An anti-bullying charter. Excellent. That will solve the problem, clearly. Good to see such stunningly definitive action taken.

I was about to say that a true anti-bullying charter would consist of one change in the law - to legalise truancy. Then I scrolled down and saw your previous post - but you omitted to mention this additional benign consequence.

Bullying is only a problem for children because they have no freedom to ostracise.

Just another announcement of a solution to bullying, we get them from time to time and nothing much changes. Perhaps its just ..er..bull? Much like bringing back the gold standard to improve our economy, the solution to bullying it just somehow never happens. Does it actually get worse with each initiative though?

I tend to believe bullying has grown in public schools because it serves school funding. For example, an administor may use bullies to drum up law suits for special education, which is implemented at best by an aide. It is always a parents responsibility to demand the services their children need and teacher's don't exactly notice what's happening around them.

Failing to recognize families are overstressed, kids are forced into environments they can't deal with, and families are taking the brunt of the failures of schools to be caring places. I suspect that supporting families so that children could spend reduced time in school, without being labled or stigmatize would result in less bullying. As long as bullying increases school funding, it will grow.

Anti-bullying charters are just window dressing as far as I'm concerned. All UK state school have needed bullying policies by law since 1999. The DfES needs to get to grips with those schools which are failing to take the problem seriously. No doubt some of those who sign the charter actually do think they're doing a good job but unless they introduce other measures to deal with bullying it's just a piece of paper.