The DfES is currently engaged in a detailed process to commission guidance regarding homophobic bullying. The CES has been involved in commenting on the draft guidance and we continue to be in discussion with officials concerning the material that will be made available to schools.
It is in the interests of all of us that we wait until this guidance is published by DFES rather than rushing in to the redrafting of individual school policies and associated materials. In the meantime, however, I want to be very clear as to our position on bullying of any sort and in any type of school.
All bullying is intolerable for whatever reason and against whomsoever it is directed. All schools should have policies that make this quite clear to all who work and learn in the school. It is likely that schools will need to ensure that there is adequate support for staff, for example, including professional development and training so that anti-bullying policies are fully understood, properly implemented and monitored and regularly evaluated. Within this it would be reasonable to expect that there is exploration of the different kinds of bullying that can occur, the reasons for bullying, and how to respond. I would expect to see these aspects dealt with explicitly in any good anti-bullying policy. In a Catholic school I would expect to see work against bullying set firmly in the school’s context, in ethos the delivery of it mission and implementation of its values.
Whether a school has separate and distinctive policies on different types of bullying or an overarching anti-bullying policy that then makes reference to the different types of bullying is a matter of internal leadership and management. Either model should enable the different types of bullying to be named as part of the strategy for ensuring an adequate response to preventing such bullying.
Oona Stannard
Chief Executive and Director
4th June 2007 | 
