Bully for you Mr Swinney

Sir, – I read with interest that Scottish education minister John Swinney is instructing schools to follow a new method of recording bullying. Whilst having all schools follow the same recording format will ensure a consistency of procedure, I’m sure the public would prefer to know the steps John Swinney will take to punish the bullies to the point that they won’t bully again.

Only then will the majority of decent, hardworking pupils go to school feeling safe and able to fulfil their personal and academic potential, free of the stress, anxiety, and peer-pressure to underachieve.

At present John Swinney and his department are putting constant pressure on local authorities not to exclude pupils. In turn, these local authorities pressurise schools to make pupil exclusion an absolute last resort and only for a couple of days and for the most heinous of crimes.

As a result, thousands of schools across Scotland are forced into “unofficial exclusions”.

Senior management and guidance teachers contact the parents of bullies and ask them to keep their children at home for a couple of days. None of this is recorded anywhere.

Given this reluctance to get tough on school recidivists or to record all exclusions, I don’t hold out much hope for Mr Swinney’s register being any more than an exercise in digital paperwork.

If he really wanted to wage war on school bullies, he would rip up exclusion targets for local authorities, and give management in schools the authority to exclude as many bullies as it takes to drive home the message that it is them and not their victims who will ultimately suffer.

For the time being, Mr Swinney will continue to muddle through his education remit while schools, parents, pupils and teachers are deprived of the authority and sanctions to put matters right.

Jamie Buchan. Grove Road, Dundee.