Sexist or sexual?

[Xanthangum]

Apologies in advance if this is just me being hyper-sensitive, but there is a tick box on the form that schools in Oxfordshire use to record bullying incidents that grates with me.

The document is here: schools.oxfordshire.gov.uk/cms/sites/schools/files/folders/folders/documents/antibullying/policies/dealingwithrelated.pdf

Basically the form (and therefore I assume any subsequent data analysis) gives teachers the option to record 'Sexist or Sexual' prejudicial behaviour. It doesnt separate them out.

Any report on numbers of events based on sex-based prejudice will then be mixed up with all the sexual ones, (irrespective of whether the sex of any of the people involved was a factor).

Or will all the subsequent opportunities to describe the incident in more detail negate any effect I am worried about?

I'd be grateful for the thoughts of someone with a better working knowledge of school incident recording.

Link not working? schools.oxfordshire.gov.uk/cms/sites/schools/files/folders/folders/documents/antibullying/policies/dealingwithrelated.pdf

You are quite right - completely separate. How can they group together girls don’t do football / boys don’t cry with a sexual assault/harassment

You should contact them / school about it

That looks like a form drafted by someone at the end of their day, trying to tick it off a to-do list without knowing what they're talking about

It's just really, really poor. If you are going to challenge it, I'd offer them a solution (revised form) with justification for the ranking and naming of the categories, quoting relevant Laws etc. I bet MNers could help out with that?

Not least because sometimes sexual behaviour can be an indication of the perpetrator experiencing sexual abuse themselves.

Thanks for the advice - worryingly it's the County Council's form rather than an individual school's.

I'd mention safeguarding explicitly. It is disturbing they are combining the two.

Yes what LangClegSupportersClub said. Mention safeguarding.

The two are totally different. Conflating them makes it impossible to do meaningful analysis on bullying based around the protected characteristic of sex as well as meaning the number of sexual bullying incidents cannot be identified (which surely has implications for safeguarding at a county level?)

Again not including or avoiding other children is considered bulling and potentially a prejudice-related incident.

From the guidance: Prejudice-Related Incidents (like bullying) can take many forms including: ... Segregation - Excluding, isolating, ignoring or avoiding an individual from the activities or social acceptance of their peer group.

Those two boxes should be separated.

I think I can see the thought processes behind it - eg wolf whistling, comments about dress and appearance, is it sexual or sexist?

but it's not going to help identify schools with specific sexual abuse incidents.

I mentioned this in another thread, but the heading "reasons for bullying" - ?? REALLY? (Although they talk about it as 'type' - type and reason are different concepts which they have conflated!)

Transphobia and homo/biphobia are, to an extent, "reasons for bullying". Appearance, race, religion etc are not 'reasons' for bullying.

agree with pps about sexist/sexual, they need explaining that although the words may be similar they are different concepts. FFS.

Agreed with all the others. They should be separate and contact them with concerns over safeguarding.