COVID-19 has children dreading the return to school amidst concerns of increased bullying

Lockdown has heightened anxiety with one in three parents feeling their child will struggle to integrate into social groups when they return to school

CHANNEL 4 GIG: Ade Adepitan

AS SOME 10 million children head back to school, new research commissioned by youth charity The Diana Award and Nationwide Building Society reveals bullying remains of grave concern to both young people and parents.

Lockdown has heightened anxiety with one in three parents (33%) feeling their child will struggle to integrate into social groups when they return to school. More than a third (34%) of young people also admit to being more worried than usual about the return to school because of lockdown.

The survey, which targeted 1,000 parents of 6-16-year olds and 1,000 young people aged 6-16, revealed that health and well-being is under increased threat with almost half (45%) of parents saying lockdown has negatively impacted their child. This is in addition to worrying statistics that reveal that notwithstanding Covid-19 and lockdown, 46% of young people have been bullied at some point and 67% having seen or heard bullying behaviour in their school in the last year.

Ability

Those who have experienced bullying cited it caused anxiety (78%) and had a negative effect on their mental health (54%). Almost half (44%) said it affected their ability to sleep at night, 14% wanted to self-harm and 9% were made to feel suicidal. This is in addition to a significant 61% of parents who admitted to being bullied themselves when they were at school.

These statistics come in advance of The Diana Award’s first ever ‘The Big Anti-Bullying Assembly’ in partnership with Nationwide Building Society. A celebrity packed virtual event, which will be beamed into primary school classrooms and homes across the country on September 28, as well as being made available to view on The Diana Award’s AntiBullyingPro YouTube channel

The assembly will bring together hundreds of thousands of children empowering them to tackle bullying with a host of celebrities including;Children’s TV presenters Mwaka ‘Mwaksy’ Mudenda and Richie Driss alongside Peter Andre, Katie Leung, Twist & Pulse, Ade Adepitan, James McVey, Cel Spellman, Will Poulter, Hacker the Dog, as well as the famous voice of The X Factor’s Peter Dixon.

Information

Viewers will enjoy a host of celebrity personal stories, messages and special performances as well as offering key information and guidance on how to handle bullying behaviour and the support available. Celebrities will join together and invite children and teachers alike to ‘put their hands up’ and pledge to put an end to bullying.

This campaign marks the commencement of a landmark three-year partnership in which Nationwide Building Society and The Diana Award will work together to train over 10,000 young people as Anti-Bullying Ambassadors in primary schools across the UK.

As Britain’s biggest building society, Nationwide is committed to investing in and improving communities across the UK. Nationwide hopes it can use its position as a mutual organisation owned by its members and one of the UK’s largest financial services providers to support The Diana Award’s anti-bullying campaign.

Primary schools nationwide can sign up to watch The Big Anti-Bullying Assembly at www.thebigassembly.com

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