A third of island pupils are affected by bullying

Among its many findings, the report said that 33% of more than 1,300 surveyed children had been bullied in or near school in the last 12 months, up from 22% in 2019.

This increase was found in every age category.

Education, Sport & Culture president Andrea Dudley-Owen said that the increase in the number of students saying they have experienced bullying in or near school was of concern.

‘Schools received individual feedback on their survey results and we have already let school leaders know that we are keen to hear from them about actions they are taking in response to the survey findings.’

The survey has been undertaken since the early 1990s at three-year intervals.

Pupils in Years 6, 8 and 10 were asked more than 80 questions on topics such as drugs, alcohol, tobacco, relationships physical activity, food and health, and emotional health.

Those pupils who thought bullying was taken seriously by their school fell by 1% point to 41% since 2019.

However there was a marked drop with Year 10 girls – aged 14 to 15 – with less than one in seven thinking their school took bullying seriously.

Head of education inclusion services Dave Stumpf said the committee was trying to develop cultures within educational settings to address the problem of bullying.

‘Earlier this year, we had a conference that was named the “Heroic Imagination Project”. We invited specialists to come onto the island to talk about how can we develop our cultures to ensure that they are safe spaces where inappropriate behaviours were challenged, because it’s not acceptable for certain behaviours to happens in schools. We need to make sure that we have mechanisms in the schools to support the needs of children, whether they be a bully or whether they’re victims of bullying.’