but for the busy people among us a summary of the main conclusions is provided on pages 5-6.

It is only a few months since the publication of Bullying Today, a report from the Office of the Children's Commissioner which looked at current anti-bullying strategies in the UK. Also recommended is a 2003 DfES report entitled Tackling Bullying, which was researched in conjunction with Childline. Or for further information and useful resources dealing with this topic, the Anti-Bullying Alliance website is well worth a visit.