Pomegranate House's Review on Ofsted Review of Sexual Abuse in UK Schools

A report by Ofsted gave a lot of insight and interesting progression points for children and the accountability schools should have. In an Osted survey to over 900 children, in 32 schools and colleges, aged 13 and above, found that girls can be contacted by up to 11 boys a night asking for nude images, and if they decide to block the boys on social media, “they just create multiple accounts to harass you”. Out of the girls interviewed, 90% were sent nudes at some point, and called a sexist name. This is not just pointed to girls, 50% of the boys were sent nudes.

The research found these sexual violent incidents normally took place, while the majority said in unsupervised spaces, such as parties, parks or in activities outside of school. There were experiences where unwanted touching in school corridors occurred.

These children specifically mentioned they did not want to discuss the sexual due to social impacts, even if their school encourages them to do so. Not only was one of the main reasons due to fear from the adult’s reaction, that they will not be believed and instead blamed, but also not wanting to be ostracised from the school community. The need of autonomy of the situation was a main theme, which was not felt possible.

A review of sexual abuse in schools and colleges, found that in 2018-19, “90% of reported rape was between 13 to 15 year olds against girls”. Interestingly, in the last year, girls aged 15 to 17 have reported the highest amounts of sexual abuse between the ages of 25 and younger. Understanding the prevalence and the amount of sexual abuse in school, reported and unreported, could this finally be an indicator of more trust for reporting?

We know that on average, 1 in 3 women and 1 in 4 men will be sexual assaulted/abused at some point in their lifetime. This number has been in this bracket for decades. Whilst the UK Governments watchdog is “warning that sexual harassment has become "normalised" among school-age children”, I fear this has always been the case, but we are at a stage of facilitating more awareness and understanding with better parameters for reporting. Even though a lot of the girls and boys are still uncomfortable to report, as a society we have come a long way to accept and see the side of the victim as a more standard truth.

Ofsted had highlighted that teacher underestimate the scale of these problems. To make a significant impact and change, to stop any person being abused, we must look at a proactive approach and not reactive. We should not focus purely on the need for reporting, to resolve this but look at what is being taught as a standard of acceptable behaviour. While Ofsted’s conclusion did reflect the strengths and limitations of the evidence provided, we examine other aspects we know.

We understand technology has educated and impacts children by now being leading form of cultural direction and governance. With this, we cannot be continually fearful and try to react to anything that becomes a trend. Reactive approaches do not change behaviour but makes the person learn to not discuss this further with an adult. To change behaviour is to discuss situations and the reasons why these are wrong, as a form of behaviour analysis. We examine why and where the acceptance of some behaviours come from and show the impact. This proactive approach will mean when a situation occurs, the parent does not need to constantly monitor and be able to trust their child will be safe in all situations.

The change in systems that do come into our lives, such as social media and other forms of technology is impossible to continually be reactive to help and combat the problem. This means we have to look at the base of understanding of the person, in childhood many formative experiences, and lessons are taught, and inappropriate behaviours need to be focused on. It may even look at what have they witnessed at home that could lead to unconscious confirmation of unacceptable behaviours. This could and can limit later life problems. The only problem found then would be the balance between different generations that are taught or emphasised change to these behaviours. As long as we have a majority understanding what is acceptable and what isn’t, this can influence and allow other behaviours to conform to this norm.

Another problem in this approach in home-schooling. In the UK between 2015 and 2018, home-schooling had increased by 40%, with this being moved from 75,000 to 130,000 for the 2019/2020 period. As we know from the implications of COVID-19, this number rose further.

If we now include home-schooled children, which creates another topic on appropriate discussions to lead to children to know what is acceptable and what needs to be made aware of the boundaries in a home-life balance. Unfortunately, we also know that two thirds of all sexual abuse cases are from someone previously known, and a third of those cases direct family members. How can we monitor and create a safeguarding setting for the child now, and for their future understanding and awareness to know what is unacceptable behaviour? That being said, we have no way to know the percentage of home-schooled students have been impacted, and we should only focus on the proactive approach, to not make this an issue.

At Pomegranate House we can help facilitate these discussion, help guide and create the approaches to make effective change for this young generation and all of our future generations.