One in 10 pupils in England missed school in the last six months because they did not feel safe, according to the results of a major survey.
The report, which is based on a survey of 70,000 English students aged 7-18, looks at the link between children feeling safe at school and attendance levels, which have fallen since the pandemic.
It found that students were most likely to feel unsafe in hallways and playgrounds, mainly because of other children, although 13% said it was because of a teacher. Of those who felt unsafe, a third cited multiple instances, but only 25% of those who felt unsafe had spoken to someone at school.
Overall, three-quarters (75%) of the children who took part in the research said they felt ‘very’ or ‘fairly’ safe at school, but a quarter (25%) said they only felt ‘comparatively’, ‘ not much’, or ‘not safe at all’, with older children more likely to feel unsafe.
About 85% of primary school students in grades 3 to 6 said they felt fairly or very secure, which dropped to 76% when they moved to middle school in grades 7, and then dropped even further in grades 8-11 when only 60% of students said they felt safe.
The report says that students “with a gender identity other than male or female” have a lower sense of safety at school (48% feel safe compared to 75% of girls and 78% of boys) and less over half of gay (43%) or bisexual (45%) students report feeling safe at school, compared to 71% of heterosexual students.
Students are more likely to feel safe outside of school than at school (78% vs. 75%), but an even greater percentage feel safe online (88%), despite adults’ concerns about what they’re up to exposed their children. Asked what website they were on when they felt unsafe, 15% were on Roblox, 12% on Snapchat, 7% on TikTok and 6% on Instagram.
Ministers are concerned about school attendance, with more pupils absent than before the Covid pandemic. The latest figures show that secondary schools are the most affected, with pupils missing more than 9% of classroom time in the first term of the final academic year, compared with an average of around 5.4% in the five years between 2014 and 2019. Mr.
Dame Rachel de Souza, Children’s Commissioner for England, said: “It is testament to the hard work of school staff to support their pupils and build caring school communities that 75% of children who took part in the research reported that they feel safe at school.
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“However, this leaves a quarter of children – that’s eight in each class of 30 – who do not feel safe. Student safety is paramount and the findings of this report should be essential reading for all school leaders. Only by understanding what makes children feel unsafe can effective policies and procedures be put in place.”
The report was produced by Edurio and The Key Education Support Services. Leora Crudas, chief executive of the Confederation of School Trusts, said: “These findings are both reassuring and worrying.”
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