Call for 'violence against girls' leaders in schools - as 1 in 8 teachers report sexual assault between pupils

• A survey of thousands of teachers has found 13% report sexual assaults between pupils within a term
• Many don’t feel equipped to tackle the issue in the classroom
• A youth violence charity has put out a new report with recommendations on what needs to change
• It’s calling for all secondary schools to have a staff leader responsible for preventing violence against girls

Startling new figures show one in eight secondary school teachers report a pupil at their school committing sexual assault against another pupil - in just one term.

This comes from youth violence charity the Youth Endowment Fund (YEF), which has this month published its Education Policy, Children and Violence report. The report sets out its proposals as to how the Government can reform and invest in the education system, “giving schools the skills and resources they need to protect children from violence”.

YEF’s survey of thousands of British educators also found that many didn’t feel adequately trained to tackle teaching about unhealthy relationships or sexual violence in the classroom. These teachers aren’t alone in reporting bad behaviour either, with teaching union NASUWT also recently called for action on both pupil violence, and what it describes as a “rising tide” of misogyny.

But just how serious a problem is sexual violence in schools, and what does the charity believe is the answer? Here’s what you need to know:

How bad is the issue?

A Teacher Tapp survey commissioned by YEF spoke to more than 4,700 secondary school teachers across England. Some 13% reported one child sexually assaulting another in the past term - or a little over one in eight.

In a separate 2024 survey of 10 thousand teens, almost half (49%) of 13 to 17-year-olds in a romantic relationship that year said they had experienced violent or controlling behaviour, equivalent to 464,345 children across England and Wales.

Many teachers reported feeling ill-equipped to handle the issue - even those who taught relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) or personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) lessons. Nearly one in three (31%) of these teachers said they had never had any specific training to teach these subjects.

At the same time, 27% didn’t feel confident teaching students how to leave unhealthy relationships, while 45% lacked confidence in teaching young people how to intervene if they witnessed a sexual assault. Seven in 10 teachers also said they were not confident in identifying and delivering evidence-based interventions to prevent violence overall.

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How can we fix it?

YEF chief executive Jon Yates said that Netflix’s smash hit series Adolescence - which has recently been made free for schools across the UK to screen - had shone a much-needed spotlight on the “toxic influences” boys were growing up with. “Over the past decade, schools have led the charge in breaking down the stigma around mental health and providing crucial support for young people.

“With the right resources, training and leadership, they can have a similar transformative impact in tackling violence against women and girls,” he continued. “It’s time to act. Research shows that lessons on healthy relationships can make a real difference. The Labour government has the opportunity to make a bold statement that violence against women and girls will not be tolerated.”

The report made a series of eight recommendations for lawmakers, which it said could “maximise the potential of the education system” to keep children safe. At their core was a call for every secondary school, college and secondary alternative provision centre to have a dedicated lead on staff - tasked with preventing violence against women and girls.

By investing just £1 million pounds, the youth charity says that the Government could fund a pilot training programme for leads across 50 schools, modelled after existing grants for school mental health leads. These staff members could then go on to “develop school-wide strategies, improve RSHE lessons, bring in specialist external providers and train other staff members”.

Other recommendations include providing £100m of targeted funding over the course of five years, to deliver evidence-based violence reduction programmes for “children most at risk”, updating pupil premium grant guidance to encourage schools to invest in preventing violence, and amending Ofsted’s proposed inspection changes so that it assesses how schools safeguard children from it.

Labour has previously pledged to halve violence against women and girls within the next decade, and is taking a cross-government approach. Recent initiatives include a push to have domestic abuse reports made to police handled with increased urgency.

Education secretary Bridget Phillipson recently said young boys’ behaviour was a “defining issue of our time”, The Guardian reports. Britain needed more male teachers so boys had better role models, she said, to fight back against “toxic online influences”.

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