Author of Reports: Klaudia Matasovska
Supervisor: Dr Anna Carlile
Affiliation: Department of Educational Studies, Goldsmiths, University of
London
This evaluation was designed to find out whether the Equally Safe programme has changed schools’ approaches to identity-based bullying and reduced incidents of it. It also sought evidence that the programme effectively delivered efficient training, resources and guidance to create networks of schools which are creating equal and inclusive environments and tackling identity-based bullying. Finally, the evaluation was looking for examples of the outcomes and impacts of the key elements of the programme. The report from the second year explored evidence of improvement from year one of the programme, and gave further recommendations for the third and final year of the project.
The evaluation drew on a range of data: documentary analysis; recorded focus groups and interviews with teaching staff and pupils; and a survey distributed to all staff at participating schools.
Key findings from the evaluation will be outlined below, or you can read the full evaluation report here:
Equally Safe Evaluation Report: Year One
Equally Sale Evaluation Report: Year Two
Highlights
Empowering pupils
Agents for Change Ambassadors reported more self-confidence when it comes to dealing with prejudice and discrimination-related behaviour incidents in their school settings. Pupils felt a more secure sense of their own identities, which includes having a stronger sense of pride in their background and standing up for their values regarding equality and inclusion.
Many of them related their positive experiences of the Agents for Change events. Students in the Year One focus groups wanted to share that they felt more confident with regards to challenging bullying and reporting it. The primary Agents For Change were especially beaming with enthusiasm when talking about all the fantastic initiatives they had been working on, such as establishing ‘friendship’ benches around their playgrounds and making their own anti-bullying videos to engage their peers in more collaboration and to raise awareness of identity-based bullying.
Students in the Year Two focus groups wanted to share that they felt more knowledgeable and more confident with regards to challenging, categorising and reporting different kinds of identity-based bullying. There was also a big emphasis on the many benefits of the programme on the mental health and emotional wellbeing which is something that was mentioned by the pupil participants often.
The pupil participants across both years of the programme seemed genuinely at ease with talking about prejudice-related topics and their vocabulary had clearly been enhanced by the terminology they were introduced to at their AFC training events. Their AFC training was clearly beneficial to them and many of them wore their AFC badges with pride.
“…they’ve really taken that role on board in school and told us about their new ideas…and they’ve implemented changes in school with their ‘worry’ boxes in every classroom. They’ve got an assembly coming…to tell their peers what they do so they will continue that into the next year and then hopefully take on some sort of mentorship with regards to the younger pupils…”
– Equally Safe Lead Teacher- Year One of the Programme
“Without prompting, they created an assembly PowerPoint presentation to show everyone who they are, what their role is…you know…how to fight bullying and so on. They focus a lot on kindness. I am very proud of them!”
– Equally Safe Lead Teacher- Year Two of the Programme
The Equally Safe programme has proved to have a positive impact on pupils, in both primary and secondary school settings across both years of the programme. It has enabled them to create positive change in regards to preventing and tackling identity-based bullying, as well as reporting it using correct terms that they’re all familiar with, which contributes to better consistency in reporting bullying incidents as pupils have more knowledge and feel empowered. Being well informed regarding the individual protected characteristics and the concept of identity-based bullying has inspired the pupils to design a number of creative interventions to educate their peers about identity-based bullying as well as focus on positive reinforcement as a way of preventing bullying incidents.
Agents for Change Events
All attendees seemed very engaged with the training content, which included powerful anti-bullying videos that seemed to have left a big impression on those present… The trainers seemed to have an inclusive approach to the topics discussed, teaching pupils new terms (eg. Islamophobia) and often stressing to them to ‘challenge others (bullies) only when it’s safe to do so’. They appeared very encouraging when asking pupils to contribute to various discussions taking place, such as creating action plans for their schools. Pupils were also encouraged by the reps to ask questions during these interactive training sessions which the pupils happily took advantage of.
A combination of playfulness with an easy access to useful information seemed to be the winning method of engaging these pupils in these sometimes sensitive subjects without making them feel anxious.
..what was really good about this programme…is the fact that the children know what bullying really is now…before they thought it was just name-calling and physically hurting each other, but it goes so much deeper than that.
– Equally Safe Lead Teacher- Year One of the Programme
95.6% of survey respondents in the first year, and 96% of respondents in the second year think the programme has improved pupils’ confidence in their ability to create positive change in their school
Staff Training
The Equally Safe Programme and the training helped many teachers develop their confidence regarding the correct identification and recording of identity-based bullying incidents, mainly due to being equipped with the correct terminology and having more specific prejudice-related categories in their reporting systems – which makes for more a precise monitoring of bullying.
The training by the EqualiTeach trainers was highly praised by the staff and so was their support with schools’ policies, behaviour-related procedures and recording systems for bullying incidents.
The Equally Safe training has proved to have an effective impact on both staff and pupils, in both primary and secondary school settings. As a result of their training staff and pupils feel more confident in preventing, tackling and reporting identity-based bullying using the correct terminology which contributes to better consistency in monitoring as well as preventing bullying in schools.
…as a result of the whole staff training, everyone now understands the importance of the ‘pupil voice’ concept. Our children feel empowered and we don’t need to push them to create positive change in our school. All of their Agents for Change ideas are completely pupil-lead!
– Equally Safe Lead Teacher- Year Two of the Programme
87.6% of survey respondents across years one and two of the programme rated the staff training as ‘Very Good’ or ‘Excellent’.
Policy Review
Teachers and members of the management teams were supported to develop their school policies to respond to incidents of identity-based bullying more effectively. They took care to include all protected characteristics listed in the Equality Act 2010. Policies were changed…relating to equalities, behaviour and discipline, uniform and reporting systems. Home/School agreements were also updated and schools were provided with ‘Parent Voice’ documents they could adapt and use to better support their relationships with them in an effort to achieve a whole school community change.
The act of updating the policies meant that the school leads for the EqualiTeach programme presented their updates to the head teachers and governors and embedded a key element of sustainability into the project. This all had a positive impact on many areas of school life, particularly on pupil and staff willingness and ability to challenge prejudice-related language and bullying; but also on the success, quality and authenticity of educators’ own pedagogical practice.
Following their policy audits, many staff felt they were guided by the EqualiTeach staff well in terms of making suitable adaptations to their policy documents. The level of collaboration between Equally Safe lead teachers and members of their leadership teams was much more evident in the second year of evaluating the programme. As a result of this schools are able to create much stronger policy systems adopting the whole school approach at the same time.
…this experience with EqualiTeach has been brilliant as it has made us look at our policies in a lot more detail and challenge our own pre-conceptions regarding gender stereotypes and it was really eye-opening.
-Equally Safe Lead Teacher- Year One of the Programme
I think there are certain sections within our policies that we might have neglected a bit previously. It’s a case of indirect discrimination when there is an unconscious bias and yeah…but we have learnt our lesson and we now ensure no one is prevented from wearing religious headwear, etc.
-Equally Safe Lead Teacher- Year Two of the Programme
Curriculum
The Equally Safe programme encourages school staff to embed diversity across all aspects of the school culture in order to tackle identity-based bullying. This includes curriculum. The Equally Safe programme has promoted diversity, equality and inclusion in many ways and has shone a light on vulnerable categories of people, such as transgender pupils and pupils with SEND.
I feel like people are more educated on sexuality and things like that… so they’re less likely to be offensive to make you feel weird or uncomfortable. After we started with the PowerPoint presentations in lessons…about gender identity and stuff…and we did it for the whole pupil cohort…I’ve noticed a positive change in the awareness about different aspects of identity, including disability. That was our idea.
– Agents for Change Student- Year One of the Programme
I am very glad I’ve had the opportunity to learn about gender identity and also how to discuss it with our children and I feel more confident now. My colleagues are the same and sometimes pupils tell me that they are very happy to learn more about gender identity because it genuinely interests them. This is an inclusive Church of England school!
– Equally Safe Lead Teacher- Year Two of the Programme
Environment
Making the school environments not just diversified but also safe is a priority for all of the schools. This is one key reason why schools have joined the Equally Safe programme. Many have reported that there has been an improvement in the behaviour of their pupils overall. This is partially due to having better recording and monitoring systems in place thanks to EqualiTeach resources, such as lists of prejudice-related bullying categories and relevant terminology information.
Staff feel more confident in the way they talk about diversity with their young people and are active, alongside their Agents for Change, in relation to adapting the school environment in more inclusive ways.
Yes, the behaviour has definitely improved… I think initially, children just thought bullying was hurting each other but now they are so much more aware! I am honestly so happy about the fact that we can now build and monitor bullying and behaviour patterns so much more easily because we’re using better recording systems. This makes our environment very safe, too.
– Equally Safe Lead Teacher- Year One of the Programme
We are more kind to each other now. No one is scared of any bullies anymore. We talk about all kinds of topics with our teachers. I feel we can ask them anything. We also talk to younger children and we made a video for them to watch too.
– Agent for Change Pupil- Year Two of the Programme
95.6% of survey respondants across both years of the programme said they had noticed a positive change in the behaviour in their school since the start of the project.
Community
The Equally Safe project’s broad and inclusive approach has encouraged community cohesion in the schools, and was found to have positive effects on schools’ wider efforts to create positive change by involving families, carers, and governors in their anti-bullying efforts. Some staff shared they feel more ready for their next Ofsted visit as they now have more robust inclusion policies in place. It has helped schools to create stronger relationships with other schools within their Trusts. This was achieved by equipping the Equally Safe leads with so much knowledge that they felt confident enough to offer to share information on the Equally Safe programme with others within their Trusts. There was also the sense that it was important to a number of schools to have governors, parents, school staff and pupils involved with implementing different steps from their Equally Safe action plan relying on a whole-school approach.
When asked about parental awareness of the Equally Safe programme, most schools were largely positive, but they also stated that they haven’t had the opportunity to put all of the planned changes in place regarding parents just yet. This is mostly because of time constraints. However, many of them have plans to do that in the next academic year.
I think it’s all because of the training…these positive changes…because we are confident now – thanks to it, so it’s now rubbing off on others too.
– Equally Safe Lead Teacher- Year One of the Programme
The head is involved directly – one of our governors is as well – they’ve prepared some staff training information for us. The teachers and pupils are all active in this way too. The teachers who had the Equally Safe training and I’m one of them… they now help the other teachers with diversifying the content of their lessons a bit more. The kids are so good too – like they have so much knowledge about all these LGBT+ terms and they shared that knowledge with us teachers! What amazes me is how educated they are regarding this stuff… We all work so well together actually. It makes me happy.
– Equally Safe Lead Teacher- Year Two of the Programme
The Equally Safe programme embeds sustainable change into schools through its focus on training, policy, curriculum and environment. The adaptations to the policies have had a positive impact on changing the sample schools’ cultures for the better. The programme is able to address a gap in teachers’ knowledge and confidence in relation to preventing and tackling identity-based bullying. The beneficial impact of the programme is evident in all main areas, including policy, training and creating positive change in schools with the help of pupils who feel empowered and more confident as a result of being part of the project. The reactions of the staff and children and young people involved have been mainly positive.
One area that needs more attention is parents, carers and families… However, the Equally Safe project has established initial firm foundations in this area by setting up the schools with the right documentation to share with parents, such as the ‘parent voice’ documentation. Schools have also been very active in sharing relevant information about the programme with parents and carers via newsletters and in some cases via making videos featuring Agents for Change and their antibullying messages to everyone in the school communities.
Other areas that need more attention to improve the consistency of approaches towards identity-based bullying include parental engagement with the programme, online bullying, sexism, homophobia and racism. Focusing on these using the intersectional lens might be an effective way to prevent less obvious types of bullying.
Conclusion
EqualiTeach’s whole-school approach to promoting diversity, equality and inclusion and preventing identity-based bullying is very much valued by the staff and students. This helped to dissipate the stigma that can be easily attached to anyone representing any of the nine protected characteristics of the Equality Act 2010. As well as this, the programme encouraged schools to expand on their community
celebrations and assemblies which helped to transform schools into places where both staff and students feel more appreciated and more represented than ever before.
Pupils who participated in the Agents for Change training took their responsibilities seriously as was evident in the many creative ways of implementing their action plans. The skills developed as part of their Agents for Change role (i.e., leadership skills) have strengthened their ‘pupil voice’.
The evaluation also found that whilst the focus of the Equally Safe programme was on challenging identity-based bullying and preventing it from happening in schools, it had a wider impact, led by students and staff, on challenging various areas of prejudice and celebrating wider diversity in their schools, families and communities.
Finally, the Equally Safe project can be regarded as a great tool in order to achieve schools’ full capacity as centres of excellence in relation to equality and inclusion work. This has made many of the schools feel more confident with regards to meeting the Ofsted requirements regarding effective school practice. It has also showed to be local experts, prepared to guide other schools within their Trusts, local areas and general networks.
Our thanks go to Klaudia for her thorough evaluation across the first two years of this programme. You can read the full evaluation reports including the recommendations that have informed our development of the project for following years here:
Equally Safe Year One Full Evaluation
Equally Safe Year Two Full Evaluation