Daily Safeguarding News - Safer Schools

The hurtful words adults use that harm children the most

According to a new survey by the charity Words Matter, two in five children (41%) have experienced verbal abuse from adults around them.
Parents, carers, teachers, friends of parents and activity leaders are the primary sources according to the poll of young people aged between 11-17 years old.
Over half of those surveyed experience this weekly and one in 10 experience it daily.
A separate survey of over 1,000 parents revealed that 65% have heard adults saying unkind things to children.
Of those children and young people who took part, the most common hurtful and upsetting words were ‘you’re useless’, ‘you’re stupid’, ‘you can’t do anything right’, ‘you’re worthless’ and ‘I’m ashamed of you.
These findings coincide with the launch of new charity, Words Matter which aims to end verbal abuse to children by adults around them and improve their mental and physical health.
For more, please visit the Yahoo News website.

Technology Secretary Michelle Donelan has insisted that nothing has changed in the Online Safety Bill legislation.
This comes following a row about end-to-end encryption with tech companies.
End-to-end encryption is a security measure that protects data and communications by ensuring only the sender and recipient are able to read the data.
In terms of end-to-end encryption and the Bill, when a platform is either about to or already has encrypted and there was a concern raised about harmful content then the regulator would intercede and see what mitigations could be put in place to adhere to the legislation.
If this did not work then a safety net would need built in whereby the regulator would advise the platform to invest in technology that would maintain the privacy of encryption but enable the location of criminals.
For more, please visit the Express and Star website.

In a horrifying video captured on Tuesday (11th September), one girl is seen kicking another in the face while she lies on the floor screaming.
It is understood that the girl attacked is disabled, and both are students at the same school.
The school confirmed they received reports of a similar incident last week, where another disabled student was targeted.
Kate Green, TfGM’s TravelSafe Partnership manager, said the behaviour was ‘sickening’, and that the transport network takes a ‘zero tolerance’ approach to crime and anti-social behaviour.
Greater Manchester Police have launched an investigation and whilst no arrests have been made, enquiries are still ongoing.
For more, please visit the Manchester Evening News website.

The Nuffield Early Language Intervention (Neli) was offered to all state primary schools in England across three academic years to help four- and five-year-olds affected by the pandemic with their language skills.
The national rollout, funded by the Department for Education, say 6,500 schools register.
An independent evaluation of the programme, by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) found that young children made on average, four months’ additional progress in their language skills compared to those who didn’t receive the intervention.
Children eligible for free school meals made on average, seven months’ additional progress.
The findings, published by the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) showed that the impact of the intervention was greater for children who received more sessions compared to children who had less sessions.
David Johnston, minister for children, families and wellbeing, commented: “High-quality childcare and language development are so crucial to make sure children are ready for school and to improve their life chances” and “It’s fantastic to see that the children involved in the programme are now four months ahead of where they would have been without the programme.”
For more, please visit the Yahoo News website.

Young people will “pay the price” if a government proposal to withdraw funding for a number of applied general qualifications (AGOs), go ahead in coalition of education and employer groups have said.
A report by the Protect Student Choice campaign predicts that the planned reduction in the number of AGQs will create a “significant gap in the qualifications landscape”.
The Department for Education is planning to remove funding for a number of post-16 qualifications that “overlap” with T-levels in England, considered to be broadly equivalent to three A levels.
The analysis shows that 191,000 young people were studying at least one AGQ that will not be available in September 2026.
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) stated that the Government should “now pause and review its plans as a matter of extreme urgency”.
For more, please visit the Yahoo News website.