COUNCIL education chiefs have reaffirmed their commitment to tackling bullying within Dumfries and Galloway schools.
Having previously been raised as a major issue by the region’s youth council members, a new approach to addressing pupil bullying was highlighted in the council’s schools end of year assessment for 2024/25.
This document will be tabled at the council’s education committee next Tuesday.
Jim Brown, the council’s head of education, wrote: “A review of bullying is underway. This is multi-faceted and the views of schools, children, young people, parents/carers, and some partners will be surveyed on themes within the spectrum of bullying.
“Anti-bullying resources have been collated and shared with schools. The updated anti-bullying policy from the Scottish Government has also been shared with schools.
“During the launch event for the new guidance, some school staff within the authority attended a webinar promoting the new guidance.
“A template has been shared with all schools to help them re-design their anti-bullying polices in line with the new ‘Respect for All’ guidance.”
Mr Brown underlined that schools continue to be supported in recording and monitoring incidents of bullying.
There has also been a rise in the use of the bullying and equalities learning module available to staff.
Mr Brown wrote: “This demonstrates that schools are now more familiar and confident in using it. The data for records of bullying incidents is currently being analysed.
“Schools with identifiable trends are contacted to establish what their response was to these trends. Information regarding the trends in bullying incidents are shared with all schools to alert them to the common themes and locations (for example whether in school
or online).
“This allows schools to plan their response/allocate resources or alter their curriculum offer to address themes at the earliest opportunity.”
