The Welsh Children’s Commissioner, Keith Towler has warned that anti-bullying policies in Welsh schools have proved “inconsistent and ineffective”.
Mr. Towler told the Western Mail that some schools had tackled bullying with active, effective policies, but others had left the situation to deteriorate. Since 2003 all schools in Wales have been required by law to have anti-bullying policies. But whether these are visible and used remains another matter and bullying still exists in every school, he warned.
He has made a number of recommendations to a Welsh Government review including improved initial teacher training on recognising and dealing with all bullying and on-going, on-the-job, training. He would also like all schools to hold annual meetings with all staff to discuss bullying and for there to be constant reviews and updates of policies.
“There’s still, in some areas a reluctance to admit bullying happens in their school,” he said.
“Those that say ‘bullying doesn’t happen here’ should be ashamed because bullying happens everywhere. The idea that you might ignore it or say you are a happy school is not helpful.”
He claimed some schools had “very good” anti-bullying policies on their shelves that teachers had no idea existed. Others had good policies that are acted upon and secondaries could learn from changes in primaries, he added.
“I’ve visited primaries where teachers are working really hard to create a warm, inclusive culture with playground ‘buddies’. That culture of awareness around bullying is what we need to see translated from primary to secondary.”
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