Labour MP Barry Sheerman launched a stinging attack on Ofsted as itemerged that just six per cent of schools had a clear policy to dealwith this type of bullying. He demanded: "Why the hell isn't Ofsteddoing anything about it?"
The onslaught came as MPs on the committee held a one-off evidencesession on bullying last week. MPs heard that schools are required tolog all incidents of racist bullying but there is no such requirementfor homophobic bullying. The charity Education Action ChallengingHomophobia revealed that only six per cent of schools kept records ofhomophobic bullying and that many schools kept no records at all.
Sheerman told Ofsted's head of pupil behaviour, David Moore, that theinspectorate was allowing too many schools to ignore the issue. "Yourecognise the problem - it's not reported. You haven't encouraged morethan six per cent of schools to keep a register so we don't know thestats. Surely Ofsted should be much more active," he said.
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