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The impacts of a quality education

Without education, no social, health, economic and political progress is possible. Investing in education is therefore essential for the future of the world. For over 40 years, Action Education acts on the ground to promote access to a quality education for all, mainly for vulnerable and marginalised populations.

Quality education reduces poverty

Quality education prevents disease and malnutrition.

• Quality education can prevent preventable diseases and improve treatment uptake. A child under the age of five is twice as likely to survive if his or her mother can read and write (UN, 2011).
• Quality education reduces malnutrition. At school, children are introduced to good hygiene and nutrition practices. The canteen offers a complete and balanced meal.

Quality education promotes the well-being of children

• Access to quality education enables children to develop and flourish.
• Educated children have more confidence in themselves and their abilities.
• They acquire the keys to solve everyday problems and to prepare their future.

Quality education, a key to women's empowerment

• Girls who complete primary education are more likely to find employment and be financially independent.
• Educating girls has prevented more than 30 million deaths of children and under-fives and more than 100 million deaths of adults aged 15 to 60 (The Learning Generation).
• Universal secondary education could virtually end child marriage (Missed opportunities: the high cost of not educating girls, Worldbank, 2018).

If all girls benefit at least 12 years of schooling, the value of human capital wealth could increase from $15 trillion to $30 trillion (Missed opportunities: the high cost of not educating girls, Worldbank, 2018).

Quality education to promote peace

• If the secondary school enrolment rate is above the average of 10%, the risk of war is reduced by almost 3% (World Bank, 2005).
• Education provides a sense of stability and hope for the future and helps to heal the trauma of pandemic, natural disaster and conflict.

Quality education to adapt to climate change

• Achieving universal access to upper secondary education by 2030 would avert 200,000 disaster-related deaths over the next 20 years (Global Education Monitoring Report, UNESCO, 2016).
• Education is an essential means of raising awareness and adapt to climate change. It has the power to encourage changes in attitude and behaviour.
• To effectively accelerate adaptation to climate change, Action Education advocates integrate education for sustainable development and global citizenship into school curricula.

Education is the real starting point for a virtuous circle whose impact can be seen in every aspect of daily life. Action Education is carrying out 85 actions in 16 countries to develop access to quality education for all. Our goal? "To leave no one behind".

Discover our actions, defending the right to education, education of girls and women, early childhood education, health education, youth and adult education, inclusive education.

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Toward equitable, quality education for all: The importance of recognizing learning and skills

Subscribe to the center for universal education bulletin, allyson parco , allyson parco former research analyst - global economy and development , center for universal education rohan carter-rau , and rohan carter-rau research analyst - global economy and development , center for universal education annelies goger annelies goger fellow - brookings metro.

October 17, 2022

World leaders converged in New York City for the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly ( UNGA ) last month. With access to quality education top of mind in the wake of tremendous learning losses during COVID-19, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) convened stakeholders for the Transforming Education Summit at UNGA to address the lack of progress toward Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4), which aims to ensure access to quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.

Alongside these high-impact events, the Brookings Institution and the Learning Economy Foundation co-hosted a set of side events focused on connecting the urgent need to address educational inequities with the surge in use of digital learning tools. There has been rapid growth in education technology platforms and demand for skills and career opportunities, but most of the products are based in wealthy Western countries. Even in these wealthy countries, there is a significant digital divide and limited data governance. The goal of our events was to develop consensus around what it will take to build a more equitable and ethical education technology infrastructure across a diverse range of country settings.

Drawing from the discussions in the full-day symposium on September 20 and focused policy debate on September 22, we identified four major themes.

1. The urgency to get back on track to achieve SDG 4

The world is currently off track in achieving SDG 4. The pandemic caused school closures in 191 countries and 1.5 billion students transitioned into online learning platforms ( UNESCO, 2021 ). Ethel Agnes Pascua-Valenzuela, director of the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization Secretariat, highlighted the importance of managing change in times of crisis. She noted that in early 2020, most students and teachers struggled to access education online, but by 2021, schools had figured out hybrid teaching, use of online videos for education, and other digital education technologies. Yet, she reminded the audience, “Most teachers don’t have internet. They don’t have devices … . It is so important to be thinking about the least privileged.” Without proactive effort, there is a serious risk that ongoing digitizing of the education system will leave many vulnerable populations even further behind.

2. The importance of partnerships and engagement of diverse voices

Building an education technology ecosystem that aligns with SDG 4 requires intentional effort and collaboration across stakeholders and areas of work that tend to operate separately, such as data governance, education, labor, and business. Policymakers and technical experts need to be at the same tables and learn to speak the same language. These conversations also need to bring in the voices of teachers and young learners, who are often not present in these future-shaping dialogues.

The idea of using public–private partnerships (PPPs) to incorporate technologies into education through platforms and services was controversial. Some stakeholders see PPPs as the best way to expand access to digital learning opportunities, because in resource-constrained environments, the public sector cannot accomplish this alone. Others questioned whether corporate profit motives undermine the goal of equity in education, due to lack of willingness to allocate resources to low-income countries and communities. Borhene Chakroun, director of the division for Policies and Lifelong Learning Systems at UNESCO, was emphatic in recognizing that countries cannot build education technology infrastructure by themselves but highlighted that “The most important partnership is not with the company; it is with the community.”

3. User-centered processes and tools that give people control over their own data

Technical experts discussed digital credentials and decentralized digital wallets as ways learners can gain control of their own education data. Conversation on this topic highlighted the need for sovereignty –that technology infrastructure should be built with user ownership and agency in mind. At the policy debate, Thaís Queiroz, a youth representative of the World Organization of the Scout Movement, emphatically spoke about how important it is to have control over personal data. Queiroz shared the stark differences in how technology use and regulation is governed in Brazil, her home country, and in Germany, where she currently lives. She said that once she got to Germany, she started realizing how much information about her and her peers had been gathered, and there was no way to control its removal or who could see and access it.

Many speakers also highlighted the importance of trust for the success of digital credentials. If learners do not have agency or trust that a digital credential will make a meaningful difference in their career or improve their interactions with potential employers, and if employers have no trust that the credentials legitimately convey value, then the entire approach falls apart.

4. The need to recognize learning across borders and in a diversity of settings

Another major issue many participants raised was recognizing learning across geographic and sectoral borders. Saghar Salehi, a youth representative and former member of the Afghan girls’ robotics team , highlighted her struggles to have her diploma recognized when she came to the U.S. as a refugee, noting that some institutions would not accept it or would require her to take classes over. Attendees also discussed how being able to capture a wider range of skills in a digital credential and even recognize informal and non-formal learning, such as leadership experience gained in community service, would be powerful for employers to identify talent and for learners to achieve their education and career goals.

As the shifts toward skill and competency-based learning grow, the education technology community remains focused on strategies to achieve SDG 4with diverse collaboration, connectivity, and global advocacy in higher education. Although new technologies show great promise for helping learners access and document their learning, experts shared concerns surrounding data privacy, data ownership, and digital divides. The 77th session of UNGA and the Transforming Education Summit began valuable discussions for the international community, and we are continuing to work with partners in this area to explore how principles of sovereignty, equity, and mobility can be designed into the education technology ecosystem.

Social media engagement can be found through the @BrookingsGlobal and @Learnonomy Twitter accounts.

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What does Quality Education mean?

Breaking down Sustainable Development Goal #4

Aug 31, 2023

Education is essential for ending poverty . Actually, let's rephrase that: quality education is essential for ending poverty.

The word “quality” carries a lot of meanings—and even baggage. Especially in the US, where school rankings can be a stressful topic for both parents and students. In our work, however, quality means something very different, and very specific. This is especially true in countries where education is most under threat, and why Quality Education is one of the UN’s top Sustainable Development Goals . Read on to learn more. 

The UN defines its fourth Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) is “to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.” 

Education is important, and many areas of the world lack access to free pre-primary, primary, and secondary education — not to mention affordable options for technical, vocational, and university studies. But it’s not enough for education to be accessible. It also has to add value to the lives of the children and young adults attending school. School enrollment in Niger had gone up for primary students pre-pandemic. However, many of these students were graduating school without mastering basic skills like literacy and numeracy.

Stay in the know on our work in education

Why quality education matters.

Education can help young people break an intergenerational cycle of poverty . But this is only possible if education is approached in a meaningful way. In 2012, the UN’s former Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said:

“Education is about more than literacy and numeracy — it is also about citizenry. Education must fully assume its central role in helping people to forge more just, peaceful and tolerant societies.” 

This is what we mean by “quality” education: We need a standard to measure how effective an education is in order to set students up for success in the rest of their lives. 

How we measure Quality Education

The UN has outlined several targets within their larger education-related SDG that help us to set a standard of quality. 

1. Building relevant skills for financial success

Extreme poverty is a lack of assets or a lack of return on those assets. One of these assets are skills, including technical and vocational skills. The more relevant these skills are in the 21st Century, the more likely they are to generate a return. This not only means understanding how relevant skills have changed against the digital revolution and automation, but also against climate change, shifting societal norms, and political realities. 

2. Eliminating discrimination in education

Education is a fundamental human right. However, there are 244 million children around the world who aren’t in the classroom. Many of them are excluded due to some form of discrimination. Girls’ education is particularly under threat here, with over 129 million girls missing out on a basic human right. Quality Education means equality in education — at all levels. 

3. Universal literacy and numeracy

According to UNESCO, if all adults had just literacy and numeracy skills, an estimated 171 million people could escape extreme poverty . However, UNESCO also estimates that  there are 781 million illiterate adults around the globe. Many of these adults have completed several years of education but remain unable to read or count due to different barriers.

6 Benefits of literacy in the fight against poverty

"The future starts with the alphabet." Here are 6 benefits of literacy as a tool for breaking the cycle of poverty.

4. Inclusive and safe schools

Environment is crucial to fostering a quality education. This means building and upgrading schools that are child-friendly, disability- and gender-sensitive, and provide safe, nonviolent, and inclusive spaces for kids to learn — and to enjoy being kids. Unfortunately, both physical and psychological aggression and gender biases are still prevalent in far too many schools. 

5. Qualified teachers

One of the UN’s other main goals around education is to increase the number of qualified teachers — especially in low-income countries and remote areas around the world. While many teachers receive some form of training, it’s not always in line with the best education models, nor is it always tailored to teaching in fragile contexts. 

How Concern supports Quality Education

Concern’s work in primary education is grounded in the belief that all children have a right to learn. We believe that education is one of the best routes out of poverty and integrate it into both our development and emergency work to give children living in extreme poverty more opportunities in life and an overall sense of well-being. 

Supporting Syrian students and teachers in Lebanon and Türkiye

We’ve worked with displaced Syrian teachers, as well as local teachers in Turkish and Lebanese host communities, to develop formal and informal learning programs that support children who have been traumatized by war and displacement. We’ve also worked with Syrian adults to build relevant income-generating skills that they can use in their host communities as well as, eventually, when they return home to a country that will need help rebuilding its infrastructure, economy, and communities.

Helping girls succeed in Kenya and Malawi

Project Profile

Right to Learn

An example of finding the right partners to go even further, this education program in Malawi improved gender equality in the classroom.

In an effort to build gender equality in educational systems around the world, we’ve created programs that support retention rates from primary to secondary schools for girls in Kenya and Malawi . In Malawi, we’ve also supported community groups to prevent harmful traditions like child marriage from interrupting education (for boys and girls). Community groups like a local Village Savings and Loan Association in Kenya’s Chalbi Desert have also taken it upon themselves to financially support local girls through their primary and secondary schooling. 

Breaking language barriers in Haiti and Niger

Language barriers in the classroom: From mother tongue to national language

Learn more about how Concern programs have helped students overcome language barriers in classrooms in Haiti and Kenya.

We’ve addressed language barriers in the classroom in countries like Kenya, Niger and Haiti , where local communities often speak languages other than the national tongues (which, in and of themselves, are holdovers of colonial rule). This method is in line with UNESCO’s recommendation for early teaching in the mother tongue and gradually transitioning. 

Creating safe learning environments in Sierra Leone

Concern is working to address school-related gender-based violence (SRGBV) to align quality with equality. In Sierra Leone, our Irish Aid-funded, multi-million-dollar, five-year learning program, the Safe Learning Model, developed a holistic approach to education in the Tonkolili District, addressing SRGBV in the larger community context and creating a model that can be adapted for other countries and settings. 

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Four ways that girls’ education can change the world

Child marriage and education: The blackboard wins over the bridal altar

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Quality education an ‘essential pillar’ of a better future, says UN chief

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Education is an “essential pillar” to achieving the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, UN chief António Guterres told an audience on Tuesday at the Paris headquarters of UNESCO, the UN Educational, Scientific and Culture Organization, ahead of the agency’s General Conference .

We must ensure universal access to basic education for every child, everywhere. Tijjani Muhammad-Bande, President, UN General Assembly

Mr. Guterres, who noted that one-fifth of young people are out of work, lack education or adequate training, praised UNESCO ’s fundamental role in coordinating and monitoring global efforts, such as the agency’s initiative on the future of education.

The theme was taken up by Tijjani Muhammad-Bande, President of the UN General Assembly, in his opening remarks to a ministerial meeting on education at the Conference.

Mr. Muhammad-Bande referred to estimates showing that some 265 million children are out of school. The number is projected to fall to 220 million over the next decade, but he declared that the illiteracy figures forecast for 2030 remain a scandal: “We must remove all barriers to education. We must ensure, at a minimum, universal access to basic education for every child, everywhere.”

He also highlighted the importance of educating children effectively, and equipping them with the necessary analytical and critical thinking abilities, in “an ever-changing and more complex world”.

Recalling his former experience as an educator in his home country of Nigeria, Mr. Muhammad-Bande called for more efforts to ensure that teachers are adequately qualified, because “no educational system can rise above the quality of its teachers”.

António Guterres, UN Secretary-General

Other important measures cited by the General Assembly President include strong curricula that fully integrate Information and Communications Technology (ICT); ensuring that girls complete at least 12 years of education (which, according to the World Bank, would add some $30 trillion to the global economy); and the effective monitoring and evaluation of learning.

Mr. Muhammad-Bande called on nations to meet their commitments to education spending, and for donor countries to increase international aid directed towards education.

‘Powerful agents of change’

As well as the difficulties in accessing quality education, Mr. Guterres also outlined several other challenges faced by young people: the fact that millions of girls become mothers while they are still children; that one quarter are affected by violence or conflict; and that online bullying and harassment are adding to high levels of stress, which see some 67,000 adolescents die from suicide or self-harm every year.

World leaders, and others who wield power, he continued, must treat young people not as subjects to be protected, but as powerful agents for change, and the role of the powerful is not to solve the enormous challenges faced by young people, but rather to give them the tools to tackle their problems.

Mr Guterres underscored the importance of bringing young people to the table as key partners, and praised UNESCO’s efforts to include their voices, which include holding a major event at the General Conference, and the Youth Forum .

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Defining and measuring the quality of education

Strategic_seminar1.jpg.

What is the quality of education? What are the most important aspects of quality and how can they be measured?

These questions have been raised for a long time and are still widely debated. The current understanding of education quality has considerably benefitted from the conceptual work undertaken through national and international initiatives to assess learning achievement. These provide valuable feedback to policy-makers on the competencies mastered by pupils and youths, and the factors which explain these. But there is also a growing awareness of the importance of values and behaviours, although these are more difficult to measure.  

To address these concerns, IIEP organized (on 15 December 2011) a Strategic Debate on “Defining and measuring the quality of education: Is there an emerging consensus?” The topic was approached from the point of view of two cross-national surveys: the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and the Southern and Eastern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality (SACMEQ)*.

Assessing the creativity of students

“Students’ capacity to extrapolate from what they know and apply this creatively in novel situations is more important than what the students know”, said Andreas Schleicher, Head of the Indicators and Analysis Division at the Directorate for Education, OECD, and in charge of PISA. This concept is reflected in current developments taking place in workplaces in many countries, which increasingly require non-routine interactive skills. When comparing the results obtained in different countries, PISA’s experience has shown that “education systems can creatively combine the equity and quality agenda in education”, Schleicher said. Contrary to conventional wisdom, countries can be both high-average performers in PISA while demonstrating low individual and institutional variance in students’ achievement. Finally, Schleicher emphasized that investment in education is not the only determining factor for quality, since good and consistent implementation of educational policy is also very important.

The importance of cross-national cooperation

When reviewing the experience of SACMEQ, Mioko Saito, Head a.i of the IIEP Equity, Access and Quality Unit (technically supporting the SACMEQ implementation in collaboration with SACMEQ Coordinating Centre), explained how the notion of educational quality has significantly evolved in the southern and eastern African region and became a priority over the past decades. Since 1995, SACMEQ has, on a regular basis, initiated cross-national assessments on the quality of education, and each member country has benefited considerably from this cooperation. It helped them embracing new assessment areas (such as HIV and AIDS knowledge) and units of analysis (teachers, as well as pupils) to produce evidence on what pupils and teachers know and master, said Saito. She concluded by stressing that SACMEQ also has a major capacity development mission and is concerned with having research results bear on policy decisions.  

The debate following the presentations focused on the crucial role of the media in stimulating public debate on the results of cross-national tests such as PISA and SACMEQ. It was also emphasized that more collaboration among the different cross-national mechanisms for the assessment of learner achievement would be beneficial. If more items were shared among the networks, more light could be shed on the international comparability of educational outcomes.

* PISA assesses the acquisition of key competencies for adult life of 15-year-olds in mathematics, reading, and science in OECD countries. SACMEQ focuses on achievements of Grade 6 pupils. Created in 1995, SACMEQ is a network of 15 southern and eastern African ministries of education: Botswana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania (Mainland), Tanzania (Zanzibar), Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe

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Quality Education

Obtaining a quality education is the foundation to improving people’s lives and sustainable development. Major progress has been made towards increasing access to education at all levels and increasing enrolment rates in schools particularly for women and girls. Basic literacy skills have improved tremendously, yet bolder efforts are needed to make even greater strides for achieving universal education goals. For example, the world has achieved equality in primary education between girls and boys, but few countries have achieved that target at all levels of education.

Learn more about  SDG 4 , including facts, figures, targets and links to more information.

The Sustainable Development Goals Explained: Quality Education

Produced by the Department of Public Information

United Nations- UNICEF’s Associate Director of Education Jo Bourne talks to us about what progress has been achieved in the past 15 years on access to education, why this goal is important not just for children and young people, and how quality education benefits societies as a whole.

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What is quality education? How can it be achieved? The perspectives of school middle leaders in Singapore

• Published: 12 June 2015
• Volume 27 , pages 307–322, ( 2015 )

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• Pak Tee Ng 1  

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This paper presents the findings of a research project that examines how middle leaders in Singapore schools understand ‘quality education’ and how they think quality education can be achieved. From the perspective of these middle leaders, quality education emphasises holistic development, equips students with the knowledge and skills for the future, inculcates students with the right values and imbues students with a positive learning attitude. Quality education is delivered by good teachers, enabled by good teaching and learning processes and facilitated by a conducive learning environment. The challenge of achieving quality education is to find the balance between lofty ideals and ground realities. One critical implication of the research findings is that policymakers should appeal to the ideals of practitioners to drive change.

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Ng, P.T. What is quality education? How can it be achieved? The perspectives of school middle leaders in Singapore. Educ Asse Eval Acc 27 , 307–322 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11092-015-9223-8

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Why quality education is more important than ever

Education is an investment in the future of this country - one that we cannot afford not to make. We rely on quality education to provide us with an informed, capable, and effective future generation of adults. Making quality schooling a priority is the best way to ensure that the great minds of tomorrow are prepared to face any challenges that may arise.

And while this is a great reason to take education seriously, it’s not the only one!

Societal progress and sustainable development

Schooling and education play a critical role in the way society progresses, especially at a time when sustainable development is so incredibly crucial. Quality education leads to informed citizenship, thoughtful behaviour, and a sense of responsibility to the local community as well as the environment. It empowers children and teenagers to actively contribute to the world around them in a positive way.  

Continuous technological advancement

Quality education doesn’t just teach young people facts and figures, it teaches them how to continue learning. In a world where technology is evolving at an incredible rate, it’s important that future generations are able to not only keep up with the latest tech but work on creating more innovations using that knowledge. 

We’re living in a globalised world

The world is becoming more and more interconnected each and every day. Where you used to only communicate with and work with people who were in your local area, you can now work for a company in Japan and be managed by a team lead in Germany. Young people need to understand how to communicate on a global level and in a way that is respectful, calm, and effective. This starts at a schooling level. 

Critical thinking should start from a young age

Critical thinking in the modern era is so important. Every day, we’re bombarded with information from multiple sources at a rapid rate. Young people need to know how to think critically and distinguish facts from opinions, understand the broader contexts of information, and decide on their own beliefs. Quality education provides the basis for this and ensures that the next generation won’t blindly trust every piece of information that comes their way. 

Social and cultural awareness

A well-rounded and informed schooling system not only provides academic knowledge and understanding but also encourages social and cultural awareness. It’s crucial for young people to understand and appreciate different cultures, perspectives, challenges, and ideas. 

Health and well-being

Quality education also teaches young people about how to take care of themselves in a healthy and productive way. Through schooling, they learn important lessons about physical health, sexual health, mental health, and overall well-being. If we want to reduce the health disparities in this country and motivate for a healthier future, we need to focus on teaching young people how to care for themselves while still at school. 

Promoting equality 

Quality education shouldn’t be for only the few. It should be for every young person and child in the country (and the world). It’s a great equaliser and gives all young people the opportunity for a good future that includes a happy home life as well as a solid career. By ensuring quality education is provided to everyone, regardless of their background or any other factors, we can ensure a more equal and equitable future. 

Teaching resilience

Life isn’t always easy, and growing up can be tough at times, which is why resilience is such an important quality for any person to have. Good education nurtures a young person’s identity and sense of self, which allows them to learn resilience from a young age. 

Quality education is something that we’re incredibly passionate about at Now Education. It’s why we wake up every morning and go to work. We believe in matching the best teaching talent with the right schools to ensure the best possible outcomes for everyone, especially the learners. 

If you’re looking for your next teaching role and you want to truly make a difference, get in touch . And if you’re a school that’s looking for a teacher who will make a difference in the lives of your learners, don’t hesitate to contact us . 

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Millions of children and adults around the world lack the access to education for various reasons — some live in conflict zones, others aren’t allowed to attend school because they’re girls, or they don’t attend because their families need them to work and bring in income to support the family. But because education promotes the understanding of social justice, interdependence, and identity, it is key to eradicating global poverty by 2030. Here are nine facts you need to know about global education.

Around the world 59 million children of primary school age are being denied an education, and almost 65 million adolescents are without access to a secondary school.

A photo posted by WE Villages (@wevillages) on Oct 5, 2015 at 1:31pm PDT

Conflict and natural disasters have disrupted the education of 75 million children.

In one of three countries, less than three quarters of teachers are trained to national standards, resulting in 130 million children enrolled in school who are not even learning the basics.

A child whose mother can read is 50 percent more likely to survive past the age of 5.

Nearly 15 million girls of primary school age will never have the opportunity to learn to read and write in primary school, compared to about 10 million boys.

A photo posted by WE Villages (@wevillages) on Sep 8, 2015 at 10:31am PDT

It would take $39 billion (USD) every year to send all adolescents to school.  

In 2012, there were 168 million child labor workers aged 5 to 17. This is one reason many children cannot attend school.

Over 40 years, equitable access to quality education can help a country raise its gross domestic product per capita by 23 percent.

If all women had a primary education, there would be 1.7 million fewer malnourished children.

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Top 10 Reasons Why Is Education Important

Updated: June 19, 2024

Published: April 15, 2020

Most of us have grown up being taught the importance of education. But why is education important? Through your frustrating school years, you may have thought that it was a waste of time, or was just something that you needed to do in order to get a job. Truth be told, however, education goes so much beyond just getting a job and making your parents happy. In fact, it’s one of the most powerful tools out there.

What Is Education?

Education means studying in order to obtain a deeper knowledge and understanding of a variety of subjects to be applied to daily life. Education is not limited to just knowledge from books, but can also be obtained through practical experiences outside of the classroom.

Top 10 Reasons: Why Is Education Important?

There are many different understandings and definitions of what education is, but one thing can be universally agreed upon, which is the importance of education — and here’s why.

1. Provides Stability

Education provides stability in life, and it’s something that no one can ever take away from you. By being well-educated and holding a college degree , you increase your chances for better career opportunities and open up new doors for yourself.

2. Provides Financial Security

On top of stability, education also provides financial security, especially in today’s society. A good education tends to lead to a higher paying job, as well as provide you with the skills needed to get there.

3. Needed For Equality

In order for the entire world to really become equal, it needs to start with education. If everyone was provided with the same opportunities to education , then there would be less gaps between social classes. Everyone would be able to have an equal chance at higher paying jobs — not just those that are already well-off.

4. Allows For Self-Dependency

The importance of education is evident when it comes to being self-dependent. If we are we educated, then it’s something that belongs to us, and only us, allowing us to rely on no one else other than ourselves. It can allow you to not only be financially independent, but also to make your own choices.

5. Make Your Dreams Come True

If you can dream it, you can achieve it. An education is the most powerful weapon you can possibly have, and with it, you can make all of your dreams come true. There are of course certain exceptions, depending on what you’re aiming for, but generally an education will take you as far as you’re willing to go.

6. A Safer World

Education is something that’s not only needed on a personal level, but also on a global level, as it’s something that keeps our world safe and makes it a more peaceful place. Education tends to teach people the difference between right and wrong, and can help people stay out of risky situations.

7. Confidence

Being self-confident is a major part of being successful in life. And what better way to gain that confidence than with an education? Your level of education is often considered a way to prove your knowledge, and it can give you the confidence to express your opinions and speak your mind.

8. A Part Of Society

In today’s society, having an education is considered a vital part of being accepted by those around you. Having an education is believed to make you a useful part of society, and can make you feel like a contributing member as well.

9. Economic Growth On A National Level

An educated society is crucial for economic growth. We need people to continue to learn and research in order to constantly stay innovative. Countries with higher literacy rates also tend to be in better economic situations. With a more educated population, more employment opportunities are opened.

10. Can Protect You

Education can protect you more than you know, not only on a financial level, but it can help prevent you from being taken advantage of by knowing how to read and write, such as knowing not to sign any bogus documents.

Photo by  Pixabay  from  Pexels

Education is important for children.

Children are the future of our world, making education crucial for them. Their knowledge is what’s going to keep our world alive and flourishing.

At Childhood

During the childhood development stages, the importance of education is stronger than ever. It’s a time for children to learn social and mental skills that will be crucial for their growth and success in the future. Education at childhood also offers a chance for self-discovery and to learn about their unique interests.

The importance of education in our lives goes far beyond what we can read in a textbook. Education also provides childhood with knowledge such as how to produce artwork and make music. Education allows us to analyze what’s in front of us, and even learn from our mistakes.

Goal Building

By learning from a young age, children are given the chance to start building goals for themselves. Education means having the logic to set your mind to something and achieve it.

Importance Of Education In Society

For a modern society, education is of utmost importance. There are so many influences coming from all directions, and education can help us decipher what we should take as true, and what we should take with a grain of salt. Education can mold people into functional members of society with the right kinds of values.

Productivity

Education is needed for a productive society. Our population only continues to increase, and in turn, so do our needs. We need a strong and efficient workforce of educated people to provide us with the services we need for everyday life.

The Impact Education Has On The World

With education, people can become better citizens, knowing right from wrong, allowing for a better society where laws are followed. An educated nation knows about the importance of voting, doing so with the knowledge not blindly, but also having an understanding of what their party truly stands for. Education can also help people get jobs, which is what a nation thrives on.

Inspiring Quotes On What Education Truly Is

Why is education important, and what is it exactly? While every person has a different understanding of its true meaning, here are some of the most inspiring quotes by some legendary people.

• “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” — Nelson Mandela
• “Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.” — Malcolm X
• “An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” — Benjamin Franklin
• “Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.” — John Dewey

What Are Some Other Reasons Why Education Is Important?

There are endless reasons why education is so important, especially since it also has endless connotations and meanings.

Mind And Body

Our mind and bodies are connected more than we know. With a powerful, well-educated mind, so too are our bodies.

Education helps us understand how to best take care of ourselves, boosting our confidence and overall well-being. Studies have shown that each additional year of education can add up to 1.7 years to our lifespan at the age of 35.

The importance of education also extends to personal growth. By constantly learning, asking questions, and seeking knowledge, we can achieve things we never imagined before. Education helps us get to know ourselves better, whether through books, courses, or professional consultations.

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Worldwide value.

Education is the best way to ensure a positive global perspective. Without proper education, it is difficult to understand what is considered appropriate and how to behave.

Education brings us closer to the goal of world peace by teaching us about our place in the world and our responsibilities to humanity. It instills values far beyond the classroom, encompassing lessons learned at home and through interactions with others. These teachings are essential aspects of what education entails, guiding our behavior and understanding of the world.

Sharpens Your Thinking

Education is essential for sharp and clear thinking. It keeps you informed about the world, making you aware of current events and the people around you. Education helps you understand your strengths and weaknesses, guiding you to focus on the right areas.

It enhances logical reasoning, enabling you to argue effectively with accurate facts and work through situations logically. Education keeps you focused and on track, knowing the right path for you.

It also promotes innovation and creativity, allowing your mind to reach its full potential. Education develops basic life skills and street smarts, teaching us how to best conduct ourselves daily.

Education can be the most freeing and empowering thing in the world. It enables you to live life to the fullest by gaining a vast amount of knowledge about the world. Education ensures continual learning from various sources, whether through people, newspapers, experiences, research, or traditional classes.

It breaks barriers, empowering people globally and offering equal opportunities for all socio-economic backgrounds. University of the People, a tuition-free, online university, exemplifies this by providing accessible higher education to everyone.

Education allows you to become the best version of yourself, discovering your interests, strengths, and place in the world, making you feel complete and self-aware.

Education In The Modern World

Education today is more important than ever before, and has reached new heights with new understandings of what it truly entails. Ask yourself “Why is education important?” and it will surely not be the same as anyone else’s answer.

While in modern society, holding a college degree is considered to be highly beneficial for a successful career and to be socially accepted, it is not the only means of education. Education is all around us in everything that we do, so use it wisely!

FAQ Section

What are the primary goals of education.

The primary goals of education are to impart knowledge, develop critical thinking, and foster personal and social growth. It aims to prepare individuals for the workforce, promote civic responsibility, and encourage lifelong learning.

How does education influence future opportunities?

Education enhances future opportunities by increasing employability, boosting earning potential, and providing a foundation for personal and professional growth. It opens doors to higher-paying jobs and further educational pursuits.

How does education vary across different countries?

Education varies globally in structure, quality, and accessibility due to differences in economic development, cultural values, and government policies. Some countries focus on standardized testing, while others emphasize holistic or experiential learning.

What is the role of technology in education?

Technology enhances education by providing access to online learning, digital resources, and interactive tools. It supports personalized learning, enables innovative teaching methods, and makes education more accessible and engaging.

How does education contribute to personal growth?

Education promotes personal growth by expanding knowledge, improving cognitive abilities, and fostering critical thinking. It helps develop self-awareness, emotional intelligence, and effective communication skills.

How does education address societal issues like discrimination?

Education combats discrimination by promoting inclusivity and awareness. It teaches about diversity, tolerance, and human rights, helping to break down prejudices and empower marginalized communities.

What are the economic benefits of investing in education?

Investing in education leads to higher productivity, increased innovation, and a more skilled workforce. It reduces poverty, boosts economic growth, and lowers reliance on social welfare programs.

Can education foster innovation and entrepreneurship?

Yes, education fosters innovation and entrepreneurship by encouraging creative thinking and problem-solving. It provides the skills and knowledge necessary for developing new ideas and launching successful businesses.

What role do educators play in shaping the educational experience?

Educators shape the educational experience by creating engaging learning environments, guiding students, and adapting teaching methods to meet diverse needs. They mentor and inspire students to achieve their full potential.

In this article

At UoPeople, our blog writers are thinkers, researchers, and experts dedicated to curating articles relevant to our mission: making higher education accessible to everyone. Read More

Why Access to Education is Key to Systemic Equality

All students have a right to an equal education, but students of color — particularly Black and Brown students and students with disabilities, have historically been marginalized and criminalized by the public school system. The ACLU has been working to challenge unconstitutional disciplinary policies in schools, combat classroom censorship efforts that disproportionately impact marginalized students, and support race conscious admission policies to increase access to higher education.

Let’s break down why education equity is critical to the fight for systemic equality.

What does “education equity” mean, and why is it a civil rights issue?

Education equity means all students have equal access to a high quality education, safe learning environment, and a diverse student body that enriches the educational experiences of all students.

As the Supreme Court said in Brown v. Board of Education , education “is the very foundation of good citizenship.” Through education, young people learn important values about our culture and democratic society, and about their own values and relationships to others in this society. In addition to being an important foundation for kids’ and young adults’ future professional success, education allows individuals to be informed voters and participants in democratic processes, and public education is the first experience most people will have with the government.

For all of these reasons, equity in education is a critical foundation for a democratic society in which people of all backgrounds are equally included. Without equal opportunities to obtain an education, they will not be able to participate equally in jobs, in voting, and in other crucial areas of life. And when students are not able to learn together, this harms their ability to work together and live and engage with one another later in life.

What was the foundational Supreme Court case aimed at addressing discrimination in education nationwide?

Modern understandings of educational equity have their roots in Brown v. Board of Education , the 1954 landmark Supreme Court decision that ordered an end to school segregation and held racial segregation in education violates the Equal Protection Clause of the constitution. The ACLU played an important role in the Brown litigation, and has continued to fight for education equity on many fronts in the decades since.

What is the “school-to-prison pipeline”?

The school-to-prison pipeline refers to school discipline practices, such as suspensions and referrals to law enforcement, that funnel youth out of the classroom and into the juvenile and criminal legal systems.

This trend reflects our country’s prioritization of incarceration over education, and it's made worse as resources for public schools are cut. From inadequate resources for counseling to an overreliance on school-based police officers to enforce harsh zero-tolerance policies, many students — overwhelmingly students of color and students with disabilities — are isolated, punished, and pushed out of our education system for typical childish behavior and behaviors associated with disabilities.

Cops and No Counselors

How the lack of school mental health staff is harming students.

Source: American Civil Liberties Union

Even a single suspension or disciplinary infraction can have enormous consequences for a child’s education. As a student is pushed further down the school-to-prison pipeline, those consequences escalate quickly. In some jurisdictions, students who have been suspended or expelled have no right to an education at all. In others, they are sent to disciplinary alternative schools.Youth who become involved in the juvenile system are often denied procedural protections in the courts, and students pushed along the pipeline find themselves in juvenile detention facilities, many of which provide few, if any, educational services.

How are Black students, students of color, and students with disabilities disproportionately impacted by discrimination in education? What barriers to higher education exist for students of color?

Black and Brown students and students with disabilities are disproportionately subjected to discipline and referrals to law enforcement that remove them from the classroom and subject them to additional punitive consequences and even physical injury. For example, over the 2017-2018 school year, Black students accounted for 28.7 percent of all students referred to law enforcement and 31.6 percent of all students arrested at school or during a school-related activity — despite representing just 15.1 percent of the total enrolled student population.

Our country’s schools are increasingly diverse, but also increasingly segregated . Students of all races are harmed by the inability to learn with one another in diverse school settings. Black and Latine students are also more likely to attend schools that are intensely segregated both by race and by socioeconomic status. Students of color are also less likely to have access to advanced courses, and are frequently tracked away from college preparatory courses when they do exist.

Moving Beyond the Supreme Court’s Affirmative Action Rulings

The work to ensure educational opportunities for people of color continues, despite the court’s decision.

Inequities in K-12 education can be replicated in college and university admissions criteria. As with elementary and secondary schools, colleges and universities are required to ensure that educational opportunities are open to all students from the application stage and through student’s experiences during their college education. There are a wide range of things that colleges and universities can do to ensure that educational opportunities are open to people of all backgrounds.

What non-punitive responses should schools take when approaching school discipline issues? What non-punitive resources should schools invest in?

There are a range of evidence-based methods schools can use to respond to the behavioral needs of students. These range from strategies that teachers and schools can use to foster a positive learning culture and model, to interventions addressing particular disciplinary issues, such as conflict de-escalation or restorative justice, to using functional behavioral assessments and wraparound support for those students with higher levels of need.

Additionally, schools that employed more mental health providers saw improved student engagement and graduation rates . Schools that used other types of support, including restorative and trauma-informed practices, saw beneficial results, including reduced disciplinary incidents, suspensions, dropouts, and expulsions. Investing in mental health resources, support personnel, and interventions that promote positive student interactions can make schools safer and healthier learning environments, while also helping to combat the discriminatory school-to-prison pipeline that targets students of color and students with disabilities.

How do classroom censorship efforts (i.e. laws that block students and teachers from talking and learning about race and gender) lead to inequality in education?

Instruction about racism and sexism belongs in schools because it equips students to process the world around them and to live in a multicultural society.

Attacks on education have morphed from demands to exclude critical race theory from classrooms to ever-increasingly devious and dangerous demands to erase entire concepts from American history. Book bans, so-called transparency laws designed to intimidate educators into compliance, and attacks on individual expression have left our education system at the mercy of a hostile and discriminatory minority. Students can’t learn in that type of environment. Our future depends on educational institutions that value instruction about systemic racism and sexism. We need to expand culturally relevant instruction and increase funding for diversity, equity, and inclusion in schools, not attack it for its role in uplifting the systematically oppressed.

What can colleges do to ensure they create opportunities for students of color in light of the recent Supreme Court decision effectively eliminating the use of affirmative action in college admissions?

Affirmative action in college admissions has been an important tool, but it is not the only avenue for ensuring that educational opportunities are open to all. In the absence of affirmative action, it is more important than ever that schools work to identify and remove inequitable barriers to higher education. At a minimum, schools must continue to comply with federal and state civil rights laws that require them to provide educational opportunities on an equal basis. They can achieve this by ensuring that policies and practices do not unnecessarily limit opportunities for people on the basis of race or ethnicity (or other protected characteristics, including disability, sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity) and by ensuring that school climate enables all students to access and engage with educational opportunities .

What does the ACLU’s work in education equity look like today?

The ACLU and our affiliates around the country are challenging disciplinary policies that disparately target students of color and students with disabilities and infringe on their right to a safe learning environment. This includes litigation, such as our recent victory resulting in the end to charging students with “disorderly conduct” or “disturbing schools” in South Carolina schools, and advocacy, such as the ACLU of Idaho’s recent report Proud to be Brown and the related civil rights complaint. The report documents how school districts in Idaho are jeopardizing Latine students’ civil rights and liberties by enforcing “gang” dress codes that target mostly Latine students in a discriminatory way, and have negative consequences on their cultural identity, discipline, and education.

CYAP v. Wilson

The ACLU Union filed a federal lawsuit challenging South Carolina’s “disturbing schools” law.

We are also fighting back against efforts to ban books and restrict what students can learn about race, gender, and sexual orientation. In Florida, for example, we’re challenging the state’s harmful Stop WOKE Act. We continue to press for equity in higher education following the Supreme Court’s ruling on affirmative action, and defend against attacks on diversity in K-12 schools.

From K-12 to higher education, the ACLU is working to combat discrimination in education and ensure all people have equal access to safe, quality education.

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Why Is Education So Important in The Quest for Equality?

Gerald Nelson | April 14, 2022 | Leave a Comment

Image: Pikist

Education is vital. We can all agree on this but where we fall out of the agreement is why exactly education is so necessary for equality. Without education, there can be no progress, no development, and no improvement. 

In today’s world, we are ever more aware of the issues surrounding sexism, racism, and inequality, allowing for a greater understanding of the importance of educating people to avoid these biases occurring in the first place.

What is Educational Equality and why is it necessary? 

Equality isn’t always so simple. Some may assume, for example, that educational equality is as simple as providing children with the same resources. In reality, however, there’s a lot more to it than this. We will check what governments are doing to achieve this goal. What actions they are taking to advance the cause of equality? Education is crucial because it’s a toolkit for success:

• With literacy and numeracy comes confidence, with which comes self-respect. And by having self-respect, you can respect others, their accomplishments, and their cultures.
• Education is the fundamental tool for achieving social, economic, and civil rights – something which all societies strive to achieve.

Educational Inequality is usually defined as the unequal distribution of educational resources among different groups in society. The situation becomes serious when it starts influencing how people live their lives. For example, children will be less likely to go to school if they are not healthy, or educated because other things are more urgent in their life.

Categorical Educational Inequality

Categorical Education Inequality is especially apparent when comparing minority/low-income schools with majority/high-income schools. Are better-off students systematically favored in getting ahead? There are three plausible conditions:

• Higher-income parents can spend more time and money on private tutoring, school trips, and home study materials to give their children better opportunities. Therefore, better-off students have an advantage due to access to better schools, computers, technology, etc. (the so-called opportunity gap).
• Low-income schools lack the resources to educate their students. Therefore their students tend to have worse educational outcomes.
• Although the public school system is a government-funded program to allow all students an equal chance at a good education, this is not the case for most schools across third world countries – see UNESCO statistics below:

How Educational Inequality is fueling global issues

Educational inequality is a major global crisis. It has played a role in economic problems, amplified the political deadlock, exacerbated the environmental predicament, and threatens to worsen the human rights crisis. If equality in education is not addressed directly, these crises will only deepen because: 

• Educational Inequality is also about  race and gender . Those who are less privileged are condemned to poverty and unemployment because of a lack of quality educational resources. 
• Without a sound education, people have  less knowledge  of the world around them or the issues facing their communities. They are less likely to vote or to pay attention to politics. This leaves them vulnerable to manipulation by those who represent narrow interests and promote fear, hatred, and violence. The result is an erosion of democratic values and an increase in authoritarianism.
• Without correction,  human rights abuses  will continue due to a lack of legal representation among those with no or low education levels.
• Poverty, unemployment, crimes, and health issues: A lack of education and skills forces children into poverty because they can’t get jobs or start a business. It also leaves them without hope and is one of the reasons for unemployment, lower life expectancy, malnutrition, a higher chance of chronic diseases, and crime rates.
• Limited opportunities: The most significant issue is that lack of education reduces the opportunities for people to have a decent life. Limited options increase the division of social classes, lower social mobility, and reduce the ability to build networks and social contacts. Students in poor countries also spend a lot of time working to support their families rather than focusing on their school work. These factors also worsen the upbringing of coming generations.
• Extremism:  Inequality can also lead to increased violence, racism, gender bias, and extremism, which causes further economic and democratic challenges.  
• Inability to survive pandemics:  Unlike developed nations after COVID, underdeveloped countries are stuck in their unstable economic cycles. Inequality causes a lack of awareness and online educational resources, lower acceptance of preventive measures, and unaffordable vaccines, for example. According to the  United Nations , “Before the coronavirus crisis, projections showed that  more than 200 million children would be out of school , and only 60 percent of young people would be completing upper secondary education in 2030”.
• Unawareness of technological advancements: The world is becoming more tech-savvy, while students in underdeveloped countries remain unaware of the latest technological achievements as well as unable to implement them. This also widens the education gap between countries.
• Gender inequality in education:  In general, developing countries compromise over funds allocation for women’s education to manage their depletion of national income. As such, they consider women less efficient and productive than men. Meanwhile, many parents do not prefer sending their daughters to school because they do not think that women can contribute equally to men in the country’s development. However, if we have to overcome this, there should be an increase in funding and scholarships for women’s education.
• Environmental crises:  People are usually less aware of the harmful emissions produced in their surroundings and are therefore less prepared to deal with increased pollution levels. This also affects climate change. The less educated the children, the more likely they are to contribute to climate change as adults. This is because education is not just about learning facts and skills but also about recognizing problems and applying knowledge in innovative ways. 
• A child who has dropped out of school will generally  contribute less to society  than a child who has completed secondary school. A child who has completed secondary school will contribute less than a child who went to university. This difference increases over time because those with higher levels of education tend to be more open-minded, flexible thinkers and are therefore better able to adapt to changing environmental conditions.

Equality in education is therefore essential for addressing international issues including economic inequality, climate change, social deprivation, and access to healthcare. Many children in poor regions are deprived of education (see chart below) which is the only way out of poverty .

Proposed Solutions 

The United Nations Development Program says that access to education is a human right, and should be individually accessible and available to all by 2030. It demands:

• International collaborations to ensure that every child has the same quality education and to develop joint curricula and academic programs. The quality of teaching methodologies should not be compromised and includes providing financial assistance and tools for equal access.
• Running campaigns to discourage race, gender, and ethnicity differences, arranging more seminars to reach low-income groups, and providing adequate financial assistance, training, and part-time jobs for sole earners.  
• Modifying scholarship criteria to better support deserving students who cannot afford university due to language tests and low grades. 
• Increasing the minimum wage so that sole breadwinners can afford quality education for their children.  
• Schools should bear transportation costs and offer free grants to deserving kids from low-income families.
• Giving more attention to slum-side schools by updating and implementing new techniques and resources. 
• Allowing students to learn in their own language with no enforcement of international languages and offering part-time courses in academies and community colleges in other languages. 

Resolving educational inequality has many benefits for the wider society. Allowing children from disadvantaged backgrounds to get an education will help them find better jobs with higher salaries, improving their quality of life, and making them more productive members of society. It decreases the likelihood of conflict and increases access to health care, stable economic growth, and unlimited opportunities.

Conclusion:

It’s been said that great minds start out as small ones. To level the playing field, we need to focus on best educating our next generation of innovators and leaders, both from an individual and a societal standpoint. If we want equality to become a reality, it will be up to us to ensure that equality is at the forefront of our education system.

References:

Environmental Conscience: 42 Causes, Effects & Solutions for a Lack of Education – E&C (environmental-conscience.com)

School of Education Online Programs: What the U.S. Education System Needs to Reduce Inequality | American University

Educational Inequality: Solutions | Educational Inequality (wordpress.com)

Giving Compass: Seven Solutions for Education Inequality · Giving Compass

Science.org: Polarization under rising inequality and economic decline

Research Gate: Inequality and Economic Growth

University of Munich: pdf (uni-muenchen.de)

Research Gate: Effects-of-inequality-and-poverty-vs-teachers-and-schooling-on-Americas-youth.pdf (researchgate.net)

Borgen Magzine

United Nations: Education as the Pathway towards Gender Equality

United Nations Sustainable Development Goals – Education

This article has been edited in line with our guidelines

Gerald Nelson is a freelance academic essay writer at perfectessaywriting.com who also works with several e ducational and human rights organizations. 

The MAHB Blog is a venture of the Millennium Alliance for Humanity and the Biosphere. Questions should be directed to [email protected]

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Why Homework Is Good for Students: 20 No-Nonsense Reasons

Is homework beneficial in education? It has long been a cornerstone, often sparking debates about its value. Some argue it creates unnecessary stress, while others assert it’s essential for reinforcing in-class learning. Why is homework important? The reality is, that homework is vital for students' personal and academic growth. It not only improves their grasp of the material but also develops crucial skills that extend well beyond the classroom. This review explores 20 reasons why homework is good and why it continues to be a key element of effective education.

Enhances Study Habits

Does homework help students learn? Establishing strong study habits is essential for long-term success. Home assignment plays a key role in enhancing these habits through regular practice. Here are reasons why students should have homework:

•  Routine Building: Independent work creates a consistent study routine, helping learners form daily study habits. This consistency is crucial for maintaining progress and avoiding last-minute cramming. 
•  Time Management: Managing home assignments teaches students to balance academic duties with other activities and personal time. 
•  Self-Discipline: Finishing assignments requires resisting distractions and staying focused, fostering the self-discipline needed for success in and out of college or school. 
•  Organization: Home task involves tracking preps, deadlines, and materials, improving students' organizational skills. 

These points underscore why homework is good for boosting study habits that lead to academic success. Regular home assignments help learners manage time, stay organized, and build the discipline necessary for their studies.

Facilitates Goal Setting

Setting and achieving goals is vital for student success. Homework assists in this by providing possibilities for setting both short-term and long-term academic objectives. Here’s why is homework beneficial for goal-setting: 

•  Short-Term Objectives: Homework encourages immediate targets, like finishing assignments by deadlines, and helping students stay focused and motivated. 
•  Long-Term Aspirations: Over time, preps contribute to broader accomplishments, such as mastering a subject or improving grades, providing direction in their studies. 
•  Motivation: Completing home tasks boosts motivation by demonstrating results from their effort. Achieving targets reinforces the importance of perseverance. 
•  Planning: Homework teaches essential planning and prioritization skills, helping learners approach tasks systematically. 

These aspects demonstrate the reasons why homework is good for setting and achieving educational targets. Regular preps help students establish clear objectives, plan effectively, and stay motivated.

Improves Concentration

Attention is vital for mastering any subject. Homework offers an opportunity to develop this ability. Here’s why homework is important for boosting attention:

•  Increased Focus: Regular assignments require sustained attention, improving mental engagement over time, benefiting both academic and non-academic tasks. 
•  Better Task Management: Homework teaches managing multiple tasks, enhancing the ability to concentrate on each without becoming overwhelmed. 
•  Mental Endurance: Completing home tasks builds stamina for longer study sessions and challenging tasks, crucial for advanced studies and career success. 
•  Attention to Detail: Home assignments promote careful attention to detail, requiring students to follow instructions and ensure accuracy. 

These elements show ‘why is homework good for students’. Homework aids students in improving their focus, leading to better academic outcomes. Regular practice through homework improves mental engagement.

Reinforces Perseverance

Perseverance is key to success. Homework significantly contributes to teaching this skill. Here are reasons homework is good in supporting the development of perseverance:

•  Problem-Solving: Homework challenges students to tackle difficult problems, fostering perseverance as they approach challenges with determination. 
•  Resilience: Regular homework helps build resilience against academic challenges, developing mental toughness. 
•  Persistence: Homework encourages persistence, teaching students to complete tasks despite difficulties, which is crucial for long-term goals. 
•  Confidence: Completing assignments boosts confidence, motivating students to tackle new challenges with determination. 

These reasons highlight ‘Why is homework good for fostering perseverance?’ Engaging with home tasks consistently helps students overcome obstacles and achieve their goals.

Final Consideration

To recap, the motivating reasons for homework extend well beyond the classroom. From improving study habits and mental engagement to fostering goal-setting and perseverance, the advantages are clear. Preps equip students with skills necessary for personal and academic growth. What do you think are the top 10 reasons why students should have homework among the ones we listed? Discuss with your peers. To refine your homework or essays, consider using tools like the AI Essay Detector and College Essay Generator to boost your academic performance.

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Wellness Matters: What is Public Health Education?

September 03, 2024

Public health addresses not only individual wellness but that of communities. To make the most meaningful impact on community wellbeing, it’s important to prioritize public health education and recognize its positive influence .

This type of information  aims to prevent disease, prepare for emergencies, reduce health disparities and promote overall wellness for individuals and communities. Health-related service providers at the local, state, national and international levels are trained to not only act proactively but to respond to life-threatening emergencies like natural disasters, biological warfare attacks and infectious disease outbreaks.

Reducing health disparities is a significant challenge that public health professionals face, but there are countless opportunities to remedy this issue. This all comes to life through the power of health sciences and distributing information to diverse populations.

Why Public Health Education is Important

Because public health involves the wellness of communities, it’s important for public health professionals to understand trends in disease prevalence and mortality rates within a defined population.

Public health education is an essential component in ensuring that a community has the resources needed to promote healthy lifestyles. Health departments play a major role in distributing this information, but health educators are the ultimate advocates for public health . Community members are better able to take precautions after receiving current and accurate information about public health issues like infectious disease outbreaks or risk factors for developing chronic conditions.

Public health professionals have a profound opportunity to provide tremendous support to the medical system. Clinical health and public health relate to one another, but they are different . The public health system provides epidemiological reports, disease tracking, health data visualizations and public outreach to lessen the number of people who become sick or injured, in turn lowering the ultimate number of hospital or medical clinic patients. 

How Public Health Education is Distributed

Information distribution is a primary goal for public health education. Health promotion that uses education enables people to make informed decisions regarding their health and quality of life. Tailoring educational resources to reach diverse communities and accounting for health equity can help to keep more people healthy and break down disparities. 

Many different organizations and public health professionals share health information. Doctors and nurses provide health education, and government organizations like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provide national information through initiatives and programs.

Educational institutions, nonprofit organizations and public health educators are also great sources for public health information. Public health educators, specifically, specialize in certain areas to provide more niche education.

Public health information is shared via conferences, courses and public service announcements.  Some topics include:

• Injury and violence prevention 
• Mental and behavioral health promotion
• Exercise and obesity prevention
• Chronic disease awareness and prevention
• Tobacco use and substance abuse prevention
• Maternal and infant health promotion
• Infectious disease prevention

How Public Health Education is Researched

Research plays a major role in public health education because it identifies the most recent findings and proven solutions to health problems. This allows public health professionals to develop and implement evidence-based methodologies that lead to community wellness.

Peer-reviewed research articles provide a solid foundation for strong public trust in the medical and scientific community. This type of research endures a process that checks for quality and validity. A public health educator is more likely to teach about best practices in disease prevention when the methods have been proven and reviewed by other qualified professionals in the medical and scientific community. Public health education must be backed by legitimate research findings to protect the health and safety of its consumers.

How to Get Started in Public Health

A career in public health education can look a few different ways. Just like with most fields, it’s important to grow specialized skills and education. Public health professionals can work in a variety of specialties including community health, epidemiology, environmental health, global health, behavioral science, public policy and more. Entry-level roles like community health workers and medical records specialists can often start their careers with a high-school diploma and on-the-job training. Health education credentialing is also a great place to start and even keep your skills fresh throughout your career. Many public health professionals earn these credentials through the Commission for Health Education (NCHEC) .

Other roles like health educators, social and community service managers, environmental scientists and nutritionists need at least a bachelor’s degree in a health education program or public health education program. A public health education degree is the best approach to succeeding in this field because you’ll have the knowledge and skills you need to promote healthy living. Continuing education is usually needed for all occupations.

Below are some roles that require graduate school and the best-aligned corresponding programs offered at American College of Education (ACE), where you can pursue advanced public health education degrees fully online and on your schedule. 

Beyond the programs listed above, ACE also offers an Ed.S. in Public Education, for those wishing to pursue advanced studies without the dissertation requirement, as well as a micro-credential in public health and health leadership , quick program that hones specific skills.

Resources for Public Health Education

Public health education is richly accessible, especially with resources available across the internet. Below are three great places to start:

Make a difference in public health education with the healthcare programs at American College of Education.

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Why is Medical Coding Important? 5 Benefits of Medical Coding on the Greater Healthcare System

Fact: about 15,000 medical coder positions open every year. That’s a lot of opportunity. With the healthcare system continuously expanding, now is the time to seize your potential in a broadening and important field. Plus, there’s a lot of room to grow, and always more to learn, so medical coding can provide the satisfaction you are looking for in a steady, ever-growing industry.

Medical coding is an exciting, behind-the-scenes job that maintains the smooth functioning of the healthcare system. Tasks like billing, data management, and communication among healthcare providers all fall under this expertise. Without it, insurance companies, hospitals, and other healthcare organizations would have a difficult time keeping track of patient records, payments, and service histories.

Let’s look a little deeper into why medical coding is important and how it could be part of your future.

What is medical coding?

Medical coding is the process of designating standardized codes to medical records using thorough physician documentation. Coders use specialized systems like the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) for diagnoses and the Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) for procedures.

Medical coders ensure that the information captured in medical records is translated into a format that can be universally understood. Medical billers —a subset of medical coders—handle billing, insurance claims, and communicating patient records rather than transcribe them.

Medical coding is not merely a technical task; it is a fundamental part of healthcare administration. Medical coders bridge that gap between healthcare providers and insurance companies, keeping services provided documented accurately and healthcare providers compensated appropriately. The role of the medical coder goes beyond simple data entry; it is about ensuring the accuracy and efficiency of the entire healthcare documentation process.

Why is medical coding important to healthcare as a whole?

Simply put, medical coding is what keeps the whole ship running. The efficiency and efficacy of the healthcare system is drastically improved due to coding processes. Medical coding ensures accuracy in billing and reimbursement processes. Medical coding guarantees that healthcare providers are paid fairly and reduces the number of denied claims and delayed payments.

For healthcare facilities to continue offering top-notch treatment, they must maintain this financial stability and responsibility. Plus, medical coding is needed for many other tasks, like:

• Interpreting diagnoses and treatments
• Managing and documenting medical data
• Monitoring patient populations

Furthermore, patient care and policy-making are slowed to almost a standstill without correct coding. By guaranteeing accurate medical records as well as encouraging increased communication between providers, medical coders bring in better quality patient care, patient outcomes, and regulatory compliance, making sure that healthcare facilities adhere to rules and maintain patient safety.

5 benefits of medical coding careers

Medical coding is a superb career for those interested in the healthcare industry with an undeniable knack for attention to detail. Here are five benefits of a career in medical coding that may make it your dream job:

1. High demand and job security

One of the most compelling reasons to consider a career in medical coding is the high demand and job security. You’ll be a wanted commodity on the job market. Driven by factors such as an aging population and the increasing adoption of electronic health records, the healthcare system is constantly growing.

As a result, there is a growing need for skilled medical coders who can accurately document healthcare services.

2. Competitive salaries

In addition to job security, medical coding offers competitive salaries and many high-paying positions because of the demand in this line of work. Factors like geographic location, level of certification, and years of experience can influence salary levels, making medical coding not just a flexible career choice in schedule, but also in pay. Learn more here.

3. Flexibility and remote work opportunities

Flexibility is another significant benefit of a career in medical coding. Many healthcare facilities offer remote work opportunities for coders, letting them work from home and enjoy a better work-life balance. This flexibility has become increasingly appealing in today’s ideal work environment, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic, where remote work has become more common and desirable. The ability to work remotely also broadens the range of job opportunities available to medical coders, as they are not limited to positions in their immediate geographic area. Plus, some medical coding training programs are offered online, making this career even more obtainable with a convenient college path.

4. Career advancement and specialization

Pursuing medical coding as a career also comes with the added benefit of better advancement and specialization, depending on where your interests are. Areas like auditing, compliance, or healthcare data analysis are all open to medical coders, each offering its own set of challenges and opportunities.

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5. Impact on healthcare quality

Finally, a career in medical coding makes an incredible impact on other’s lives. Though it may not seem like it with medical coding taking place in the background of healthcare, correct documentation is what ensures patients receive the care they need. Keeping as little error as possible from destabilizing the process of care, medical coders are the foundation of the healthcare system’s efficiency.

How to start a career in medical coding

Medical coding requires a combination of education and certification. A postsecondary medical billing and coding program is typically the first step. Certifying organizations like the American Academy of Professional Coders (AAPC) and the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) offer credentials that showcase a coder’s skills and knowledge. These steps, combined, keep your job prospects and earning potential high, making this career a worthwhile investment.

Externships or practical opportunities are also encouraged while in school. These courses build the knowledge you need for a successful profession in medical coding. Make leaps and bounds in your dream career through the many programs institutions offer to prepare you for your responsibilities.

Pursuing your coding career

Medical coding is an essential component of the healthcare system. The benefits of medical coding are incredibly plentiful with so many far-reaching opportunities in patient care and public health. As healthcare evolves, the demand for skilled medical coders will only increase.

Interested in starting your career as a medical coder? Goodwin University offers an extensive medical coding training program built to prepare you for this important career in healthcare. Find out more about medical coding and the place it could take you by calling 800-889-3282 today.

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Review of sexual abuse in schools and colleges

Published 10 June 2021

Applies to England

© Crown copyright 2021

This publication is licensed under the terms of the Open Government Licence v3.0 except where otherwise stated. To view this licence, visit nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3 or write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: [email protected] .

Where we have identified any third party copyright information you will need to obtain permission from the copyright holders concerned.

This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/review-of-sexual-abuse-in-schools-and-colleges/review-of-sexual-abuse-in-schools-and-colleges

Introduction

Ofsted was asked by the government to carry out a rapid review of sexual abuse in schools and colleges. This report summarises our findings and recommendations.

We were asked to report on the following:

Safeguarding and curriculum

Is the existing safeguarding framework and guidance for inspectors strong enough to properly assess how schools and colleges safeguard and promote the welfare of children.

How can schools and colleges be supported further to successfully deliver the new RSHE (relationships, sex and health education) curriculum, including in teaching about sexual abuse, cyber bullying and pornography as well as healthy relationships and consent?

Multi-agency safeguarding arrangements

How well are safeguarding guidance and processes understood and working between schools, colleges and local multi-agency partners?

Does working between schools, colleges and local safeguarding partners ( LSPs ), including local authority children’s social care, the police, health services and other support, need to be strengthened?

Victims’ voice and reporting

How does the current system of safeguarding in schools and colleges listen to the voices of children when reporting sexual abuse whether occurring within or outside school?

What prevents children from reporting sexual abuse?

Do victims receive timely and appropriate support from the right place?

Have inspections by ISI (the Independent Schools Inspectorate) and Ofsted been robust enough in relation to the issues raised?

Other considerations

In addition to what the government asked us to report on, we have also considered:

the range, nature, location and severity of allegations and incidents, together with context

the extent of schools’/colleges’ (and other agencies’ and adults’) knowledge of specific incidents and more general problems

schools’ safeguarding responses to known incidents and wider social and cultural problems, including:

their immediate response to specific incidents, including referrals to LSPs and victim support (and liaison with other schools/colleges, where those involved attend different schools/colleges from abusers)

schools’/colleges’ use of sanctions

any factors that have limited any immediate or subsequent response

schools’ safeguarding knowledge, culture and effectiveness, including their willingness to function as part of the wider safeguarding system with other partners

the adequacy of schools’ RSHE / PSHE (personal, social, health and economic) curriculum and teaching

the extent to which recent inspections explored relevant cases and issues

Executive summary and recommendations

The review included visits to 32 schools and colleges. In these, we spoke to over 900 children and young people about the prevalence of peer-on-peer sexual harassment and sexual violence, including online, in their lives and the lives of their peers. [footnote 1] We also spoke to leaders, teachers, governors, LSPs , parents and stakeholders. Finally, we reviewed the extent to which inspection has given sufficient oversight of this issue and considered how statutory guidance could be strengthened.

This rapid review does not report on individual schools and colleges or cases, all of which remain anonymous. We made a number of visits to schools named on the Everyone’s Invited website, as well as others not named. But this should not be assumed to be a fully representative sample of all schools and colleges nationally. It presents a picture of strong and weaker practice across participating schools and colleges, from which we have drawn our conclusions. Our conclusions reflect the strengths and limitations of the evidence. They focus on what we were asked to report on. You can find a full description of the methodology at the end of this report.

This rapid thematic review has revealed how prevalent sexual harassment and online sexual abuse are for children and young people. It is concerning that for some children, incidents are so commonplace that they see no point in reporting them. This review did not analyse whether the issue is more or less prevalent for different groups of young people, and there may well be differences, but it found that the issue is so widespread that it needs addressing for all children and young people. It recommends that schools, colleges and multi-agency partners act as though sexual harassment and online sexual abuse are happening, even when there are no specific reports.

On our visits, girls told us that sexual harassment and online sexual abuse, such as being sent unsolicited explicit sexual material and being pressured to send nude pictures (‘nudes’), are much more prevalent than adults realise. For example, nearly 90% of girls, and nearly 50% of boys, said being sent explicit pictures or videos of things they did not want to see happens a lot or sometimes to them or their peers. Children and young people told us that sexual harassment occurs so frequently that it has become ‘commonplace’. For example, 92% of girls, and 74% of boys, said sexist name-calling happens a lot or sometimes to them or their peers. The frequency of these harmful sexual behaviours means that some children and young people consider them normal.

When we asked children and young people where sexual violence occurred, they typically talked about unsupervised spaces outside of school, such as parties or parks without adults present, although some girls told us they also experienced unwanted touching in school corridors.

Children and young people, especially girls, told us that they do not want to talk about sexual abuse for several reasons, even where their school encourages them to. For example, the risk of being ostracised by peers or getting peers into trouble is not considered to be worth it for something perceived by children and young people to be commonplace. They worry about how adults will react, because they think they will not be believed, or that they will be blamed. They also think that once they talk to an adult, the process will be out of their control.

Children and young people were rarely positive about the RSHE they had received. They felt that it was too little, too late and that the curriculum was not equipping them with the information and advice they needed to navigate the reality of their lives. Because of these gaps, they told us they turned to social media or their peers to educate each other, which understandably made some feel resentful. As one girl put it, ‘It shouldn’t be our responsibility to educate boys’.

In the schools and colleges we visited, some teachers and leaders underestimated the scale of the problem. They either did not identify sexual harassment and sexualised language as problematic or they were unaware they were happening. They were dealing with incidents of sexual violence when they were made aware of them, and following statutory guidance. But professionals consistently underestimated the prevalence of online sexual abuse, even when there was a proactive whole-school approach to tackling sexual harassment and violence.

In light of this, even where school and college leaders do not have specific information that indicates sexual harassment and online sexual abuse are problems for their children and young people, they should act on the assumption that they are. Leaders should take a whole-school/college approach to developing a culture where all kinds of sexual harassment and online sexual abuse are recognised and addressed. To achieve this, schools and colleges need to create an environment where staff model respectful and appropriate behaviour, where children and young people are clear about what is acceptable and unacceptable behaviour, and where they are confident to ask for help and support when they need it. Central to this should be a carefully planned and implemented RSHE curriculum, sanctions and interventions to tackle poor behaviour and provide support for children and young people who need it, training and clear expectations for staff and governors, and listening to pupil voice. Further guidance on many of these aspects can be found in ‘Keeping children safe in education’. [footnote 2]

When it comes to sexual violence, it appears that school and college leaders are increasingly having to make difficult decisions that guidance does not equip them to make. For example, some school and college leaders told us that they are unsure how to proceed when criminal investigations do not lead to a prosecution or conviction. Schools and colleges should not be left to navigate these ‘grey areas’ without sufficient guidance. Furthermore, the current guidance does not clearly differentiate between different types of behaviour or reflect the language that children and young people use, particularly for online sexual abuse.

Schools and colleges cannot tackle sexual harassment and sexual violence, including online, on their own, and neither should they. For example, the prevalence of children and young people seeing explicit material they do not want to see and being pressured to send ‘nudes’ is a much wider problem than schools can address. While they can play their part, it is not only their responsibility to solve it. The government will need to tackle this issue through the Online Safety Bill, and other interventions.

The LSPs that we met had varying levels of oversight and understanding of the issues for children and young people in their area. Some LSPs had been working closely with schools to track and analyse data from schools, and understood children’s experiences of sexual harassment and violence, including online. However, a small number told us that they were not aware that sexual harassment and violence, including online, in schools and colleges were significant problems in their local area. In light of what children and young people told us, they almost certainly are significant problems in every area. Gaining an overview of the issues requires effective joint working between LSPs and all schools and colleges, something that is not currently happening consistently. Some schools and colleges also reported that working across a number of local authorities presented challenges, as the level of support varied from area to area. Clearer guidance would help to overcome some of these difficulties, as would more learning and sharing of practice across LSPs , schools and colleges.

A review of Ofsted and Independent Schools Inspectorate ( ISI ) frameworks, training and handling of complaints found that safeguarding is generally well covered on inspection, inspectors are prepared, and complaints are generally dealt with well. However, there are improvements that can be made. As a result of this review, both Ofsted and ISI will update training, inspection handbooks and inspection practices where necessary to strengthen inspectors’ ability to inspect how schools and colleges are tackling sexual harassment and sexual violence, including online. Ofsted will follow up the publication of this report with a series of webinars and events for schools and colleges to discuss the findings of this review. ISI will also provide a series of webinars and events for schools about the findings of this review.

As a result of the findings of this review, we recommend the following.

Recommendations for school and college leaders

School and college leaders should create a culture where sexual harassment and online sexual abuse are not tolerated, and where they identify issues and intervene early to better protect children and young people.

In order to do this, they should assume that sexual harassment and online sexual abuse are happening in their setting, even when there are no specific reports, and put in place a whole-school approach to address them. This should include:

a carefully sequenced RSHE curriculum, based on the Department for Education’s ( DfE ’s) statutory guidance, that specifically includes sexual harassment and sexual violence, including online. This should include time for open discussion of topics that children and young people tell us they find particularly difficult, such as consent and the sending of ‘nudes’

high-quality training for teachers delivering RSHE

routine record-keeping and analysis of sexual harassment and sexual violence, including online, to identify patterns and intervene early to prevent abuse

a behavioural approach, including sanctions when appropriate, to reinforce a culture where sexual harassment and online sexual abuse are not tolerated

working closely with LSPs in the area where the school or college is located so they are aware of the range of support available to children and young people who are victims or who perpetrate harmful sexual behaviour

support for designated safeguarding leads ( DSLs ), such as protected time in timetables to engage with LSPs

training to ensure that all staff (and governors, where relevant) are able to:

better understand the definitions of sexual harassment and sexual violence, including online sexual abuse

identify early signs of peer-on-peer sexual abuse

consistently uphold standards in their responses to sexual harassment and online sexual abuse

Recommendations for multi-agency partners

Multi-agency partners should:

• work to improve engagement with schools of all types in their local area, tailoring their approach to what their analysis (produced in partnership with schools/colleges and wider safeguarding partners) indicates are the risks to children and young people in their local area

Recommendations for government

The government should:

take into account the findings of this review as it develops the Online Safety Bill, so it can strengthen safeguarding controls for children and young people to protect them from viewing online explicit material and engaging in harmful sexual behaviour using social media platforms

establish better coordinated arrangements between the Education and Skills Funding Agency ( ESFA ), Ofsted and ISI for how to deal with complaints that inspectorates receive about schools

strengthen the ‘Working together to safeguard children’ guidance to make the involvement of all state and independent schools and colleges with LSPs more explicit, including their engagement in multi-agency safeguarding audits

produce clearer guidance for schools and colleges to help them make decisions when there are long-term investigations of harmful sexual behaviour, or when a criminal investigation does not lead to a prosecution or conviction

review and update the definitions of sexual abuse, including peer-on-peer, to better reflect the experiences of children and young people

develop an online hub where all safeguarding guidance is in one place, with any updates clearly visible and ideally made in good time in the school year to aid planning

in partnership with others:

develop a guide that helps children and young people know what might happen next when they talk to an adult in school or college about sexual harassment and sexual violence, including online sexual abuse

develop national training for DSLs

develop resources to help schools and colleges shape their RSHE curriculum

launch a communications campaign about sexual harassment and online sexual abuse, which should include advice for parents and carers

Actions for the inspectorates

This review has identified a number of areas where Ofsted and ISI can sharpen practice and, in doing so, focus schools’ and colleges’ attention on this important area of their work.

Peer-on-peer sexual harassment and sexual violence, including online, have been considered during inspection as part of safeguarding in schools and colleges over the last few years. However, changes to government guidance and some inconsistencies in inspection documentation across education remits mean that updating of inspection handbooks is required. For example, from September, Ofsted’s inspection handbook for further education and skills will include the same references to peer-on-peer sexual abuse as the current school inspection handbook. Inspectors for Ofsted and ISI will also consider how well schools fulfil the new duties to deliver the compulsory RSHE curriculum.

For 2021/22 and beyond, Ofsted and ISI will work together to produce and jointly deliver further training on inspecting safeguarding in education settings, including looking at issues of peer-on-peer sexual abuse.

In line with our practice for schools, Ofsted will request that college leaders supply records and analysis of sexual harassment and sexual violence, including online, to inspectors. ISI will also specifically request for schools to provide the same records on notification of inspection, in addition to its current practice. There will be additional training for inspectors from both inspectorates to ensure that they record how they have followed up this information on inspection. Additionally, inspectors will hold discussions with single-sex groups of pupils where this helps to understand better a school’s or college’s approach to tackling sexual harassment and sexual violence, including online.

Definitions

In this report, we use the DfE ’s definitions of sexual abuse and peer-on-peer abuse. [footnote 3]

Peer-on-peer sexual abuse

The term ‘peer-on-peer’ sexual abuse includes:

sexual violence, such as rape, assault by penetration and sexual assault

sexual harassment, such as sexual comments, remarks, jokes and online sexual harassment, which may be stand-alone or part of a broader pattern of abuse

upskirting, which typically involves taking a picture under a person’s clothing without them knowing, with the intention of viewing their genitals or buttocks to obtain sexual gratification, or to cause the victim humiliation, distress or alarm

sexting (also known as ‘youth-produced sexual imagery’) [footnote 4]

There were a wide variety of behaviours that children and young people told us happen online. These include:

receiving unsolicited explicit photographs or videos, for example ‘dick pics’

sending, or being pressured to send, nude and semi-nude photographs or videos (‘nudes’)

being sent or shown solicited or unsolicited online explicit material, such as pornographic videos

Typical platforms for sharing material between peers tended to be WhatsApp or Snapchat.

‘Keeping children safe in education’ says that all staff should be aware that children are capable of abusing their peers and that they should be clear about their relevant policies and procedures to address peer-on-peer abuse.

We acknowledge that the term ‘peer-on-peer’ does not refer only to sexual abuse, but also to other forms of child-on-child abuse, such as bullying. The term ‘peer-on-peer abuse’ is helpful in focusing professionals’ attention on the fact that children can abuse other children. However, in the context of sexual abuse it could lead to professionals dismissing potentially harmful sexual behaviour as simply ‘developmental’, when there are power dynamics, age imbalances and other aspects that would warrant further investigation. In this report, we use the term ‘peer-on-peer’ while recognising its limitations.

Harmful sexual behaviour

When we refer to harmful sexual behaviour, we use the same definition as the DfE : [footnote 5]

Sexual behaviours expressed by children and young people under the age of 18 years old that are developmentally inappropriate, may be harmful towards self or others, or abusive towards another child, young person or adult.

When we refer to sexual harassment and sexual violence, including online, we use the definitions and the language of victim and perpetrator in the DfE ’s guidance. [footnote 6] We recognise that there are many different ways to describe children who have been subjected to sexual harassment and/or sexual violence. There are also many ways to describe those who are alleged to have carried out any form of abuse. Therefore, we are using the terms that are most widely recognised and understood. It is important to recognise that not everyone who has been subjected to sexual harassment and/or sexual violence, including online, considers themselves a victim or would want to be described in this way.

Any child or young person who exhibits harmful sexual behaviour may need a safeguarding response or intervention. Professionals should respond with interventions that address the behaviour of the perpetrator, while also providing an appropriate level of support. Professionals involved should be aware that harmful sexual behaviour may be an indicator that the child has been abused. [footnote 7] , [footnote 8]

It is also important to note that, although professionals’ awareness of the vulnerability of children and young people could be helpful, it could also contribute to stereotypes about how a victim and survivor of child sexual abuse should look or behave. This may run the risk of victims who differ from that picture being overlooked or unwilling to come forward for fear of not being believed. [footnote 9]

The following model is used to explain the continuum of sexual behaviours presented by children and young people, from normal to violent. Harmful sexual behaviour encompasses a range of behaviour, which can be displayed towards younger children, peers, older children or adults. It can occur online and offline or a mixture of both.

Figure 1. Definition: Sexual behaviours across a continuum

Source: Hackett, S, ‘Children, young people and sexual violence’ in ‘Children behaving badly? Exploring peer violence between children and young people’, 2010.

The DfE has published guidance for schools and colleges to help them to respond to sexual harassment and sexual violence, including online, between children. This explains that it is an offence for anyone to have any sexual activity with a person under the age of 16 and provides specific protection for children aged 12 and under who cannot legally give their consent to any form of sexual activity. The guidance acknowledges that professionals may be required to make complex decisions in situations of peer-on-peer sexual harassment and sexual violence, including online. It stresses the importance of effective training and clear policies for staff to help them take a considered and appropriate response.

Therefore, when schools and colleges [footnote 10] are made aware of sexual activity involving a child under the age of 13, they should always refer this to the police and children’s social care. They should use the statutory guidance and their professional curiosity to establish whether risk factors are present before making a decision on whether to engage external agencies if the children are aged 13 to 17.

What did we find out about the scale and nature of sexual abuse in schools?

What existing research and data tell us.

Data on this topic largely focuses on child sexual abuse in general, not specifically peer-on-peer. We know that issues of under-reporting and inconsistency in how professionals define harmful sexual behaviour mean that accurate data collection is difficult. [footnote 11] We explore the issues of under-reporting and data tracking in later sections of this report.

Nationally collected statistics show that there has been a sharp increase in reporting of child sexual abuse to the police in recent years. Figures that include all child sexual abuse cases show that the police recorded over 83,000 child sexual abuse offences (including obscene publications) in the year ending March 2020. [footnote 12] , [footnote 13] This is an increase of approximately 267% since 2013. Research estimates indicate that approximately one quarter of cases of all child sexual abuse involve a perpetrator under the age of 18. [footnote 14]

Although anyone can experience sexual harassment and violence, research indicates that girls are disproportionately affected. For example, 90% of recorded offences of rape in 2018–19 of 13- to 15-year-olds were committed against girls. [footnote 15] , [footnote 16] In the past year, girls aged between 15 and 17 reported the highest annual rates of sexual abuse for young people and children aged 25 and younger. [footnote 17]

It is hard to get an accurate picture of the scale and nature of sexual harassment and violence between children and young people in schools and colleges, as there is no centralised data collection of incidents and crime statistics are not published with a level of analysis to shed any light on this. It would be helpful if this information was available routinely.

In 2016, the Women and Equalities Select Committee highlighted a number of surveys reporting that girls were experiencing high levels of sexual harassment and sexual violence, including online, in schools and colleges. [footnote 18] Similarly, a survey of children and young people in 2017 found that over a third of female students at mixed-sex secondary schools have personally experienced some form of sexual harassment at school. [footnote 19]

Three sources of information that were available for this review are: published school exclusions data, [footnote 20] Ofsted complaints data and an FOI request made to the police in 2015 by the BBC.

Published school exclusions data shows:

In the 5 academic years to 2018/19, permanent exclusions for which the primary reason was sexual misconduct averaged 91 per year, 1.3% of all permanent exclusions.

Most of these permanent exclusions were from secondary schools. There are approximately 3,400 mainstream state-funded secondary schools, so, if evenly spread, this would mean on average around 2% of secondaries currently make a permanent exclusion for this reason in any given year.

While the total number of permanent exclusions increased during that period, there was no clear trend in the number of exclusions for sexual misconduct.

In the same 5-year period, suspensions for which the primary reason was sexual misconduct averaged 2,100 per year, 0.6% of all suspensions.

Again, most of these exclusions were from secondary schools. As stated above, there are approximately 3,400 mainstream state-funded secondary schools. So again, if evenly spread, this would mean on average 55% of secondaries currently make a suspension for this reason in any given year.

In the latest reported year (2018/19), suspension for sexual misconduct fell by 13% relative to the average of the previous 4 years.

Ofsted receives complaints from pupils and parents who have been unable to resolve complaints through local routes. Between September 2019 and March 2021, we received 291 complaints about schools that referred to peer-on-peer sexual harassment or violence, including online sexual abuse, out of 13,834 complaints (2% of the total). ISI reports that between the same dates, it received 37 complaints about schools that referred to peer-on-peer sexual harassment or violence, out of 618 complaints (6% of the total).

In 2015, the police responded to an FOI request and reported that nearly 4,000 alleged physical sexual assaults and more than 600 rapes in schools had been reported in the preceding 3 years. [footnote 21] Further discussions with the police showed that the data included incidents involving adults and may also include some incidents reported by schools but that took place outside school. The police have told Ofsted that this data should therefore not be taken as an estimate of sexual assaults and rapes by pupils in schools.

The scope of this review was such that we cannot say anything about which children and young people are most likely to be targeted for sexual harassment and/or violence or about which are most likely to abuse others.

What did children, young people and professionals tell us about sexual harassment and violence between peers and where did perceptions differ?

During our visits, we gathered the views of approximately 900 children and young people in focus groups. Of those, we surveyed just over 800 children and young people aged 13 and above about their perceptions of sexual harassment and sexual violence, including online sexual abuse.

Children and young people tended to talk to us about the issues that were the most common in their lives, which were typically sexual harassment and online sexual abuse. However, we are aware of the significant impact that sexual violence has on some children and young people’s lives and we heard several distressing examples from DSLs as part of this review. While this section focuses largely on what children and young people told us was most common, we do not want to minimise or ignore other experiences that children told us about. Where we can, we reference these experiences and use wider literature to supplement our findings where there are gaps.

The girls who responded to our questionnaire indicated that, in order of prevalence, the following types of harmful sexual behaviours happened ‘a lot’ or ‘sometimes’ between people their age:

Non-contact forms, but face-to-face:

sexist name-calling (92%)

rumours about their sexual activity (81%)

unwanted or inappropriate comments of a sexual nature (80%)

Non-contact forms, online or on social media:

being sent pictures or videos they did not want to see (88%)

being put under pressure to provide sexual images of themselves (80%)

having pictures or videos that they sent being shared more widely without their knowledge or consent (73%)

being photographed or videoed without their knowledge or consent (59%)

having pictures or videos of themselves that they did not know about being circulated (51%)

Contact forms:

sexual assault of any kind (79%)

feeling pressured to do sexual things that they did not want to (68%)

unwanted touching (64%)

These findings are strongly supported by existing research into harmful sexual behaviour between peers. [footnote 22] , [footnote 23]

Boys were much less likely to think these things happened, particularly contact forms of harmful sexual behaviour, as shown in the chart below:

Figure 2. These things happen ‘a lot’ or ‘sometimes’ between people my age (%)

Note: around 790 pupils answered the question for each type of harmful sexual behaviour. The number varies slightly by question because a few children and young people skipped some questions.

In the focus groups, many children and young people talked about teachers not ‘knowing the reality’ of their lives, or being ‘out of date’. In general, they reported much higher incidences of sexual harassment, online sexual abuse and bullying behaviours than teachers and leaders tended to be aware of.

In some schools, leaders’ estimation of the scale of the problem was more aligned with that of the children and young people’s perceptions than that of teachers. This may be explained by the fact that leaders and DSLs typically deal with confidential safeguarding cases. However, it does point to the need for development and training for all school staff on prevalence and what constitutes harmful sexual behaviour. For example, in one school, children and young people told us that the sharing of ‘nudes’ was widespread and that ‘body shaming’ and ‘slut shaming’ were also common. However, staff in this school thought that incidents largely happened outside school. One male member of staff said that there were ‘high levels of mutual respect’ between children and young people in school. Leaders were more aware of issues in the school, and the need to change what they referred to as the ‘rugby culture’, but this did not translate to all staff recognising the scale of the problem.

More positively, in some schools, staff and leaders’ perceptions of the extent of harmful sexual behaviour seemed to be fairly aligned with those of children and young people. This appears to be the case in schools where the topic has been – and continues to be – openly discussed and challenged, and where records of incidents are kept and analysed.

Generally, older teens (aged 16 and above) were more likely to say that sexual harassment and violence, including online, between peers was prevalent than younger teens (aged 13 to 15) were. For example, 79% of young people aged 16 to 17 and 86% of those aged 18 and above said that rumours about sexual activity occurred a lot or sometimes between peers compared with 61% of those aged 13 to 15. Similarly, 54% of those aged 16 and above said unwanted touching occurred a lot or sometimes, compared with 40% of 13- to 15-year-olds. While figures are high for both groups, this increase could suggest that sexual harassment and violence, including online, happen more as children and young people grow older, or that they become more aware of them.

In terms of sexualised language, children and young people told us that ‘slag’ and ‘slut’ were commonplace and that homophobic language was also used in school. Many felt that staff either were not aware of this language, dismissed it as ‘banter’ or simply were not prepared to tackle it. Many also commented that they would be wary of tackling their peers’ use of this language, even when they did not feel comfortable with such terms. Sometimes, children and young people themselves saw the use of derogatory language as ‘banter’ or ‘just a joke’. In one school, the girls spoke of lots of ‘cat calling’, often focused on their bodies, their hair colour, their size or whether they were wearing glasses. In another, girls said that boys used terms such as ‘flat, curvy or sick’ to describe them and girls found this derogatory. In another, children and young people reported boys giving girls marks out of 10 based on their physical appearance while they were travelling to and from school together.

Some children, young people and staff mentioned sexual and sexist comments happening in corridors. Some girls felt uncomfortable when boys walked behind them up stairs and in stairwells where people can see up their skirts from below. Boys in another school said that they felt anxious when walking behind girls or women, including out of school, as they did not want the girls to feel at risk, so tended to cross the road or move away. In another school, girls said that they were ‘touched up’ regularly in crowded corridors. Some named the areas of the college or school where they felt wary of being – either because they were out of sight of staff or because they felt uncomfortable with the people who ‘hang around’ there.

Other areas or situations were school-specific. For example, we heard cases of boys’ toilets with no locks, a swimming pool changing room where a single door meant that girls believed people could see them naked as they walked by, and a male teacher who gave girls compliments about their appearance.

Overall, children and young people tended to say that they felt physically safe at college or school, although there was a clear emotional impact on girls who experienced regular sexual harassment or other harmful sexual behaviour. This highlights the need for school leaders to take an approach to tackling sexual harassment and bullying behaviours that goes beyond tackling incidents in isolation. Given that children and young people talked in particular about sexual harassment happening in unsupervised spaces, such as in corridors between lessons, school leaders should identify where there might be ‘hot-spots’ of poor behaviour and act accordingly. When children and young people talked about feeling physically unsafe, this generally related to situations that occurred outside school.

Boys and girls sometimes, though not always, had different perspectives and concerns. In one school, for example, girls told us that sexual harassment was ‘a big deal’ but boys did not recognise that it was happening or identify it as abuse. Girls in this school described routine name-calling, sexual comments and objectification. Boys described jokes and compliments – but said that, for them, homophobia and racism were concerns. In another example, girls thought that things like sexist or sexualised language were common and that being asked to share inappropriate images happened regularly, but boys did not see this as an issue. Boys recognised some of the behaviours described but did not see them as widespread.

Some schools on our visits had existing LGBT+ pupil groups that were willing to speak to us. LGBT+ children and young people in those groups also reported a big gap between staff’s knowledge of incidents and their daily experience of harmful sexual behaviour. Homophobic and transphobic insults and bullying in corridors and classrooms and at social times were mentioned as issues in several schools. Some LGBT+ children and young people reported constant verbal abuse and occasional physical assault, which left them feeling physically unsafe. One teacher reported that she frequently heard both homophobic and sexist language but did not challenge this as she did not think she would be supported by other staff and her challenges would be disregarded. Literature on the experiences of LGBT+ young people also indicates that they are more likely to experience child sexual abuse and less likely to report sexual abuse than their peers. [footnote 24]

What did children, young people and professionals tell us about sexual abuse between peers online?

Previous research indicated that children and young people who are sending nudes and semi-nudes are in the minority. For example, research in 2017 indicated that 26% of young people had sent a nude image to someone they were interested in and 48% had received one of someone else. [footnote 25] However, more recent data on youth-produced sexual imagery for under-18s indicates that they are increasingly taking photos and videos of themselves to send to others. This includes incidents where they are groomed by adults to do so.

Data from the Internet Watch Foundation ( IWF ) shows a sharp increase in online sexual abuse images involving young people, which it partially attributes to a rise in the sharing of ‘self-generated’ content. [footnote 26] In the first 6 months of 2020, 44% of all child sexual abuse content dealt with by the IWF was assessed as containing self-generated images or videos, compared with 29% in 2019. The proliferation of online imagery makes it a challenge for researchers, multi-agency partners and schools to keep up, despite recent government guidance. [footnote 27]

Children and young people told us that online forms of sexual abuse were prevalent, especially being sent sexual pictures or videos that they did not want to see. The vast majority of girls said being sent sexual images, being coerced into sharing images, or having their images reshared were common. A significant proportion of boys agreed. In terms of definitions, being sent sexual pictures of images that children and young people do not want to see includes both explicit online material, such as pornographic videos, or self-generated images or videos, such as ‘dick pics’.

Images and videos were typically shared on platforms such as WhatsApp or Snapchat. Some DSLs told us that children and young people were sometimes added to large groups of peers on WhatsApp without their permission, where graphic material was shared without them properly knowing who they were interacting with.

Figure 3. These things happen ‘a lot’ or ‘sometimes’ between people my age (%)

Note: the number of both boys and girls who answered the question for each type of harmful sexual behaviour is around 790, and slightly different for each. This is because a few children and young people skipped some questions.

Although some school leaders defined online sexual harassment as ‘happening out of school’, we saw some clear evidence of how online sexual harassment has a significant impact on the normalisation of harmful sexual behaviour and unhealthy cultures within school. This was something that the victims’ groups we spoke to also highlighted. In one school, for example, children and young people told inspectors that ‘boys talk about whose “nudes” they have and share them among themselves – it’s like a collection game’. Many children and young people told inspectors that this behaviour was so commonplace that they just saw it as a ‘part of life’. One Year 12 student said, ‘The problem is that it’s so widespread it’s like playing whack-a-mole.’

Girls talked about boys being very persistent when asking for images – ‘they just won’t take no for an answer’ – some explained that if you block them on social media ‘they just create multiple accounts to harass you’. In one school, the girls spoken to by inspectors reported that some girls can be contacted by up to 10 or 11 different boys a night to be asked for nude/semi-nude images. Some children and young people thought that it was ‘ok’ and ‘acceptable’ to ask someone for a nude picture, but had been taught to think about who else might see the pictures apart from the original recipient, and not to share them further.

Some girls expressed frustration that there was not explicit teaching of what was acceptable and unacceptable behaviour. They felt that the need to educate peers had been left to them. One girl said: ‘It shouldn’t be our responsibility to educate boys.’ A minority of boys felt that gender stereotyping meant that they were being made to ‘feel guilty all the time’ and that they were being unfairly blamed for things they had not done. Nearly half of boys also said that being sent sexual images or videos they did not want to see was something that happened ‘a lot’ or ‘sometimes’ to them or their peers.

Research in this area indicates that, while most secondary school pupils recognise the harm that sexual approaches from adult strangers online bring, there is less clarity about what constitutes sexual harm within the context of peer relationships or existing online networks. [footnote 28] This shows the need for a whole-school approach that tackles sexual harassment and online sexual abuse proactively. This should include a well-sequenced RSHE curriculum, which incorporates time for open discussion of areas that children and young people tell us they are finding particularly difficult.

There is some evidence that suggests access to technology and the sharing of inappropriate images and videos are also issues in primary schools. For example, in one all-through school, leaders have identified a trend of cases in the primary school that are linked to social media. There is a no-phone policy in this school, so incidents are likely taking place outside school. Incidents cited include viewing pornography, requests to look up pornography websites and viewing inappropriate images on social media. There was an example from another school of children in Years 6 and 7 sending nudes.

Leaders we spoke to also highlighted the problems that easy access to pornography had created and how pornography had set unhealthy expectations of sexual relationships and shaped children and young people’s perceptions of women and girls. Evidence suggests that nearly half (48%) of 11- to 16-year-olds in the UK have viewed pornography. Of these, boys were approximately twice as likely as girls to have actively searched for it. [footnote 29] However, 60% of 11- to 13-year-olds who had seen pornography said their viewing of pornography was mostly unintentional. [footnote 30]

A recent survey of over 1,000 undergraduates found that one third said they have ‘learned more about sex from pornography than from formal education’. [footnote 31] While research indicates that most children and young people recognise that pornography is unrealistic, a high percentage of them reported that they had used pornography as a source of information to learn about sex and sexual relationships in the past 12 months (60% of young men and 41% of young women). This is problematic when research indicates that much pornography depicts men as aggressive and controlling and women as submissive and sexually objectified. [footnote 32]

Although there is insufficient evidence to demonstrate that viewing pornography leads directly to harmful sexual behaviours, there is evidence to suggest that young people appear to become desensitised to its content over time and that it can shape unhealthy attitudes, such as acceptance of sexual aggression towards women. [footnote 33] , [footnote 34] More frequent consumption of pornography is also associated with victim-blaming attitudes. For example, it may lead to the belief that if a woman is affected by alcohol or drugs, she is at least partly responsible for whatever happens to her. [footnote 35]

When children and young people talked to us about online sexual abuse, they did not use the terms that government guidance did. It can be difficult to address issues when the definitions are not up to date or are grouped unhelpfully. For example, ‘Keeping children safe in education’ uses the phrase ‘sexting’ for online sexual abuse. None of the children and young people we spoke to used this phrase and it appears to be out of date. In any future updates of government guidance, the full range of children and young people’s experiences should be reflected in the language used. Clearer categories of the types of sexual harassment and online sexual abuse would also be helpful for professionals.

What did children, young people and professionals tell us about sexual abuse outside school?

Children and young people in several schools told us that harmful sexual behaviour happens at house parties, without adults present, and that alcohol and drugs are often involved. In one school, leaders talked about parties that have happened when parents have left children and young people unsupervised and they ‘are allowed to see, do and hear what they want’. In another, governors talked about a culture of ‘affluent neglect’ and leaders said that some parents bought alcohol for their children to have at parties when they were away. It is important to note, however, that incidents of harmful sexual behaviour or unhealthy cultures were certainly not confined to ‘affluent’ children or young people.

An analysis of key words in the 2,030 publicly available testimonies on the Everyone’s Invited website found that a third (670) mentioned drugs or alcohol. Of these, words equating to ‘drunk’, ‘party’, alcohol or names of different types of alcohol and ‘drinking’ featured in the most testimonies. [footnote 36] These findings should be treated with caution as they are not representative. They do, however, give an insight into the experiences of some children and young people.

Some children, young people and leaders also identified parks as places where sexual harassment and violence took place.

In a minority of schools, children, young people and leaders talked specifically about cultural factors that contributed to boys’ harmful sexual behaviour. One Year 12 boy talking about other boys told inspectors: ‘Essentially, they only spend time with boys, then hit puberty and start going to parties with booze and drugs and girls, and they don’t know how to handle it. And some of the boys are very wealthy and have never been told “no” before.’ In another school, girls similarly told inspectors that some of the boys had a sense of entitlement and had never ‘been told no’. They talked about a sense of ‘male superiority’ in the school. In another school, children and young people said that harmful sexual behaviours occurred outside school at parties but that victims did not want to disclose it because of the ‘power and money culture’ within which they live. As one girl put it, ‘victims do not want to commit social or career suicide’. These findings point to the power dynamics that are often present where there are sexual harassment and sexual violence, including online. These dynamics and social hierarchies are present across all school types.

Not many children and young people spoke about sexual abuse in relationships, although in one school they mentioned that incidents sometimes occurred between peers in established relationships, where ‘things go too far’ or ‘go over the line’. Some children and young people also talked about wanting to know more about issues around consent in established relationships. Textual analysis of the publicly available testimonies on the Everyone’s Invited website indicates that, where a relationship to the perpetrator is named, around two thirds of the testimonies say that the perpetrator was known to them and around a fifth was a boyfriend. [footnote 37] Evidence suggests that early experience of dating and relationship violence is associated with subsequent adverse outcomes, such as suicidal behaviours, other mental health problems and low educational attainment. [footnote 38]

Girls talked about feeling uncomfortable because of behaviour from peers on bus journeys (including school buses), where they said they experienced the kind of sexual harassment and bullying behaviour that happened in school. Girls in one school, for example, said that boys often made ‘rape jokes’ on the school bus. More widely, some children and young people said they did not feel safe from strangers on trains or in parks, alleys, car parks and side streets. Some girls in particular said that feeling unsafe in these situations was pervasive. One girl said that a man had deliberately brushed her younger sister’s leg recently and another girl had told her sister to get used to it as ‘this is what happens’. Younger girls aged 12 to 13 in another school said that they felt uncomfortable walking through town in their uniforms. Evidence from other research also indicates that this is an issue. A recent survey of girls and young women aged 13 to 21 found that more than half have felt unsafe walking home alone and had experienced harassment or know someone who has, and nearly half feel unsafe using public transport. [footnote 39]

How does the current system of safeguarding listen to the voices of children and young people?

In this section, we outline what children and young people told us about why they do not speak to adults about sexual harassment and sexual violence, including online. We also share the practices that we identified in schools that both enable and act as barriers to children and young people telling adults about their experiences.

On our visits, we found that children and young people rarely speak to adults about sexual harassment and sexual violence, including online, even though they told us that sexual harassment and online sexual abuse are prevalent in their daily lives.

The reasons why children and young people significantly under-report sexual abuse are well documented. Although research indicates that one of the main reasons for this is a misplaced sense of shame and embarrassment, there are many other complex factors at play. For example, children and young people may have a fear of social exclusion by peers, worry about how adults will react, and feel that once they talk about abuse, the next steps will be out of their control. [footnote 40] Research also indicates that children and young people are even less likely to tell someone about abuse when it is perpetrated by peers. [footnote 41]

Research indicates that, even when some children and young people attempt to tell someone about abuse, they are not always listened to or believed. For example, NSPCC research on young adults who experienced abuse and family violence as a child found that 80% had to make more than one attempt to tell someone about the abuse before they were listened to and taken seriously. Ninety per cent of the young people who told someone had a negative experience at some point, mostly where those they told had not responded appropriately. [footnote 42] Our joint targeted area inspection into child sexual abuse in the family also found that some groups of children, such as boys, disabled children and children from some minority ethnic groups face greater barriers to talking about abuse and are less likely be believed when they do. [footnote 43] The ‘Beyond referrals’ research into harmful sexual behaviour in schools found that, even where schools had provided a range of ways for children and young people to talk to staff about peer abuse, there remained significant barriers to them reporting abuse. [footnote 44]

On our visits, we found that professionals still rely too much on children telling someone about abuse instead of recognising other indicators, such as emotional or behavioural changes. We also found this in our joint targeted area inspection on the theme of child sexual abuse in the family.

In some schools we visited, teachers recognised that they needed to do much more than rely on children and young people’s verbal reports of sexual violence or sexual harassment, including online. In these schools, they had taken steps to create a culture where it is clear what acceptable and unacceptable behaviour is for staff, children and young people. Teachers were encouraged to log indicators of concern on a centralised recording system so that DSLs could ‘build a picture’ and decide whether further investigation was required.

Professionals’ and victims’ groups we spoke to also said that it is rare that children and young people talk about abuse as a ‘one-off’ and that this may be a process that happens over time. Victims’ groups we spoke to also considered that children and young people are much more likely to talk about abuse when secure and trusting relationships have been developed within a supportive culture.

Who, if anyone, do children and young people talk to about sexual harassment and violence?

Most children and young people we surveyed told us they would feel able to tell someone about their experiences of sexual harassment or sexual violence, including online (either inside or outside school). In order of most likely to least likely, they said they would tell:

a parent or carer

another family member

an adult at their school or college

a helpline/charity

someone else, including a social worker, coach or religious leader

Most of the children and young people said they would feel most comfortable talking to friends, something that was also highlighted in our discussions with victims’ groups. This emphasises the importance of schools teaching acceptable and unacceptable behaviours, with clear guidance and support, so that children and young people can support each other to bring issues to trusted adults.

The children and young people we asked said that, if they were to talk to an adult, it would be a parent or someone in their family. Lower numbers of children and young people said they would talk to adults in their school. When children and young people said they would talk to someone in school about sexual harassment and sexual violence, including online, they tended to identify senior staff. Research indicates that when children and young people do tell a professional about these issues, it is most likely to be a teacher or leader at their school. [footnote 45] This highlights the importance of training leaders and teachers on good practice in this area and supporting children to bring issues to trusted adults. It also shows that taking time to build trusting relationships with children and young people can help them talk about abuse.

Inspectors found that, in more than half of the schools they visited, procedures were clear and safeguarding teams were visible and known to children and young people. Children and young people were aware of the procedure for reporting concerns and, in this respect, schools were supporting them to tell them about sexual harassment and sexual violence, including online sexual abuse. However, staff, children and young people told us that, even with this good practice, children and young people do not always report incidents for a variety of reasons.

This illustrates that schools cannot rely on children talking about sexual harassment and sexual violence, including online abuse. Just having clear procedures and visible staff are not sufficient to support children and young people to talk about these issues.

What prevents children and learners from reporting sexual harassment and violence?

Children and young people in the surveys and focus groups told us that there is a range of barriers that prevent them from talking about sexual abuse and harassment, including online. These included:

worry that what happened next would be out of their control

worry that they would be branded by their peers as a ‘snitch’ who got a peer into trouble

worry that they would be ostracised from friendship groups

worry that there would be damage to their reputation, for example through sexual rumours being circulated about them

feeling that they would not be believed

feeling that they might be blamed for doing things they were told not to do, for example sending nudes, even if they were pressured to do so

feeling that nothing would be done

feeling that things were so commonplace ‘there’s no point’ in raising it

feeling embarrassment and shame when talking to someone from a different generation about sex

The most common reason that the children and young people who answered our survey gave for not reporting an experience was not knowing what would happen next. Victims’ groups also told us that a poor response by professionals can leave children and young people feeling out of control. In one school, the DSL was aware of this issue and had educated children and young people about what would happen if they told someone about abuse, emphasising how children’s best interests were at the heart of any investigation. In the same school, the DSL took the time to develop a trusting relationship with a victim of sexual violence. This helped the victim get to the point where they could talk about the incident fully to the school, the police and other multi-agency partners.

In focus groups, children and young people told us that deciding whether to report an incident depends on the perceived severity of the incident. For example, children and young people thought they would be listened to if they reported ‘serious’ incidents but would be less likely to report what they see as ‘common’ incidents, such as ‘being asked for nudes’ and ‘comments from boys in corridors’. This is largely because they feel that some of the incidents are so commonplace ‘there’s no point’ reporting them. Some forms of sexual harassment and online sexual abuse have become so normalised for children that they do not see the point in reporting and challenging this behaviour.

Some children and young people talked about previous incidents that have been reported, which in their view had ‘come to nothing’. Consequently, they did not believe that the school would do anything if they did report abuse, especially if incidents took place outside school. Some DSLs told us that, at times, this view was compounded when criminal investigations did not lead to a prosecution or conviction. DSLs also told us that the confidential nature of investigations left some victims or children and young people perceiving that ‘nothing had been done’. Again, this led to them thinking that there was little point in telling someone about abuse.

Schools and multi-agency partners need to strike the right balance. Over-criminalisation of children and young people is not desirable or helpful. This means that, when dealing with peer-on-peer abuse, multi-agency partners, including the police, may decide to provide intervention and support for the perpetrator. They may find this the best way of preventing further abuse, instead of criminalising the child. However, this can sometimes lead to the victim feeling that agencies have not responded appropriately. Furthermore, as safeguarding investigations must be confidential, it can also feel to some children and young people as though nothing has been done, when in reality action has been taken.

Our visits found that, in a minority of schools, there were unhealthy cultures that prevented children and young people from talking to adults about sexual harassment and online sexual abuse. They did not think anything would be done as a result. In these schools, many children and young people talked about not being believed. They also thought that teachers were willing to condone sexualised name-calling and harassment. Worryingly, one governor reported that ‘blokeish banter’ was just part of growing up. This is in line with previous research on the topic, where children and young people reported that some teachers dismiss sexual harassment as ‘banter’ or ‘messing around’. [footnote 46] , [footnote 47]

Reputational damage and social consequences

In more than half of schools, children and young people said worry about ‘reputational damage’, for example being ostracised from a social group or damage to a sexual reputation, stopped them reporting. They were also worried about being labelled as a ‘snitch’ who got their peers into trouble. Some said that by the time incidents were shared on social media it was too late for leaders to address reputational damage. As one pupil put it, although leaders were trying to help, they ‘wouldn’t be able to – it’d be too late’. Feedback from victims’ groups also supported this finding.

In these discussions, it was clear that, while their sense of embarrassment and shame was a common reason for not reporting, children and young people also weighed up other complex issues. This included the social consequences for them if they did report, relative to the severity of the incident. Previous research on this topic identified that, when children and young people did talk about sexual harassment and sexual violence, including online, this resulted in social isolation and the victim being stigmatised and harassed by peers. [footnote 48]

Some children and young people had a clear desire for justice, but this was at odds with others who told us that harsh sanctions for their peers put them off talking to an adult about abuse. These children and young people told us that sometimes the consequences of reporting abuse have been so ‘punitive’ for the perpetrator that, rather than acting as a ‘deterrent’ to harmful sexual behaviour, the result is to ‘put off’ children and young people from reporting incidents. They were also worried about police involvement. They said that they would prefer a pastoral and supportive approach without the immediate threat of police involvement.

Some children and young people told us that their perceptions of the behaviour policy can be a barrier to reporting incidents to staff if, in their view, the policy is ‘unfair’. These children and young people do not feel confident that staff would ‘deal with things sensitively’. Some said that school leaders are not as interested in their ‘personal well-being’ as they are in the ‘outward appearances’ of the school.

This highlights the complexity for schools and multi-agency partnerships in managing peer-on-peer sexual harassment and sexual violence, including online. Children and young people need to feel confident that staff will respond in a proportionate and fair way to incidents. They also need to be told the different potential consequences of reporting. Schools need to have a range of responses to different forms of behaviour and intervene in a proportionate way at the right time.

We are aware of some research that explores how schools tackle sexual harassment and sexual violence, including online. [footnote 49] However, the terms of reference of this review did not include a consideration of which systems of consequences deter children and young people from future harmful sexual behaviour. It is an area that warrants further research.

We recognise that it can be challenging for school leaders to get their approach right and that, sometimes, what children and young people say they want is not necessarily in line with what statutory guidance requires. Schools are often the place that parents, children and young people turn to first in cases of sexual violence before going to the police. Professionals must follow statutory guidance. But they also have a responsibility to explain to children and young people what will happen if they do report abuse. Better dialogue in schools about the different forms of behaviours and likely responses to such behaviours may mean children feel better informed to make decisions about reporting. Ultimately, it is for schools (with the support of multi-agency partners where relevant) to decide the appropriate course of action.

Reaction from adults and worry about what would happen next

Some children and young people told us that they felt that if they did tell an adult about abuse, they could be ‘blamed or not taken seriously’. These children and young people were worried that they would be judged and would feel embarrassed by the inevitable questioning.

Being blamed or parents finding out were the third and fourth most common reasons that children and young people who answered our survey gave for not talking about harmful sexual behaviour. In the focus groups, they said being worried about their parents finding out would be a reason for them not to talk to an adult about abuse. This was especially the case where drugs and alcohol were involved. Some also said that they feared they would be blamed for doing something they had explicitly been told not to do, for example sending nudes, even when they had been pressured into doing so. They were also worried they would have to show images to staff members and that they would feel embarrassed and ashamed when talking to someone from a different generation about sex.

These findings emphasise the need for adults, including parents, to be better educated and informed about sexual harassment and sexual violence, including online, between peers. It is also vital that adults are supported by professionals to provide appropriate, non-judgemental responses to children and young people who talk about abuse. Children and young people need reassurance and open discussion in schools about what they can expect, and what will happen if they do need to report concerns. They also need trusted adults they can talk to.

Understanding confidentiality

Pupils’ concerns about confidentiality can be a barrier to reporting. Children and young people know that schools cannot always keep everything confidential and may need to share information with other agencies. But they want assurance that there are some things that are ‘not to be passed on’. Children and young people do not always know ‘what will be done with the information’. They are also worried that responses such as a whole-school assembly would just set the ‘rumour mills going’ and could undermine the anonymity of those involved.

While all the professionals we spoke to highlighted the need for confidentiality when a child reports sexual harassment and/or violence, including online abuse, some children and young people gave examples of how they could be made aware that an investigation was ongoing. As one pupil put it, ‘sometimes if you report something in school everybody quickly knows about it. A teacher takes you out of a lesson. Everyone is like, “What was that about?” when you come back into the classroom’. Confidentiality may also be compromised if a pupil speaks to a friend first, as many told us they would, or if an incident is shared on social media before the child or young person has spoken to an adult about it.

In light of this, all schools should take a whole-school approach to tackling sexual harassment and online sexual abuse because it is likely that they are underestimating the scale of the problem. This should include speaking to children, and listening to their views and experiences and using these to inform a preventative approach to sexual harassment and sexual violence, including online sexual abuse.

What does good practice look like?

There are several good practice models that encourage children and young people to tell someone about abuse. The ‘Beyond referrals’ project includes several recommendations to help schools develop an environment where children and young people can talk to professionals about abuse. These recommendations include:

engaging students in small-group sessions to discuss different forms of harmful sexual behaviour

mapping the school and out-of-school spaces to identify where harmful sexual behaviour takes place

using a curriculum-based approach to tackle a culture where reporting is perceived as ‘snitching’ [footnote 50]

The project also highlights the following as important:

children having a trusting and positive relationship with an individual staff member

children being aware of previous positive experiences of school responses

teachers showing that they respect students, listen and respond subtly

having staff with a specialist role not linked to teaching or behaviour

This last point was raised by some children and young people on our visits. They were worried that they would get into trouble if they spoke to the DSL when this individual had a dual role as the deputy headteacher for behaviour. Some schools we visited countered this by having a small number of trained staff who can deal with safeguarding matters in collaboration with the DSLs . However, we recognise that in some schools, especially small ones, it is not possible to manage this. Schools should consider the DSL ’s role carefully, including how children and young people may perceive it. They should try to avoid any negative associations that might compound children’s misplaced sense of shame, embarrassment or ‘being in trouble’.

The NSPCC has also developed guidance for professionals to support children and young people when they talk about abuse. This highlights the importance of:

demonstrating to a child that you are listening

putting a child in charge of the conversation

reassuring a child and showing empathy [footnote 51]

The recent guidance from the UK Council for Internet Safety outlines some good practice in dealing specifically with incidents of youth-produced sexual imagery. [footnote 52]

In our visits, we found promising practice that places the voices of children and young people at the heart of the approach to safeguarding. For example, one school had held ‘listening events’ to help children and young people share worries and speak to adults in a safe environment. Another school used an anonymous questionnaire to ask children and young people what the issues for their age group were and what language they used when discussing sexual harassment and online sexual abuse. Responses were built into staff training and helped build a culture where children and young people, leaders and teachers had a shared understanding of what sexual harassment and sexual violence, including online, were. One leader explained:

So often, nobody is talking to young people about these things – including or especially their parents. These conversations are awkward so there has almost been a tacit agreement not to have them. This means that we risk not knowing what young people do, or think, and how what they do is affecting them.

In some schools, we also found evidence of how RSHE lessons had helped children and young people’s understanding of these issues. This had led to a culture where children and young people felt able to talk to someone about sexual harassment and sexual violence, including online, or to raise concerns about their peers. The victims’ groups we spoke to also outlined the importance of creating this kind of supportive and open culture.

In some schools, leaders were reflecting on the testimonies on the Everyone’s Invited website to critically evaluate and strengthen their processes. For example, in one school, there was a ‘changing the narrative’ pupil group. The group sensitively gathered information from other children and young people, talked about issues and informed leaders of their findings. In another school, leaders were trialling different reporting methods such as private messages through Teams chat. There was a whole-school approach to educating children and young people and encouraging them to come forward, delivered through assemblies, tutor time, posters and leaflets. They were also actively engaging parents and alumni to discuss concerns and address them where possible.

While it is too early for leaders to talk about the impact of such initiatives, children and young people in these schools told us that they can see that leaders are trying to respond in positive ways to the Everyone’s Invited testimonies. They told us that they feel confident in talking about sexual harassment and sexual violence, including online, when there is a positive and open school culture.

To what extent do schools know about sexual abuse? When they do know, how do they respond?

In this section, we outline schools’ understanding of the prevalence of sexual harassment and sexual violence, including online, and how they respond when they do know about it. We also share what approaches schools are taking to tackle these issues and where there are still gaps.

Responding to incidents

There were many examples where incidents of sexual violence were dealt with appropriately and school policies and statutory guidance such as ‘Keeping children safe in education’ were informing practice. Examples of practice in these schools often included:

involving other agencies where appropriate

providing support for all children and young people involved (victims and perpetrators) through pastoral teams and professional counselling

informing and working with parents

However, our visits highlighted some inconsistencies in responses where professionals had interpreted guidance differently. There was also variability in DSLs ’ understanding of which incidents needed be referred to the police and children’s social care, meaning that some historical incidents that should have been referred were not. Some of the schools in our visits used different mechanisms to strengthen their own decision-making processes. For example, they were part of wider networks of DSLs or would call on the local authority to ‘sense check’ decisions when unsure.

In around two fifths of the schools visited, inspectors noted that leaders had recently adapted either their safeguarding protocols, systems for monitoring or staff training on harmful sexual behaviours. This was in reaction to the Everyone’s Invited website.

As we outlined earlier, many professionals tended to underestimate the scale of sexual harassment and online sexual abuse. DSLs and leaders in schools assessed the extent of the problem more accurately than teachers, although they acknowledged that reported incidents of sexual harassment and sexual violence, including online were the ‘tip of the iceberg’, as one DSL put it.

Furthermore, some schools were dealing with incidents of sexual harassment and sexual violence, including online, in an isolated way, without considering the context and wider safeguarding risks. This meant that they were not considering factors such as:

whether other children and young people were at risk

whether there were spaces in or outside school where children and young people were at particular risk

where power dynamics in peer relationships were creating unhealthy cultures

In these schools, incidents were dealt with reactively instead of proactively. In some cases, we found evidence that behaviours were not monitored well enough following an incident.

In addition, in about a quarter of schools, sexual harassment such as inappropriate sexualised language was not always addressed and identified early enough. In other instances where school leaders were aware of the problem, there was a limited and ineffective response to support children with this issue. Children and young people reported to inspectors that this behaviour had become normalised in their schools.

In one positive example, a group of girls raised issues with the headteacher after the Sarah Everard case about the normalisation of harmful sexual behaviour, which they felt needed to be addressed. Leaders updated the RSHE curriculum following this. The girls reported that, since this intervention, there had been a reduction in unwanted sexual language. The boys in this school also said they appreciated the changes to the curriculum and would like more time to discuss these kind of issues as they are so important.

Recent government advice for those in education on how to tackle the sharing of nudes and semi-nudes talks specifically about how individual case management impacts on school-wide culture: [footnote 53]

Individual incidents of peer abuse and sexual behaviour (the sharing of nudes and semi-nudes can fall under this category) can lead to unhealthy or damaging cultures within the school community. How these incidents – including incidents of ‘low level’ harmful sexual behaviour – are responded to directly affects the culture of the school. If handled poorly, an unsafe and unhealthy set of norms can be created which enable peer-on-peer abuse and this can also prevent other children and young people from disclosing. It must be recognised that the individual case management can affect school-wide culture, peer response and all children’s ability to speak out.

The government’s expectation of schools and colleges and how they should respond to all forms of sexual harassment and violence is clearly set out in advice and guidance. [footnote 54] Ofsted has also previously written about peer-on-peer abuse and how education providers should respond. [footnote 55]

It is a concern that this review has identified that many instances of sexual harassment, including the pressure to share nudes and the sharing of youth-produced sexual imagery without consent, are going unrecognised or unchallenged by school staff. We are especially concerned that for some children and young people this is so commonplace that they see no point in raising it as a concern with staff.

How schools perceive their responsibility in the context of sexual harassment and sexual violence, including online sexual abuse

Schools are in a difficult position when it comes to navigating responsibility and subsequent decisions when there is an incident of harmful sexual behaviour that occurs between peers outside school. When they are made aware of incidents, schools have a duty to inform multi-agency partners and work with them to prevent further abuse and ensure that children and young people are safe. In the schools we visited, it was clear that schools were following the guidance in this respect.

However, some leaders talked to us about how hard it is to take decisions when investigations are ongoing over a significant period of time or when the police do not have the basis to act. They reported feeling left with difficult decisions to make, such as whether to separate the peers when criminal investigations did not lead to a prosecution or conviction.

Leaders in some schools said they were unclear about the scope of their safeguarding responsibilities and about how and when they could intervene. They reported some of the challenges they faced as:

supporting children and young people to trust professionals enough to talk about harmful sexual behaviour that happened outside school

parents’ lack of understanding about what their children were doing outside school

their ability to protect children and young people outside school, for example when parties take place with parents’ consent and incidents happen there

the role of exclusion when there has been a serious incident of sexual violence and how this intersects with any criminal investigation and action (some leaders say that this has caused them great anxiety and further guidance on it would be welcome)

how they could help children and young people to be safe when using rapidly changing social media outside school

While recognising these challenges, it is interesting to note the different approaches of some school leaders. Clearly, if children are at risk, whether within or outside the school gates, schools have a responsibility to work with multi-agency partners to share information where appropriate and refer children on for support and protection. However, it is important to note that, while sometimes multi-agency work may continue, the ‘aftermath’ of any investigation is often left with school leaders, who have little guidance to support their decision-making. Some leaders also talked about how difficult it was to make effective decisions when police and other lengthy multi-agency investigations were ongoing.

In-school approaches to address sexual harassment and violence

In the schools we visited, leaders told us that they used a wide variety of sanctions for perpetrators of sexual harassment and sexual violence, including online sexual abuse. They intended these to be proportionate and to take account of individual circumstances. Examples included fixed-term exclusions, detentions, internal referrals and removal of privileges. Schools also included parents and carers as part of any response. Some children and young people were moved permanently to a different class or form. Some leaders said they found it more difficult to issue sanctions for incidents taking place outside school than inside school because they consider that their behaviour policy does not apply to these incidents.

Some children and young people, particularly girls, believe that sanctions are often not tough enough or that the wrong person is sanctioned. In one school, for example, girls felt that boys who pressured others to send ‘nudes’ were punished less than the girls who sent the images. In another, girls felt that the lack of severe sanctions meant that the harmful sexual behaviour continued. This suggests that, in some schools, the threat of being caught and punished is a much weaker influence on behaviour than an underlying culture where sexual harassment and online sexual abuse can thrive. In some schools, inspectors noted that children and young people did not seem to know enough about the range of sanctions that could be used and that this seemed to affect children and young people’s willingness to talk to adults about sexual harassment and sexual violence, including online sexual abuse.

In addition to sanctions, many schools told us that they offered support to the victim and the perpetrator to prevent future incidents and tackle any underlying causes of harmful sexual behaviour. This included counselling, pastoral support, educative approaches and the involvement of families, social care and external agencies, such as child and adolescent mental health services and specialist services. Many schools recognised the importance of family involvement and the need to support parents and carers. In some schools, leaders said they would appreciate more support services for perpetrators of harmful sexual behaviour, especially at an early stage, when inappropriate and problematic behaviours are first identified.

The extent to which leaders evaluate whether sanctions and/or interventions are effective varies, as does the evidence of ongoing monitoring of children and young people who have perpetrated harmful sexual behaviour. For example, in one school, records state that perpetrators should have received education following an incident. But there was no evidence that this happened or what the content was. In other schools, leaders reported checking regularly with victims and perpetrators to ensure that support systems were having the desired effect.

Staff training and development

Most staff receive annual safeguarding training, which includes updates on ‘Keeping children safe in education’. This training aims to ensure that staff understand the latest guidance, and there were examples where it included an understanding of different forms of harmful sexual behaviour.

In most schools we visited, leaders understood the continuum of harmful sexual behaviours, but not all of them appeared to have shared this understanding with all staff. For example, only a handful of schools had provided detailed training for staff on the continuum of harmful sexual behaviour and how to address the context behind incidents of harmful sexual behaviour, such as peer group dynamics or unsupervised spaces where poor behaviour occurred. Where this training was in place, it was part of a wider school ethos and long-term strategy for preventing abuse. Evidence from previous research indicates that this is the most effective way to tackle sexual harassment and sexual violence, including online. [footnote 56]

Most staff training on harmful sexual behaviours tended to be piecemeal. This was often because it was incorporated into training on other important aspects of safeguarding. For example, in one school, information on peer-on-peer abuse was confined to one slide in a much longer presentation on safeguarding. In a few schools, there was no training on peer-on-peer sexual harassment and sexual violence, including online. These schools expected staff to read the guidance instead.

It is important that, in any school, governors have a good understanding of sexual harassment and sexual violence, including online, so that they can provide the right level of support and challenge for school leaders and DSLs . In just over a quarter of the schools we visited, inspectors reported that governors had some sort of safeguarding training, although it was not always clear that this included specific training on harmful sexual behaviour. Evidence indicates that there are gaps in governors’ knowledge of online safety issues in particular. [footnote 57] Around a quarter of the schools we visited had a specific safeguarding governor, and some of those met regularly with the DSL . In around a third of the schools, inspectors highlighted that governors are involved in reviewing incidents, safeguarding logs, behaviour logs or procedures related to harmful sexual behaviour. This could be to help identify wider patterns, or to check that school policies and procedures have been adhered to. Our visits indicate that governors could receive better training and be more involved in tackling harmful sexual behaviours.

Training and development for DSLs

Being a DSL requires regular training and additional support to help with the emotional impact of the role and the expertise that is required. In some schools, we saw good practice. DSLs were engaging fully with the LSPs and forming support networks locally with other DSLs . They had protected time on timetables, opportunities for supervision and regular training from LSPs . However, some DSLs talked about a lack of high-level training at LSP level in how to address, manage and follow up on allegations of a serious sexual nature.

Some DSLs said it was hard to keep up with guidance, and that publishing updates before the summer holidays instead of September would allow them to plan staff inset days in September accordingly. The Home Office’s ‘Tackling child sexual abuse strategy’ includes a commitment from the DfE to provide high-quality resources on addressing child sexual abuse. [footnote 58] These will be held on a digital support platform for DSLs . Once released, this should help to upskill professionals and help with some of the training needs that DSLs identified.

Learning from incidents

Inspectors noted there were inconsistencies in how staff were defining and recording instances of sexual abuse, including recording of discussions with multi-agency partners and the outcome of referrals. Without an agreed and shared system of recording, schools are limiting their ability to track and monitor concerns and appropriately plan their response to sexual harassment and violence in order to reduce risk. Some schools had systems in place for recording incidents, but they did not all then analyse the data and information to identify any patterns or trends that could inform their response.

A few schools had enhanced systems in place to record concerns and track patterns of behaviour. These, together with systems to gather information about pupils’ concerns, for example through surveys, gave schools a better understanding and oversight of issues. DSLs were able to build a better picture of low-level changes in behaviour or incidents that may indicate a response is required, either at pupil, peer group or school level, instead of just referring on to multi-agency partners. These schools used the RSHE curriculum and assemblies, for example, to address concerning patterns of behaviour.

How are schools successfully delivering the new RSHE curriculum and how can they be supported further?

The terms of reference of this review asked us to consider the new RSHE curriculum. However, the disruption of the last year means that schools’ ability to plan and deliver the new curriculum will have been significantly affected. Most children and young people talked about their previous experience of RSHE and PSHE , which we know does not necessarily address how the curriculum will support them in future. Where we can, we point to how schools and colleges are implementing the new RSHE curriculum and where they can be supported further. The DfE ’s research into schools that adopted the RSHE curriculum early also provides insights. [footnote 59] We recognise that RSHE is just one part of a whole-school approach to tackling sexual harassment and sexual violence, including online. Other factors, and the role of parents, are also vital.

Our visits identified a number of issues that meant that children and young people were not getting the quality of education in this subject that they should be. These included weak implementation of RSHE , poor teacher subject knowledge, and significant gaps in curriculum coverage. The children and young people we spoke to were seldom positive about their RSHE and PSHE lessons. They felt that the quality of the input varied according to who was teaching them and that the lessons were not relevant to their daily experiences and the reality of their lives. Some teachers also talked about not feeling prepared to teach outside their subject specialism and receiving resources too late to prepare for sessions.

In half of the schools visited, leaders had developed an RSHE curriculum. This commonly involved expertise from a trained RSHE / PSHE lead in planning and organising the curriculum. Inspectors viewed detailed planning in these schools that showed clear examples of a strong curriculum narrative. Emphasis was placed on the importance of respect and prioritised teaching about consent and healthy relationships. Concepts were generally sequenced and interwoven in an ‘age and stage’ manner, allowing for content to be revisited and built on in further depth at appropriate points in children and young people’s learning. Many leaders spoke knowledgeably about the content of their RSHE curriculum.

However, inspectors also noted that in many of these schools, despite a well-planned curriculum, there were often constraints in place that impacted on its implementation. Similar to our findings in other subjects, [footnote 60] some of the main weaknesses in the delivery of RSHE were linked to the lack of subject knowledge that teachers had on topics like consent, healthy relationships and sharing of sexual images.

In a few schools, planning was almost non-existent. Leaders did not value the importance of the subject. In others, leaders were confident in the delivery of some areas of PSHE , such as cyber-bullying and respecting differences, but were less assured when it came to including relationships and sex education. This meant that, in many of these schools, teachers were not teaching about consent, healthy relationships and the use of sexual imagery. These findings reflect the picture from our last PSHE subject survey. [footnote 61] In that report, we found some schools focused on the mechanics of reproduction and not enough on understanding healthy sexual relationships.

In a few schools, teaching about sexual relationships was covered in science or, in faith schools, religious education lessons, but this did not commonly address same-sex relationships. Some children and young people noted that RSHE lessons were not inclusive enough and only focused on heterosexual relationships. In a few schools, planning was piecemeal. Inspectors found that these schools treated it as a tick-box process to ensure that some coverage was provided over all the statutory requirements. It is a concern that in a few schools, children and young people told us that they had learned more about sexuality ‘from social media than from school’ or had got their education about relationships from their peers and social media.

In around half of the schools, teachers, who were often expected to deliver content through tutorial time, had not received any formal training on RSHE . Several teachers reported that resources for the lesson were sent late, sometimes too late for them to look through fully before having to teach the lesson. Others expressed resentment that they had to teach relationships and sex education beyond their own subject specialism. As children and young people from the focus groups suggested:

It’s like a task that teachers have to do, they don’t take it seriously, so it’s not a good environment to learn about it. How can any of us take it seriously if they don’t? You can tell they don’t want to do the PowerPoint. It’s always stuff we’ve done before anyway.

This meant they were less keen to discuss sensitive issues and speak to them about sexual harassment and sexual violence, including online. They were unsure what the reactions of less confident teachers would be.

Many leaders confirmed that staff were generally not very confident to deliver the curriculum in areas related to sexual harassment and sexual violence, including online. On this basis, there was in-school variation in the consistency of how RSHE was delivered. Children and young people from the same schools reported both positive and negative experiences, depending on teachers’ level of subject knowledge and confidence. These findings indicate that additional resources to support non-subject specialists to teach RSHE would be beneficial for schools to help them successfully implement the new RSHE curriculum.

In some schools, leaders did not regularly or systematically check on the effectiveness and impact of teaching. This meant they were unaware that some staff lacked knowledge or confidence in delivering content. Leaders also did not seek feedback from children and young people. This left them unaware that children and young people were not getting the rich discussion required to fully understand complex concepts, such as consent.

In some of the schools with a more secure curriculum plan, leaders tended to alleviate this variation in teachers’ expertise by allocating discrete curriculum time to RSHE , rather than delivering it through a class tutor system. Leaders in these schools had carefully considered which staff should deliver the RSHE curriculum and provided appropriate training, rather than placing expectations on all staff. They also invited trusted external speakers with specialist knowledge to talk to children and young people and delivered aspects of the curriculum through assemblies. However, some mentioned that aligning speakers’ availability with the curriculum was tricky. One school also used external speakers to hold remote sessions on aspects of the RSHE curriculum for parents, carers and their children.

Some leaders told us that finding space in the timetable for RSHE was problematic. The actual hours set aside for it were sometimes minimal and did not meet the requirements set out in the curriculum plan to teach content fully. Therefore, teachers and tutors often struggled to cover the curriculum in the detail in which it had been planned. Several children and young people also identified that the time planned for RSHE was not always valued, particularly by some teachers, and was often ‘taken for other things’. This was particularly the case for older children and young people who had other pressures, such as revision or catch-up interventions.

Children and young people were generally concerned that the curriculum did not take account of their level of maturity. They felt that they could deal with more challenging content than teachers realised. This was particularly raised as an issue in the teaching of issues around consent. Older children and young people accepted that teaching about consent through analogies made sense in younger years. But this became jarring and patronising for them when the same or similar content was repeated in their later years of school. Some said that the popular ‘cup of tea’ consent video could only go so far.

Year 6 pupils we spoke to had a good understanding of friendships and relationships. However, in one faith school, the Year 6 children said they were taught about being a good friend in an indirect way (through religious teachings) and would value something more direct.

When planning the RSHE curriculum, it is essential that schools work closely with parents and carers to talk them through areas covered, address any gaps in their understanding and equip them with the confidence to be able to have open discussions with their children. Research indicates that there is a particular gap in parents’ understanding of issues around online sexual abuse. Many parents are interested in learning more about the issue through schools and online resources. They also want more support in understanding how to talk about these issues with their children. [footnote 62]

How well are multi-agency safeguarding arrangements working?

We held discussions with 12 LSPs to seek their views on how well multi-agency safeguarding arrangements to tackle sexual harassment and violence were working between LSPs , schools and colleges. We did not review the work of the LSPs as part of this thematic review. This section reflects their views, alongside the views of school and college leaders.

Some LSPs we spoke to took a strategic approach to tackling sexual harassment and sexual violence, including online. For some, this was part of wider work on peer-on-peer abuse and extra-familial safeguarding. These LSPs reported that they had been working closely with schools and colleges to collate and analyse data on sexual harassment and sexual violence, including online. They could speak fluently about the experiences of children and young people, ranging from criminal cases to sexual harassment. They reported working closely with schools and colleges through the multi-agency audits and had systems in place to understand children and young people’s experiences. They were aware that some of these issues were so common that may become somewhat normalised, a view that was also supported by the victims’ groups we spoke to.

However, not all LSPs took this approach. A small number of LSPs told us that sexual harassment and sexual violence, including online, in schools and colleges were not significant problems for children and young people in their area. It was not clear whether this was because a clear assessment had been made or because they were underestimating the problems. Given what children and young people have told us about the prevalence of sexual harassment and online sexual abuse in their lives, it is likely to be the latter.

We were presented with a mixed picture of partnership working from schools, colleges and LSPs . There were examples of LSPs reporting effective engagement with a range of schools and colleges, including local authority, academy, independent and faith schools. But this was not the case in all areas. LSPs told us that some schools and colleges do not always engage as fully with them as they are required to as a ‘relevant agency’. For example, LSPs reported that independent schools may commission outside training rather than accessing partnership training, which makes it hard for them to know and understand what is being delivered in these schools and harder for the schools to link into an early help offer. Some LSPs also reported that independent schools may be less likely to complete audits commissioned by the LSP . They described this as a ‘significant barrier’ to their ability to have oversight of safeguarding practices in these schools, and to provide support where it is needed. However, some LSPs did report effective working relationships with independent schools as a result of proactive and persistent strategic partnership arrangements.

Some schools and colleges have reported to us, in previous inspections and as part of these visits, that they struggle to engage with LSPs and get the support they need. This may be why some are choosing to commission training elsewhere. One DSL at an independent single-sex school we spoke to also emphasised that while a network of other DSLs in the LSP was helpful more broadly, it was particularly useful to be part of a network of DSLs from other corresponding single-sex independent schools in the local area to help identify patterns and trends of behaviour and intervene early.

In the current guidance, once the LSP names a school or college as a ‘relevant agency’, that places the school or college under a duty to cooperate with the LSP arrangements. However, some LSPs raised concerns that changes to ‘Working together to safeguard children’ did not make clear how the engagement of schools and colleges as ‘relevant agencies’ should work in practice. They were concerned that leaving LSPs to reach their own conclusions on how best locally to engage individual institutions was too vague. Therefore, the wording in the statutory guidance could be made more explicit so that it clearly outlines the relationship between LSPs and schools and colleges, and their individual responsibilities.

Both LSPs and some DSLs said that centralised training for DSLs from LSPs was useful. They used this training to then train others in schools and colleges on how to identify and address sexual harassment and sexual violence, including online. They also identified training and meetings as being routes for helping schools/colleges to develop a preventative approach. LSPs also highlighted the importance of DSLs having enough time and support from school and college leaders to enable them to engage in partnership planning, training and meetings.

Where arrangements were working well, LSPs found that they provide a forum for the sharing of information, such as patterns and trends in emerging local risks to children and young people. This can then inform clear preventative approaches within individual schools and colleges that take account of local risks. Some of the schools and colleges we spoke to also talked about how helpful their LSP and local authority were, not just for helping with specific cases, but also for the training and networks they provided.

However, some school and college leaders told us it was a challenge for them to access the right information or support from multi-agency partners as it can vary across local authorities. Some also mentioned the difficulties of having different thresholds across different areas. This becomes a particular challenge when their school or college population comes from a wide area, such as schools in London, independent schools and some faith schools. LSPs also recognised that it was important that schools and colleges had clear support from them on how to manage sexual harassment and sexual violence, including online. They recognised that it was their responsibility to ensure that school and college leaders are supported to understand local thresholds and pathways for referral into services.

Inspection is a critical lever in the accountability system. It provides a ‘point in time’ snapshot of an education provider, including its approach to tackling sexual harassment and sexual violence, including online. Inspection evidence can be aggregated to provide insights at a system level and to influence behaviour. While it provides broad assurance, the inspection model is not designed or resourced to investigate or address specific incidents in schools and colleges. If the government wishes to support schools to develop their approach to tackling sexual harassment and violence, it will need to employ a range of approaches, of which inspection is just one.

Statutory guidance sets clear expectations for schools and colleges to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and young people. Generally, school and college leaders tell us that the guidance is clear, although they would appreciate all guidance being in one easily accessible place and updates to be made in good time before the school year starts so they can plan training accordingly. The phrasing in ‘Working together to safeguard children’ could also be updated to explicitly state that all types of schools and colleges are expected to be one of the ‘relevant agencies’ that LSPs need to engage with and that multi-agency audits should be completed regularly.

There is a gap in guidance for how schools and colleges should respond when there are lengthy investigations or no prosecution or conviction. Some school and college leaders also want clearer guidance on where their responsibilities start and end, for example with incidents of harmful sexual behaviour that happen outside school. Developing clearer guidance in this area would help school and college leaders assure parents, children and young people that they are making decisions in their best interests and in line with guidance.

To assess whether the current safeguarding framework and guidance for Ofsted and ISI inspectors were strong enough, we carried out an internal review of:

both inspection frameworks and Ofsted’s schools and further education and skills inspection handbooks

evidence bases gathered on inspection of 108 schools and colleges, including state-funded schools, independent non-association schools that Ofsted inspects and independent schools that ISI inspects

safeguarding guidance and training for inspectors of both inspectorates, with a particular focus on peer-on-peer harmful sexual behaviour

We also reviewed our previous handling of complaints about schools and colleges that focused on peer-on-peer sexual harassment and sexual violence, including online. This included complaints about the non-association independent schools that we inspect. You can find further details of this internal review in the methodology .

ISI also carried out a similar review of complaints it has received that focused on sexual harassment and sexual violence, including online, which it shared with the review team.

Frameworks, handbooks, guidance and training

The review looked at our ‘Inspecting safeguarding’ guidance, which covers early years, education and skills settings. [footnote 63] It found that this clearly outlines how inspectors should inspect how well schools and colleges respond to peer-on-peer abuse, such as sexual harassment and sexual violence, including online. Since the introduction of the education inspection framework ( EIF ) in September 2019, the school inspection handbook has also made specific reference to peer-on-peer abuse. All inspectors were trained on how to consider such abuse during inspection earlier that year. The handbook was updated recently to reflect the government’s changes to guidance on RSHE . All school inspectors have received mandatory training on what this means for inspection practice.

However, the review also found that, although Ofsted’s education inspectors are trained using ‘Inspecting safeguarding’, the further education and skills inspection handbook does not specifically refer to sexual violence and sexual harassment, including online. We will therefore update it to include this.

ISI inspects independent schools’ compliance with The Independent School Standards Regulations. [footnote 64] ISI reports on the extent to which the independent school standards are being met. The ISI inspection framework provides for 2 types of routine inspection: regulatory compliance only or educational quality with focused compliance. Both inspection types always consider whether the school meets the expected independent school standards in welfare, health and safety. These standards include whether a school is meeting the statutory standards, which includes safeguarding expectations as set out by the government. Although the independent school standards do not make explicit reference to peer-on-peer sexual violence and harassment, they require the school’s leaders to actively promote the well-being of the pupils. Leaders must also follow all statutory guidance relating to safeguarding, which includes peer-on-peer abuse. When inspecting compliance with the relevant standards, ISI inspectors record whether the school’s safeguarding policy sets out its response to peer-on-peer abuse and whether it includes procedures to minimise the risk of peer-on-peer abuse.

In the visits we did as part of this review, inspectors found that talking to single-sex groups was an effective way to gather evidence about sexual harassment and violence. Therefore, both Ofsted and ISI will make it explicit to inspectors that they should do this during future inspections wherever possible. This will help inspectors to understand how a school’s or college’s approach to tackling sexual harassment and sexual violence, including online, is working.

The review of Ofsted’s training showed that all school and further education and skills inspectors were trained in 2018 and 2019 on peer-on-peer abuse. This included sexual harassment and sexual violence, including online. The training is covered in different modules for education and social care inspectors. For example, further education and skills inspectors do not complete the same training as school inspectors.

ISI provided Ofsted with a chronology of training since 2017. It also showed us examples of its inspector training materials relating to safeguarding and peer-on-peer abuse. Most training was mandatory. Some was optional, such as a workshop on peer-on-peer abuse delivered at a conference held for all ISI inspectors in January 2019. Training materials referenced government statutory guidance on safeguarding, including guidance relating to peer-on-peer abuse, sexual harassment and violence. ISI reported that it held follow-up discussions to make sure that inspectors understood the implications for inspection activity.

For 2021/22 and beyond, Ofsted and ISI will work together to produce and jointly deliver further training on inspecting safeguarding in education settings. This will include issues of peer-on-peer abuse.

State-funded and independent schools and colleges have to implement statutory guidance. This should ensure that they have a common approach to safeguarding, including peer-on-peer abuse. Ofsted and ISI will continue to work together to prioritise a consistent standard of inspection practice in this area.

Previous inspections

We reviewed the evidence bases for 93 inspections under Ofsted’s EIF . The inspections all took place between September 2019 and March 2020, when routine inspections were suspended due to the pandemic.

The review found that evidence bases demonstrated that inspectors have a good knowledge of ‘Keeping children safe in education’. They use this knowledge to determine the questions they will ask on inspection. Scrutiny of inspection evidence found that inspectors had explored children and young people’s experiences of sexting and upskirting, and what school and college staff had done in response.

Following notification of a school inspection, school leaders are asked to present their records and analysis of sexual violence and sexual harassment, including online, in school by 8am on the first day of the inspection. This is set out as a requirement in our school inspection handbook.

In September 2019, when this requirement was brought in, we expected to see a substantial flow of evidence about these issues, given that there was already considerable information about their prevalence in schools. In fact, this has not been the case. It is surprising that, in the inspections we looked at for the review, only 6% of schools gave evidence of sexual violence and sexual harassment, including online, in response to the request. Forty-six per cent of the schools provided a nil return. These figures may reflect the gap between staff’s and children and young people’s knowledge and perceptions, as discussed earlier. The remaining 48% of schools neither provided information nor a statement that there was no relevant information. In most of the inspections where no information was provided, inspectors did not record how they followed up with leaders to determine whether a nil return was an accurate picture.

As a result, we cannot yet say that EIF inspections are sufficiently assessing the extent and nature of sexual harassment and sexual violence, including online, between peers in schools. We will mandate that, in future, inspectors should follow up and record schools’ responses to the request. We will quality assure future evidence bases to make sure that this happens. We will also reiterate this through inspector training.

The requirement for leaders to provide records and analysis of sexual violence and sexual harassment, including online, is not currently in our further education and skills inspection handbook. We will amend this. In future, on notification of college inspections, leaders will be asked to supply this information to inspectors. Inspectors will also be mandated to follow this up with college leaders. ISI will also ask for this information from schools on notification.

The review also found that inspectors seek evidence from a variety of sources to triangulate their findings about safeguarding. For example, they speak to staff, children and young people, governors, senior leaders, support staff and external colleagues such as local authority representatives. When a safeguarding issue emerges on inspection, they follow it up.

Furthermore, the scrutiny of Ofsted inspection evidence shows that when inspectors have focused on the PSHE curriculum (known as a ‘deep dive’) in EIF inspections, they examine relationships and sex education very effectively. However, unless there is a deep dive into PSHE , there is little time on inspection to look closely at a school’s or college’s approach to creating a culture of safeguarding around peer-on-peer sexual harassment and violence. Inspection resource constraints limit the number of deep dives to 3 or 4 per inspection. Ofsted’s inspectors cover a sample of curriculum areas rather than every subject in depth. It is therefore not possible to review PSHE fully on every inspection.

We also reviewed 15 evidence bases of ISI inspections. We found that they included appropriate consideration and clear evaluation of how well schools managed their procedures and policies related to safeguarding and handling complaints. The review also found careful pre-inspection planning and appropriate recording of evidence in relation to the independent school standards. However, the inspection evidence did not always identify how the curriculum developed children and young people’s understanding of acceptable and unacceptable behaviours. It also did not always show how inspectors cross-referenced leaders’ and pupils’ views with other evidence, such as record-keeping. In a few evidence bases, inspectors appeared to give weight to the views of leaders, who responded that reporting systems and effective pastoral care were in place, rather than to those of pupils, where a significant minority had concerns.

Handling of complaints about schools that refer to peer-on-peer sexual harassment and violence

A review of Ofsted’s handling of complaints about schools we inspect found that they are dealt with comprehensively. We also review annually how we handle them. All complaints about independent schools were referred on to the DfE , and those about colleges to ESFA . When a complaint about a school or college refers to sexual abuse, we may notify the local authority for a maintained school or ESFA for an academy, free school or college. We may also inspect immediately or use the information to inform the school’s or college’s next routine inspection.

When ISI receives complaints about the schools it inspects, it currently refers to the DfE only those that relate to the independent school standards. ISI has told us that all complaints about sexual abuse are referred to the DfE . ISI has recently reviewed its policy and from September 2021, all complaints (whether they refer to the independent school standards or not) will be referred to the DfE .

The DfE , in collaboration with ESFA , Ofsted and ISI , may wish to review how complaints are handled.

As a result of this review, both Ofsted and ISI will update training and inspection handbooks where necessary. This will strengthen inspectors’ ability to inspect how schools and colleges are tackling peer-on-peer sexual harassment and sexual violence, including online.

This rapid thematic review has revealed how prevalent sexual harassment and online sexual abuse are for children and young people. It is concerning that for some children, incidents are so commonplace that they see no point in reporting them. This review did not analyse whether the issues are more or less prevalent for different groups of young people, and there may well be differences, but it found that the issues are so widespread that they need addressing for all children and young people. It recommends that schools, colleges and multi-agency partners act as though sexual harassment and online sexual abuse are happening, even when there are no specific reports.

Methodology

This review has a limited scope, constrained both by the terms of reference given to Ofsted by government and also the time constraints. The findings from our visits are not fully representative of schools or colleges across England.

Our sample sizes are also not big enough to draw any conclusions about the protection of children from minority ethnic groups or those with special educational needs and/or disabilities ( SEND ). Reporting of sexual abuse by these children is thought to be even less common. Further research into the prevalence, experiences and outcomes for these children is crucial.

Visits to schools and colleges

We carried out 32 2-day visits to schools and colleges in April and May 2021. The inspection team had at least one female inspector as part of each visit. ISI inspectors shadowed Ofsted’s inspectors on 13 visits. Before the visits, both ISI and Ofsted inspectors received 2 days of refresher safeguarding training with a specific focus on peer-on-peer sexual harassment and violence.

In selecting the research sample, we sought to include some schools where concerns have been reported. We identified these through complaints made to Ofsted or the publicly available Everyone’s Invited testimonials. We also included others to provide a more balanced cross-section of school/provider types. We sought to ensure a mix of independent and state-funded schools, as well as covering different geographical locations. Given the focus on adequacy of current inspection models, the sample was also weighted in favour of schools/colleges inspected since September 2019. The overall small sample size does not make it possible to compare and contrast different types of schools. But it gives confidence that where we saw patterns of behaviours or experience, they were not limited to one particular type.

The sample included:

14 state-funded schools

14 ISI -inspected independent schools

2 Ofsted-inspected independent schools

2 FE colleges

The majority of the schools were secondary schools or all-through schools. Two were state-funded primary schools.

In one visit, we identified serious safeguarding failures. Inspectors ended the visit and we carried out an initial inspection under section 8 (‘no formal designation’). This led to a full inspection. Findings from the early part of the visit are used in this report.

Focus groups with children and young people

In the visits, we held up to 4 focus groups with children and young people on each visit. These lasted for 45 minutes. In total, we had over 125 focus groups with approximately 900 children and young people participating. Parents were given an ‘opt out’ letter if they did not want their child to take part. Inspectors also gave children and young people the option not to take part on the day. Leaders highlighted where it would not be appropriate for us to talk to children and young people due to ongoing investigations or additional context. Inspectors spoke to the children and young people in single-sex, same-age groups. Where there was an existing LGBT+ pupil group, we asked whether members would like to speak to us. We made time to do so where they agreed.

Activities that inspectors led children and young people through in the focus groups included the following:

colouring in/marking areas on a map of their school according to how safe/unsafe parts of the school were, discussing this among the group as they did so

answering a short questionnaire about the prevalence of sexual abuse among their peers and who they would speak to, if anyone, if they were the victim of abuse or harassment (we did this with those in Year 9 and above only)

choosing from 4 scenarios to use to talk hypothetically about what might be said/done among their peer group in different situations, as well as who they might speak to/tell

explaining what they are taught in school/college about relationships and sex and whether they thought it was enough/well taught

Inspectors summarised the conversations from each focus group and collated the questionnaires, both of which were analysed by the research team.

Discussions with school and college staff

As part of each visit, inspectors spoke to:

the headteacher/principal

the behaviour lead

the lead for PSHE and/or RSHE

2 groups of staff

Inspectors looked at records of sexual harassment and sexual abuse; behaviour records; policies for safeguarding, behaviour, equal opportunities and staff conduct; and the policy and curriculum documentation for PSHE and RSHE .

Inspectors collated all the evidence from each visit, which was analysed by the research team.

Focus groups with multi-agency partners

From our list of 32 schools and colleges, we identified 12 LSPs with whom we held 45-minute focus groups. Each group had a representative from children’s social care, the police and health partners. The discussions were framed around the terms of reference for the review covering the 2 multi-agency safeguarding questions, from the partners’ perspectives:

How well are safeguarding guidance and processes understood and working between schools, colleges and LSPs ?

Does working between schools, colleges and LSPs , including local authority children’s social care, the police, health services and other support, need to be strengthened?

The information from these focus groups was analysed by the research team and triangulated with the perspectives from schools themselves.

Victim/survivor focus groups

Ten individuals from 6 organisations spoke to Ofsted to share their experiences and views from a survivor/victim perspective.

Everyone’s Invited testimonies

As of 6 April 2021, there were 2,340 testimonies publicly available on the Everyone’s Invited website. We extracted this text using web scraping.

Our text analysis then focused on the 2,030 testimonies thought to relate to young people of school or further education age in England. For example, we excluded testimonies that referred to universities or to other countries. The testimonies were analysed using computer-based learning techniques, including key-word searches and topic modelling. This was complemented by textual analysis of 250 random testimonies, which were read in full.

Data from these was recorded, including:

• what the incident was
• where it happened
• the characteristics of the victim and their relationship to the perpetrator
• the response to the incident
• the incident’s impact on the victim

The intention of this analysis was to identify common themes and build a broad picture of the experiences young people are reporting.

Ofsted and ISI complaints

Between September 2019 and March 2021, Ofsted received 291 complaints against schools and colleges about peer-on-peer sexual abuse. All were logged as safeguarding concerns.

In order for Ofsted to consider a complaint against a school as a ‘qualifying complaint’, it must meet certain legislative requirements:

• it must be made in writing
• it must not be a prescribed exception (that is, a concern for which another statutory agency has responsibility for handling)
• it must be a prescribed description (leadership and management, standards of education being achieved, quality of education, how far the education meets the needs of pupils, social, spiritual, moral and cultural development and well-being of pupils)
• it must have been through the local complaints routes

For this report, we reviewed 16 complaints that we chose to meet the following criteria:

they contained an element of alleged sexual abuse, harassment or violence

they came from all Ofsted regions

they involved maintained schools and academies, pupil referral units ( PRUs ), independent schools and colleges

they allowed us to sample complaints about child serious incident notifications, local contextual information, qualifying and non-qualifying complaints and 11A investigations

they were retained for the next inspection, resulted in inspections being brought forward or resulted in a no formal designation inspection under section 8

Between September 2019 and March 2021, ISI reports that it received 37 complaints against schools about peer-on-peer sexual abuse and that all were logged as safeguarding concerns and referred to the DfE .

Review of inspection evidence bases

Ofsted reviewed 93 evidence bases, the majority of which were from inspections carried out between September 2019 and March 2020. This covers the period when the EIF was in place and pauses when routine EIF inspection activity ceased. Another 16 evidence bases from Ofsted-inspected residential special schools and boarding schools were also reviewed. We sampled evidence bases from across all 8 Ofsted regions. We included those from inspections of primary, secondary and special schools and PRUs . Within this sample, there were 30 independent school inspections, 20 emergency inspections and 10 standard inspections.

Ofsted also reviewed ISI evidence bases from 15 inspections that took place between October 2018 and December 2020.

Literature review

The literature that fed into this report covered a broad range of topics, including:

statistics of child peer-on-peer sexual harassment and violence, including the prevalence for children with protected characteristics or from different socio-economic backgrounds, such as LGBT+ or minority ethnic children and young people

definitions of child sexual abuse, including peer-on-peer sexual harassment and violence

barriers that prevent children and young people talking about abuse and good practice

online sexual abuse

pornography

preventative measures in schools

Parent focus groups

Ofsted carried out one focus group with state-school parents and another with independent school parents. The number of parents participating was too small to draw conclusions but we used their comments as part of the wider evidence base for this report.

List of stakeholders we spoke to as part of the review

Reference group members.

Chief Constable Simon Bailey (NPCC lead on child protection)

Geoff Barton (Association of School and College Leaders)

Tom Bennett ( DfE behaviour advisor)

Professor Chris Bonell (Faculty of Public Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine)

Dame Rachel de Souza (Children’s Commissioner)

Hilary Garratt (Deputy Chief Nursing Officer for England, NHS)

Sarah Hannafin/James Bowen (National Association of Head Teachers)

David Hughes (Association of Colleges)

John Jolly (ParentKind)

Ian Keating (Local Government Association)

Julia Lagoutte/Rowan Davies (Mumsnet)

Michele Lawrence/Wendy Nicholson (Public Health England)

Charlotte Ramsden (Association of Directors of Children’s Services) Julie Robinson (Independent Schools Council)

Andrea Simon/ Denise Ugur (End Violence Against Women Coalition)

Russell Viner (Professor in Adolescent Health, University College London and former President, Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health)

Peter Wanless (NSPCC)

Vanessa Ward ( ISI )

Other stakeholders

DfE ministers

Officials from DfE , No 10 and Home Office

Dame Vera Baird (Victims’ Commissioner)

Dan Bell (Men and Boys Coalition)

Mary Bousted (National Education Union)

Leora Cruddas/ Steve Rollett (Confederation of School Trusts)

Helen Earner (Charity Commission)

Anna Glinski (Centre for Expertise on Child Sexual Abuse)

Jonny Gutteridge (Male Survivors Trust)

Amelia Handy (Rape Crisis England)

Emma Hardy MP

Nicole Jacobs (Domestic Abuse Commissioner)

Emma James (Barnardo’s)

Dr Jenny Lloyd (University of Bedfordshire)

Amy Norton (Office for Students)

Jess Phillips MP

Patrick Roach (National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers)

Soma Sara/ Wendy Mair (Everyone’s Invited)

Wes Streeting MP

Gail Tolley (London Borough of Brent)

Colin Walker (Safeline)

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In one visit, we identified serious safeguarding failures. Inspectors ended the visit and we carried out an initial inspection under section 8 (‘no formal designation’). This led to a full inspection. Findings from the early part of the visit are used in this report.  ↩

‘Keeping children safe in education’ , DfE , January 2021.  ↩

While adults tend to refer to ‘sexting’, we are aware that some children and young people consider this to mean ‘writing and sharing explicit messages with people they know’ rather than sharing youth-produced sexual images, including sending ‘nudes’ and ‘semi-nudes’.  ↩

S Hackett, ‘Children and young people with harmful sexual behaviours’, Research in Practice, 2014.  ↩

‘Sexual violence and sexual harassment between children in schools and colleges’ , Department for Education, December 2017.  ↩

‘Individual, family and abuse characteristics of 700 British child and adolescent sexual abusers , Simon Hackett and others, 2013.  ↩

‘Key messages from research on children and young people who display harmful sexual behaviour’ , Centre of Expertise on Child Sexual Abuse, Di McNeish and Sara Scott, July 2018.  ↩

‘Tackling child sexual abuse strategy’ , Home Office, January 2021.  ↩

This review included a sample of 2 colleges. Where there are findings that specifically relate to differences in schools and colleges, we refer to them separately but where findings are common across both, we use schools.  ↩

The report ‘Protecting children from harm’ estimates that only 1 in 8 offences comes to the attention of statutory authorities: ‘Protecting children from harm’ , Children’s Commissioner, November 2015.  ↩

Due to the way this data is collected and different sexual offences are defined, these figures do not capture certain sexual offences committed against 16- and 17-year-olds, such as rape.  ↩

‘Protecting children from harm’ , Children’s Commissioner, November 2015.  ↩

‘How safe are our children?’ , NSPCC Learning, 2020.  ↩

In our visits, we talked to groups of boys and girls and LGBT+ groups, where there was an existing group that was happy to speak to us. We predominantly use the language of ‘children and young people’ and ‘girls and boys’ in the report to recognise that girls are disproportionately more likely to experience sexual abuse than boys but have highlighted the experiences of LGBT+ children and young people where it is appropriate and data is available.  ↩

‘Child abuse and neglect in the UK today’ , Radford, L and others, NSPCC, 2011.  ↩

‘Sexual harassment and sexual violence in schools’ , Women and Equalities Committee, September 2016.  ↩

‘It’s just everywhere’ , UK Feminista and NEU, 2017.  ↩

‘Permanent and fixed-period exclusions in England’ , Explore Education Statistics, July 2020.  ↩

‘School sex crime reports in UK top 5,500 in three years’ , BBC News, September 2015.  ↩

‘Sexual harassment and sexual violence in schools’ Women and Equalities Committee Report, September 2016.  ↩

‘Beyond referrals: levers for addressing harmful sexual behaviour in schools’ , Contextual Safeguarding Network, July 2020.  ↩

Yin Xu and Yong Zheng, ‘Prevalence of childhood sexual abuse among lesbian, gay, and bisexual people: a meta-analysis’, in ‘Journal of Child Sexual Abuse’, Volume 24, Issue 3, 2015, pages 315 to 331.  ↩

‘Digital romance’ , Brook and the National Crime Agency’s Child Exploitation and Online Protection Command, December 2017.  ↩

‘The Internet Watch Foundation: Annual Report 2019 , The Internet Watch Foundation, April 2020.  ↩

‘Sharing nudes and semi-nudes: advice for education settings working with children and young people’ , Department for Education, December 2020.  ↩

‘Learning about online sexual harm’ , Helen Beckett and others, November 2019.  ↩

Martellozzo, E. and others, ‘I wasn’t sure it was normal to watch it: a quantitative and qualitative examination of the impact of online pornography on the values, attitudes, beliefs and behaviours of children and young people’, Middlesex University, 2016.  ↩

‘BBFC Research into Children and Pornography’ , British Board of Film Classification, September 2019.  ↩

‘Sex and relationships amongst students , Nick Hillman, Higher Education Policy Institute, April 2021.  ↩

‘Pornography, young people, and preventing violence against women’ , Our Watch, 2020.  ↩

‘The relationship between pornography use and harmful sexual behaviour’ , The Behavioural Architects for the Government Equalities Office, February 2020.  ↩

This analysis only used the testimonies thought to relate to young people of school or further education age in England. For instance, it excluded testimonies that referred to universities or other countries. See the methodology at the end of this report for more information.  ↩

Further details on our analysis of Everyone’s Invited testimonies can be found in the methodology.  ↩

‘Global and regional estimates of violence against women: prevalence and health effects of intimate partner violence and non-partner sexual violence’ , World Health Organisation, 2013.  ↩

‘Girls’ Attitudes Survey 2018’ , Girlguiding UK, 2018.  ↩

‘Child sexual abuse in England and Wales: year ending March 2019’ , ONS, January 2020.  ↩

Allnock, D. and Miller, P. ‘No one noticed, no one heard: a study of disclosures of childhood abuse.’ , NSPCC, 2013  ↩

‘A multi-agency response to child sexual abuse in the family environment’ , Ofsted, Care Quality Commission, HM Inspectorate of Probation, and HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services, February 2020.  ↩

Allnock, D. and Miller, P., ‘No one noticed, no one heard: a study of disclosures of childhood abuse.’ , NSPCC, 2013.  ↩

‘Girls’ Attitudes Survey 2014’ , Girlguiding UK, 2018.  ↩

‘Sexual harassment and sexual violence in schools’ , Women and Equalities Committee Report, September 2016.  ↩

‘Harmful sexual behaviour in schools: a briefing on the findings, implications and resources for schools and multi-agency partners’ , Jenny Lloyd and others, University of Bedfordshire, June 2020.  ↩

Baker, H. and others, ‘Let children know you’re listening: the importance of an adult’s interpersonal skills in helping to improve the child’s experiences of disclosure.’ , NSPCC, 2019.  ↩

‘Sharing nudes and semi-nudes: advice for education settings working with children and young people’ , UK Council for Internet Safety, December 2020.  ↩

‘Sharing nudes and semi-nudes: advice for education settings working with children and young people’ , Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, December 2020.  ↩

‘What is peer-on-peer abuse?’ , Ofsted, October 2019.  ↩

‘UK schools online safety policy and practice assessment 2020’ , Prof Andy Phippen and Prof Emma Bond, February 2020.  ↩

‘ RSHE : school practice in early adopter schools research report’ , DfE , May 2021.  ↩

A series of reviews by Ofsted looking at the research evidence currently available about different curriculum subjects: ‘Curriculum research reviews’ .  ↩

‘ PSHE in schools: strengths and weaknesses’ , Ofsted, May 2013.  ↩

‘Children’s online activities, risks and safety: A literature review by the UKCCIS Evidence Group’ , Prof Sonia Livingstone and others, UK Council for Internet Safety, October 2017.  ↩

‘Inspecting safeguarding in early years, education and skills’ , Ofsted, September 2019.  ↩

The Education (Independent School Standards) Regulations 2014 .  ↩

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Why early childhood care and education matters

The right to education begins at birth.

But new UNESCO data shows that 1 out of 4 children aged 5 have never had any form of pre-primary education. This represents 35 million out of 137 million 5-year-old children worldwide. Despite research that proves the benefits of early childhood care and education (ECCE), only half of all countries guarantee free pre-primary education around the world.

UNESCO’s World Conference on Early Childhood Care and Education taking place in Tashkent, Uzbekistan on 14-16 November 2022 will reaffirm every young child’s right to quality care and education, and call for increased investment in children during the period from birth to eight years.  

Here’s what you need to know what early childhood care and education.

Why is early childhood care and education important?

The period from birth to eight years old is one of remarkable brain development for children and represents a crucial window of opportunity for education. When children are healthy, safe and learning well in their early years, they are better able to reach their full developmental potential as adults and participate effectively in economic, social, and civic life. Providing ECCE is regarded as a means of promoting equity and social justice, inclusive economic growth and advancing sustainable development.

A range of research and evidence has converged to support this claim. First, neuroscience has shown that the environment affects the nature of brain architecture – the child’s early experiences can provide either a strong or a fragile foundation for later learning, development and behaviours. Second, the larger economic returns on investment in prior-to-school programmes than in programmes for adolescents and adults has been demonstrated. Third, educational sciences have revealed that participation in early childhood care and education programmes boosts children’s school readiness and reduces the gap between socially advantaged and disadvantaged children at the starting gate of school.

From a human rights perspective, expanding quality early learning is an important means for realizing the right to education within a lifelong learning perspective. ECCE provides a significant preparation to basic education and a lifelong learning journey. In 2021, only 22% of United Nations Member States have made pre-primary education compulsory, and only 45% provide at least one year of free pre-primary education. Only 46 countries have adopted free and compulsory pre-primary education in their laws.

How has access to ECCE evolved?

Overall, there has been significant global progress in achieving inclusive and high-quality ECCE. Globally, the ratio for pre-primary education has increased from 46% in 2010 to 61% in 2020. The global ratio for participation in organized learning one year before the official primary school entry age also increased to reach 75% in 2020. However, in low- and lower-middle-income countries, fewer than two in three children attend organized learning one year before the official primary entry age.  Furthermore, the proportion of children receiving a positive and stimulating home environment remains significantly low with only 64% of children having positive and nurturing home environments. Great regional disparities remain the biggest challenges. In sub-Saharan Africa, only 40% of children have experienced a positive and stimulating home learning environment compared to 90% of children in Europe and Northern America.

How has the COVID-19 pandemic impacted ECCE?

The COVID-19 pandemic has had devastating effect on ECCE and amplified its crisis. Young children have been deemed the greatest victims of the pandemic, experiencing the impact of on their immediate families, and because of stay-at-home orders of lockdowns, having been deprived of essential services to promote their health, learning and psychosocial well-being. Some children will start basic education without organized learning experiences to the detriment of their readiness for school. It was estimated that the closure of ECCE services has resulted in 19 billion person-days of ECCE instruction lost with 10.75 million children not being able to reach their developmental potential in the first 11 months of the pandemic.

What are the consequences on foundational learning?

ECCE is a pre-requisite for meeting the right to learn and to develop. In particular, access to pre-primary education is a basis for acquiring foundational learning including literacy, numeracy and socio-emotional learning. Yet, according to the recent estimate, about 64% of children in low- and middle-income countries cannot read and understand a simple story at age 10. The roots of this learning poverty start in ECCE and its lack of capacity to make children ready for school.

What is the situation regarding ECCE teachers and care staff?

As the calls grow for higher quality ECCE provision, teacher shortages and quality has received increasing attention. The number of teachers who received at least the minimum pedagogical teacher training, both pre-service and in-service, increased from 68% to 80% between 2010 and 2020. It is estimated that ECCE services need another 9.3 million full-time teachers to achieve the SDG target . Most Member States have established qualification requirements for ECCE teachers, while far less attention has been focused on ECCE teachers’ working conditions and career progression. The low social status, poor salaries and job insecurity of ECCE teachers and care staff tend to have an adverse impact on attracting and retaining suitably qualified early childhood educators.

What are the policies, governance and financing implications?

It is time for societies and governments to implement relevant policies to recover and transform their ECCE systems. ECCE is seen by many countries as a key part of the solution to a myriad of challenges including social inclusion and cohesion, economic growth and to tackle other sustainable development challenges. According to the 2022 Global Education Monitoring Report, 150 out of 209 countries have set targets for pre-primary education participation by 2025 or 2030. The proportion of countries that monitor participation rates in pre-primary education is expected to increase from 75% in 2015 to 92% in 2025 and 95% in 2030. It is expected that the pre-primary participation rate for all regions will exceed 90% by 2030. In Central and South Asia, East and South-East Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean, participation rates are expected to be nearly 100%. At the same time, it is projected that participation rates in Northern Africa and Western Asia will be about 77% by 2030.

What are the obstacles to ensuring access to quality ECCE?

• Policy fragmentation: In many countries, ECCE policies and services are fragmented and do not leverage whole-of-government and whole-of-society approaches to addressing the holistic needs and rights of families and their young children. This is particularly challenging for national governments with limited resources, low institutional capacities and weak governance.
• Lack of public provision : Non-state provision of ECCE continues to grow in many contexts, and the role of non-state actors in influencing policy development and implementation is evident. Non-state actors provide a large proportion of places in pre-primary education. In 2000, 28.5% of pre-primary aged children were enrolled in private institutions, and this rose to 37% in 2019, a figure higher than for primary (19%) or secondary (27%) education.
• Insufficient regulation of the sector : Specific regulations and standards for ECCE are not in place in most countries. Regulations usually do not establish quality assurance mechanisms and those that do, tend not to focus on outcomes.
• Chronic underfunding : An average of 6.6% of education budgets at national and subnational levels were allocated to pre-primary education. Low-income countries, on average, invest 2% of education budgets in pre-primary education, which is far below the target of 10% by 2030 suggested by UNICEF. In terms of international aid, pre-primary education remains the least funded sector.

What are the solutions?

Political will and ownership are key to transforming ECCE. UNESCO’s review highlights progress in some countries, giving an indication of what is required to successfully strengthen the capacity of ECCE systems:

• Expanding and diversifying access : Increasing investment and establishing a legal framework to expand ECCE services are essential steps. Innovative ECCE delivery mechanisms such as mobile kindergartens with teachers, equipment for learning and play, have been deployed in some countries to reach remote areas and provide children with pre-primary education.  
• Enhancing quality and relevance : ECCE curriculum frameworks should cover different aspects of early learning and prepare children with essential knowledge, skills, and dispositions to transit smoothly to formal education.
• Making ECCE educators and caregivers a transforming force : For the transformation of ECCE to take place, ECCE educators need to be adequately supported and empowered to play their part.
• Improving governance and stakeholder participation : Countries have adopted different modes of governance. There are generally two systems that are followed, an integrated system and a split system.
• Using funding to steer ECCE development : Strengthening domestic public financing is important for providing affordable ECCE. Since ECCE services are offered by different ministries, there must be a clear demarcation of funding and financing rules for different sectors and different ministries. Innovative financing may include earmarking resources from economic activities and other sources.
• Establishing systems for monitoring and assessing whole-of-child development . System-level action in strengthening the availability and reliability of data obtained from assessments enables efficient and timely monitoring of programmes and child developmental milestones.
• Galvanize international cooperation and solidarity . The World Conference on Early Childhood Care and Education is an opportunity to mobilize existing global, regional, and national networks to increase focus on identifying and sharing innovations, policies and practices.

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• Early childhood
• Early childhood education

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Not getting enough sleep? This is what's happening to your body and brain

ABC Health & Wellbeing

Topic: Sleep

We all know the pain of a blaring alarm clock after a late night but sleep deprivation does more than just bring our mood down.

When you don't get enough sleep you probably just want to get through the next day without too many problems, right?

But what about getting through the next 10, 20, 30 years without too many problems?

Some of us get by on a limited amount of sleep every day, and some of us even wear it like a badge of honour.

"In some cultures, you're even seen as a bit of a wimp if you complain about not getting enough sleep," says Matthew Pase, associate professor of neurology at Monash University.

But sleep impacts almost every part of the human system, and getting a good night's rest may even be a factor in how long you live . 

Australian guidelines say adults between the ages of 18 and 65 should have seven to nine hours of sleep per night and those over 65 need seven to eight hours.

Sleep medicine researcher Hannah Scott from Flinders University says about 25 per cent of people around the world don't get enough sleep each night.

But it's not just about the number of hours you get. It's also the quality and regularity of your sleep-wake routine from one day to the next.

"What we have found recently is just how prevalent irregular sleep is, and [research] is emerging that this irregular sleep pattern is actually really detrimental," Dr Scott says.

Good rest can be elusive for a number of reasons including sleep disorders, shift work, parenthood, chronic pain, menopause and just endless doomscrolling on your phone.

All this missed sleep comes at a cost, says Jen Walsh, the director of the Centre for Sleep Science at the University of Western Australia.

"I think people are probably aware of the short-term effects because they've experienced them but they might not appreciate the long-term effects."

Click through to find out how sleep may impact your:

Emotions and mental health

Short-term memory.

• Risk of accidents
• Heart health and diabetes
• Ability to cope with infections or pain
• Potential to develop Alzheimer's
• Risk of cancer 
• If these impacts can be reversed

Keep in mind that sleep, as important as it is, is only part of your overall general health.

"Just because you have short sleep it doesn't mean you're 100 per cent going to develop all these diseases … there's just an increase in risk," says sleep researcher Christopher Gordon from the Woolcock Institute and Macquarie University.

When you sleep the neurons in your brain get a hard-earned rest.

But if you don't get enough quality shut-eye, they'll struggle to make new connections the next day, and your ability to process information will be compromised.

Your body also goes into fight-or-flight mode which triggers stress hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol.

You'll feel more agitated , be more prone to jumping to conclusions and be less empathetic.

"So it won't be a good time for your partner to tell you they just spent $5,000 you didn't really have," says fatigue and behaviour scientist Drew Dawson from CQUniversity.

Sleep deprivation might also dampen your sexual desire and arousal. There's even evidence testosterone levels can lower by up to 15 per cent after a week of getting five hours of sleep per night.

Mental health can also plummet with insufficient sleep.

The emotional instability we feel when we're running on empty can put us at risk of developing or aggravating depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and bipolar disorder.

And it's a bi-directional relationship, which means the worse your mental health is, the worse your sleep might be.

Nocturnal wakefulness, like that experienced with insomnia, is even associated with suicidal ideation and behaviours .

"There's a hypothesis called 'mind after midnight' which has found an increased risk of suicide for people who are awake between midnight and 6am," says psychologist and CEO of the Sleep Health Foundation Moira Junge.

Back to the list

Feeling forgetful ? That's your brain struggling to convert short-term memories to long-term memories.

Scientists think that's because a lot of memory consolidation takes place during slow-wave, or deep sleep, which you'll be getting less of if you're sleep deprived.

Ever driven somewhere but you don't remember getting there?

That's your brain "load shedding" or making strategic decisions about what memories not to store so it can divert energy elsewhere.

Your logical reasoning declines, motivation falls away and you might have to slow down to complete basic tasks.

Accident risk

Fatigue contributes to roughly 20 per cent of road accidents.

After just one night of less than five hours of sleep, you're twice as likely to have a car crash .

At this point your cognitive abilities are equal to having a blood alcohol level of 0.05, Professor Dawson says.

That means your speed will fluctuate and you'll be more likely to cross over onto the other side of the road.

And no matter how hard you try, mistakes at work will likely creep through.

If you just put the wrong number in a spreadsheet you could get away with it, but if you use a coal grab on a mine site when you're tired, the consequences could be deadly.

Inadequate sleep is estimated to be the primary reason for about a quarter of all workplace injuries .

Heart disease and diabetes

Some consequences of sleep loss are more insidious.

Consistently poor sleep may play a role in the production of pro-inflammatory proteins, called cytokines.

Chronic inflammation ages us and can be an underlying mechanism for cardiovascular disease, asthma and atherosclerosis (thickening of the arteries from plaque).

Inflammation is also a central player in insulin sensitivity .

Insulin is a hormone that regulates your blood sugar levels and breaks down glucose (sugar) from food so it becomes energy you can use.

But if you have insulin resistance, your cells stop responding well to insulin and your blood sugar stays too high, which is a risk factor for type 2 diabetes.

Sleep is not the only factor that can contribute to heart disease or diabetes, but there is evidence just one bad night's sleep may raise your blood pressure, a condition known as hypertension.

When we're asleep our blood pressure dips by about 10 to 20 per cent, but if we have short or fragmented sleep we don't get the dip we need, says Camilla Hoyos, who specialises in disturbed sleep and metabolic dysfunction at the Woolcock Institute and Macquarie University.

"Nocturnal dipping is a very important physiological process so if you don't have that, it might be the reason for hypertension the next day. It may also be the cause of poor cardiovascular outcomes down the track," Dr Hoyos says.

Those outcomes can include coronary artery disease, heart attacks and stroke.

Weight gain

Ever feel like you can't stop snacking when you're tired? That's because the hormones associated with your appetite are working against you.

The satiety hormone leptin decreases so you won't get the signal that you're full, while ghrelin, which sends messages to your brain that you're hungry, increases.

Ghrelin can make you imagine your favourite foods and talks to parts of your brain that are associated with reward, so you're more inclined to indulge in sugary, fatty foods like cake and pizza when you're tired.

"Everyone's experienced that feeling where you're searching for the food that's going to make you feel better. It's almost like we're eating to stay awake," Dr Walsh says.

And what's the icing on said cake? Ghrelin helps your body store fat, particularly in visceral fatty tissue, like the stomach.

Combine this with fatigue, which makes us more sedentary than usual, and it's clear why sleep deprivation can put us at risk of obesity .

Immunity and pain

Ever get sick after a week of big nights? That's because your immune system has a pretty co-dependent relationship with sleep.

When we don't get enough, our natural killer cell activity is reduced and it's harder to destroy infected cells.

Those who regularly get less than seven hours of sleep a night could be three times as likely to get a cold than those who normally get eight hours.

You might produce fewer antibodies to vaccines too, which can reduce the protection the vaccine offers.

"There's quite a profound link between sleep and the immune system — sleep helps our body to cope with assaults on the system," Dr Scott says.

"This is why, for example, it's so important that patients in hospitals get really good sleep, as their body needs it to fight whatever is going on for them."

Real or perceived pain  can also seem more intense after poor sleep, which may be particularly troubling for people living with chronic pain.

And it can be an agonising cycle as pain can then further disrupt your sleep.

"You can see how this would relate to recovery as well, if you feel more pain due to short sleep, that will make physical rehabilitation harder," Dr Scott says.

Alzheimer's

We know the two diseases that are most feared by Australians are dementia and cancer.

Alzheimer's disease, the most common cause of dementia, is characterised by two proteins in the brain: amyloid and tau.

"Sleep acts like a garbage truck and helps clear out the waste, including the waste that accumulates in Alzheimer's disease," Dr Pase says.

Scientists think when we don't get enough slow-wave sleep the "garbage truck", known as the glymphatic system, fails to properly clean up amyloid and tau. The proteins can then start to accumulate, which may cause brain cells to die.

"We've found that people who gave greater declines in slow-wave sleep were more likely to get dementia later in life," Dr Pase says.

"We found the same for those who had irregular sleep-wake schedules. [But] we're still determining how long you need to have poor sleep for to make a long-term impact on cognitive function."

Cancer risk

Some studies have also suggested an association between poor sleep and specific cancers, such as breast and prostate, but the evidence is inconsistent.

Sleep epidemiologist Nathaniel Marshall led a study that found sleep apnoea among residents of Busselton, Western Australia was associated with an increased risk of cancer .

But he hasn't been able to replicate the results and can't definitively say what's happening.

"Maybe [bad sleep] accelerates the growth of an already-present cancer. Or maybe it's just other stuff that we can't measure like occupational exposure."

There is evidence that working night shift for prolonged periods may also be linked to some types of cancer .

This may be because shift workers are out of sync with the light-dark cycle that our body so desperately wants to align itself with.

"Circadian dysregulation means even when we're asleep, because it's not in line with what our internal body clock wants, our body is less able to perform those vital functions of tissue repair and immune system support that happen during sleep," Dr Scott says.

Can a lack of sleep be reversed?

Many of us don't get enough sleep during the week but try to play catch-up on the weekend with a nice sleep-in or two.

While that can be beneficial to some extent, irregular sleep still comes with risks because our internal clock craves consistency.

Fluctuating sleep and wake times might even be more predictive of premature death than sleep duration .

"We need to better understand this phenomenon that's sometimes referred to as 'social jetlag' but the evidence so far suggests it has a negative effect over time," Dr Gordon says.

But it's not all bad news.

Some of the world's best sleep experts weighed up the pros and cons of catch-up sleep and found it could be beneficial to get an extra one or two hours on non-work days if you fell short on your work days.

"So ideally you want regularity but when you can't achieve that, catching up is probably better than not," Dr Walsh says.

That’s because research has found catch-up sleep reverses some damage.

"They've looked at hypertension for example and found that if some people improve their sleep by between 20 minutes and one hour their blood pressure measurements change for the better," Dr Hoyos says.

"And insulin sensitivity can also return to normal after a weekend of catch-up sleep."

But if you go too far in the other direction and start oversleeping (consistently getting more than nine hours a night) you run into some of the same health problems we see with short sleep.

Feeling overwhelmed by it all? That's not what sleep scientists want.

"Perfectionism isn't good for sleep," psychologist Moira Junge says.

"Focus on how you feel the next day, as long as you're not consistently getting less than six hours."

And remember, some of us are more resilient to sleep loss than others, says Angela D'Rozario, a neurophysiologist at the Woolcock Institute and Macquarie University.

"Some people feel OK after six or even four hours. We don't completely know why but there's evidence some people recruit different areas of the brain to compensate for deficits in others." 

So it's not about catastrophising or obsessing over every minute of sleep. It's about having the information that helps you make the best cost-benefit analysis for your health.

"What are you trading sleep for? That's got to be the question too. I mean we've all traded a good night's rest for a party, to study, or to work more to save money," Dr Dawson says.

"People who sleep eight hours a night every night are probably really boring."

• Reporting: health reporter Paige Cockburn
• Illustrations and production: Emma Machan
• Editing: Genelle Weule , EP ABC Science digital, Olivia Willis
• Commissioning editor ABC News: Danielle Cronin 

With special thanks to sleep experts Christopher Gordon, Camilla Hoyos, Nathaniel Marshall and Angela D'Rozario from the Woolcock Institute and Macquarie University, Hannah Scott at Flinders University, Drew Dawson from CQUniversity, Matthew Pase at Monash University, Jen Walsh at the University of Western Australia and Moira Junge from the Sleep Health Foundation.

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