Bullying in schools
What is bullying and how common is it in schools?
Research from the Department for Education in 2025 found that 19 per cent of children aged 11 to 18 had been bullied by another child at their school in the previous 12 months.
Typical forms of bullying include name-calling, exclusion from social groups, threats and violence, as well as having property damaged or stolen. Bullying can also happen online and through smartphones – known as cyberbullying or online bullying. Unlike bullying offline, online bullying can follow the child everywhere, via social networks, gaming and messaging apps.
In 2026, the use of artificial intelligence to create ‘deepfake’ images, audio or messages is a growing concern for schools and parents alike. Such behaviour may require digital devices, but with children never far from screens at school or at home, this kind of bullying crosses the boundaries between the real world and online. As with face-to-face bullying, children should be encouraged to report incidents early and schools should treat online bullying just as seriously as behaviour that takes place in person.
How should schools deal with bullying?
The good news is that every school must, by law, have measures in place to help prevent and tackle all forms of bullying. This includes having both a behaviour policy, with measures to encourage good behaviour, and a separate anti-bullying policy (which should be available to parents and ideally on the school website) outlining how to report bullying (including anonymously), how it is recorded and what action is taken when it happens.
Many of the schools The Good Schools Guide visits go further still, working hard to create a culture of kindness, respect and wellbeing. Diversity (everything from neurodiversity to ethnic diversity) is more likely to be celebrated in today’s schools, and many schools are proactive in their anti-bullying messages through noticeboards, assemblies and workshops.
Some schools also focus on encouraging their students to be ‘an upstander, not a bystander’, as well as covering topics such as empathy, mental health and language that could be deemed insulting. Cross-year friendships can be used to help prevent bullying too, eg via vertical tutor groups, extracurricular clubs, and peer mentoring schemes.
What should I do if my child is being bullied?
Some heads will whack their anti-bullying policy down on their desk in front of you, citing the pastoral team’s chain of command: form teacher, head of year, head of house, deputy (pastoral) head.
And yet still your child comes home with vicious messages appearing on their phone, and yet another pair of hockey or football boots have disappeared.
Your gut instinct will probably be to move schools, but this issn’t always the answer. Indeed, few children benefit from being moved at such times – and certainly serial moving is almost always a disaster in the longer term.
Instead, try to work with the school. Your child may kick and scream that they don’t want a fuss and that you going in will make it worse. And they may be right – at first – but any good school will tackle the perpetrators and make it absolutely clear that the bullying stops here and now.
It can’t be done with boxing gloves and nailed boots. Bullies need sensitive handling – they’ve sometimes been mistreated themselves and frequently have problems of their own. But again, schools know this – and know their pupils – so they should be able to find the most appropriate way of dealing with the situation, taking into consideration factors such as whether the bully is a lone figure or whether you are dealing with a group. Your child may be assigned an older pupil as a mentor or a staff member as a ‘friend’ to give confidence and reassurance while the sorting out is going on. But they should never be made to feel the bullying is their fault or that it isn’t taken seriously.
Should you move schools because of bullying?
Fortunately, in the majority of cases, bullying issues are dealt with effectively. But sometimes, despite your greatest efforts, a school just doesn’t, can’t, or won’tget it right and you come to the decision that the only option is to find a new school.
If you are considering moving your child because of bullying – or any other kind of unhappiness – our education consultants can help. We can discuss the options in a relaxed and sensible way and work out what will be best for your child. Importantly, you will not be dealing with it alone.
What if your child is accused of bullying?
The other nightmare scenario for a parent is that it is your child who is accused of bullying. This can be just as painful as you need to sensitively sort out the whys and wherefores.
Why do children bully others?
It is important to keep in mind that children don’t bully because they are ‘bad kids’. Decent children make mistakes and poor choices too, eg wanting to fit in with a group of friends who are picking on a classmate; wanting attention and not knowing how to get it in more positive ways; they are naturally more assertive or impulsive than the others in their class, etc.
By talking to and guiding your child through the root causes and the right behaviours, you can support them. And again, the school should be able to help too.
It is worth remembering – whichever side you’re on – that the parents have to be the adults in the situation and the emphasis must be on learning to live with each other, tolerate each other’s differences and treat others as you would wish to be treated.
Our consultants understand your child’s, and your, distress under such circumstances and we also know the schools which are good at picking up survivors of bullying, dusting them down and setting them upright again. Sometimes – though not always – a new start is the best way.
