A research report (Jackson et al, 2023) analyses survey responses from around 70,000 pupils in years 3 to 13 in schools in England.
It finds that during the past six months, 75% of pupils have felt “very” or “quite” safe in school.
However, 5% of pupils in years 3 to 13 said they have felt “not very safe” at some point in the last six months, while 3% said they had felt “not at all safe”.
When broken down, feeling unsafe is more of an issue at secondary level. Figures rise notably when pupils reach year 8, peaking at 13% of pupils feeling “not very safe” or “not at all safe” in year 11.
Worryingly, among those pupils who did not feel safe, a third said that they had felt like this on a number of occasions and a quarter said the problem had not been resolved.
Overall, one in 10 of the 70,000 pupils said they had missed school at least once due to feeling unsafe – which the report emphasises could mean two to four pupils in a class missing school for safeguarding reasons.
The respondents said that it was other pupils who are most like to make them feel unsafe, although 13% of pupils affected said they felt unsafe because of a teacher. The report says that corridors and playgrounds are the places most pupils feel unsafe at school.
It adds: “In around a third of cases, pupils felt unsafe not because something happened to them, but for another reason, for example they heard or saw something happen to someone else. However, 35% of pupils reported that something happened to them specifically and a further 24% did not want to disclose.”
When broken down by gender, both 7% of boys and 7% of girls report not having felt safe at school, whereas pupils with a gender identity other than male or female have much lower feelings of safety. Gay and bisexual pupils also have lower feelings of safety than straight pupils.
The report also warns that only 25% of pupils who felt unsafe said they had spoken to someone at school about it. This is despite 61% of pupils who felt safe saying that, hypothetically, they would speak to an adult at school if they ever felt unsafe.
Elsewhere, the analysis shows that feelings of safety in and out of school drop notably during years 8 to 11 but then rise again in sixth form. The report states: “Primary pupils report consistent levels of safety, with around 85% of pupils in each of years 3 to 6 reporting that they feel quite or very safe. This drops to 76% in year 7, and then significantly more in years 8 to 11, where around 60% of pupils report feeling safe in school.”
Break-down by year group: How safe pupils have felt at school in the last six months by year group (source: Jackson et al, 2023)
However, safety-related absences are higher among year 3s and 4s than pupils in years 8 to 11, even though overall feelings of safety are better in primary schools.
The report adds: “Year 3s reported the highest tendency to miss school because they felt unsafe, despite reporting among the highest level of safety within school. This drops throughout primary school before increasing for the majority of secondary school – while year 7s are among the least likely to miss school because they feel unsafe, years 8 to 11 are much more likely.”
Break-down by absence: How many pupils have missed school in the last six months because they felt unsafe (source: Jackson et al, 2023)
The report has been published by education specialists Edurio and The Key.
Commenting on the report, Leora Cruddas, chief executive of the Confederation of School Trusts, who has written a foreword to the report, said: “These findings are at once both reassuring and concerning, and should be reflected on by all school leaders to help them devise strategies to close the gaps between different pupil demographics to create safe, inclusive environments in which all pupils can learn and flourish. They also provide a valuable model for schools and trusts who wish to listen more systematically to pupil voice in their own settings, sitting alongside existing pastoral and parental engagement.”
The report is part of a wider Pupil Safeguarding Review conducted by Edurio and The Key. The report uses data collected between October and November 2022.
- Jackson, West Jones & Rapson: The Pupil Safeguarding Review: Report 1: Do pupils in English schools feel safe, and do they know what to do if they do not? Edurio, January 2022: https://go.edurio.com/safeguardinghub