The Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS), the country's
largest teaching union, has today (Wednesday) welcomed the
publication of the Scottish Government's updated anti-bullying
guidance. The publication, entitled Respect for All, is
helpful in that it aims to ensure a consistency of approach to
tackling all forms of bullying of children and young people,
including that which is prejudice-based, not only in schools but
across all sectors and communities.
Commenting on publication of the guidance, EIS General Secretary
Andrea Bradley said, “Bullying is never acceptable, in any walk
of life, and this is especially the case in our schools, which
strive to provide a welcoming, nurturing and safe environment for
children and young people from all backgrounds. The impact of
bullying on victims can be profound and have devastating
long-term consequences in all aspects of their lives. Schools
take all forms of bullying extremely seriously, and seek to
tackle such behaviour quickly and decisively whenever it arises.”
Ms Bradley continued, “Most schools across the country will
already have their own guidance in place and the EIS would
expect, in the context of an empowered school, that schools,
parents, teachers and pupils would all be involved in the
development of policy – to ensure that there is full ownership of
the anti-bullying approach which will be adopted on a
whole-school basis.”
However, Ms Bradley added, “The guidance seeks to engender a
consistency of approach to tackling bullying across Scotland,
such as in the recording and reporting of incidents, including
those which are prejudiced-based. This is a welcome inclusion and
underpins the need to address the rise in prejudice-based
incidents, particularly misogyny, highlighted in the 2023
Behaviour in Scottish Schools Research. However, this will have
resource implications for schools. Teachers are already massively
over-burdened by their existing workload demands, working on
average in excess of 11 extra hours over their contracted hours
every week. To implement the guidance effectively, therefore,
additional resourcing will be required to provide teachers and
school staff with the time to record and report as outlined in
the report.”
Ms Bradley continued, “There must also be the requisite resources
available to ensure appropriate interventions can be put in place
to address the underlying cause of the bullying behaviour, which
can often be complex and to ensure that there are adequate
supports in place for those who have been the victim of
bullying.”
Ms Bradley added, “The most important step that can be taken to
help tackle bullying in our schools and the implementation of the
early intervention and prevention strategies rightly advocated in
the guidance, is the deployment of additional staff, including
the delivery of the Scottish Government's manifesto commitment to
recruit 3,500 additional teachers during the course of this
Parliament to ensure that children and young people can benefit
from smaller class sizes and more individual support. In an
education system where schools are still working to overcome the
many impacts of the pandemic on young people, more resources and
more staff are needed to tackle issues such as bullying, no
matter where it occurs or what form in takes. It is in the best
interests of all young people, and of Scottish society, for
challenging issues such as bullying to be properly addressed.”
