THOUSANDS of York school children have been a victim of bullying while involved in sport, a new study has found.

A four year survey of around 15,000 primary and secondary pupils in York revealed that 25.8 per cent of primary pupils and 13.9 per cent of secondary pupils reported being a victim of bullying during sport-related activities.

The York St John University research found this often leads to the victims being unlikely to take part in physical activity when they are young.

York Press: York St John University.

York St John University

Weight, size, body shape and homophobia were the most common reasons for bullying found in schools.

The report was funded by the Ben Cohen StandUp Foundation, the 2003 Rugby World Cup winner's charity, and highlighted a lack of interventions by schools to tackle the problem.

>>> See the full report here

It said most youngsters are bullied in changing rooms where teachers are not present and unable to stop malicious behaviour.

It read: "The sporting environment is atypical in that it is the one environment where young people are in potentially vulnerable situations - in changing rooms and showers - which may lack adult supervision and when playing physically competitive games where rules of engagement are different than those in the classroom."

From the number of secondary school pupils who said they had been a victim, bullying in changing rooms and bullying due to not being good at sport have both risen gradually over the four-year period. However, bullying due to being good at sport has reduced.

York Press:

Nathalie Noret, pictured, director of the Unit for Child and Youth Studies at York St John University and co-author of the report, said: "Incidents included homophobic and racist language occurring in changing rooms, as well as on school fields, and some were targeted because of sporting ability, weight, size and/or body shape.

"What surprised me was the number of children in primary and secondary schools that were bullied in changing rooms.

"We have dome some safeguarding in schools and there is a strong idea that bullying takes place in toilets, but the facts that it's taking place in changing rooms, which is a vulnerable area, and in a less secure area, was surprising."

York Press: Now Natalie Farzaneh is helping others in her situation

 

AN ANTI-BULLYING campaigner says removing bullying victims from school sport altogether is the only way to put an end to abuse.

Former Easingwold School pupil Natalie Farzaneh, 19, from Sheriff Hutton, became a motivational speaker and works with The Ben Cohen Stand Up Foundation, which helped fund a report into bullying in school sport.

The report found thousands of primary and secondary pupils said they have been a victim of bullying during sport, leading to an impact on the amount of exercise youngsters do.

Authors of the report are exploring ways of how they can cut out cruel behaviour but Miss Farzaneh, pictured above, says this can only be achieved by taking pupils out of a competitive environment.

She said: "Teachers made me stop doing PE because they could see how badly I was being affected by bullying and I did a lot of extra curricular activities instead.

"When you are aged 13 or 14 you are very self conscious. There was a kid in my year who had a really bad skin condition and every time she got changed people would laugh at her.

"Bullying is never going to be stopped. I had bad feelings about PE when I was in primary school but I benefited from doing extra-curricular activities."

Nathalie Noret, a co-author of the report, said: "This was one of the first studies of its kind in school sport so we didn't go in with an idea of what is going on in schools.

"Other places children tend to get bullied in schools is corridors but the fact it happens in sport is may be one of the reasons people do not participate in sport.

"Everybody should be involved in sport for fun and it should involve as many people as possible.

"We want people to feel that they aren't being bullied because of their ability because that shouldn't really matter, and we want people to feel safe in sporting activity.

Jon Stonehouse, City of York Council's director of children's services, education and skills, said: “City of York Council takes children’s emotional health and wellbeing very seriously.

"To that end it works closely with its partners, including all schools to ensure strategies are in place to assess and respond to issues that children and young people may be facing including bullying.”