Displaying items by tag: School

Please pray for an end to sexual violence and abuse to pupils by pupils in the same school or social group. Children are sharing stories online of a rape culture where abnormal behaviour is now normalised. Soma Sara has set up a website, ‘Everyone's Invited’, for children to report sexual abuse and harassment. So far 11,000+ incidents have been reported. Police blamed a ‘high consumption of pornographic material. There's an erosion of understanding as to what normal sexual relationships look like. We are normalising sexual violence and have a real problem here’ said the National Police Chiefs' Council lead on child protection. A police helpline will be set up to ‘investigate allegations which are of a criminal nature’. The trivialisation of sexism and misogyny is a gateway to rape and sexual assault.

Rainsbrook Secure Training Centre is privately run, by MTC, on the same site as two prisons. MPs want the Government to take over this detention centre, where children are kept in their cells for all but thirty minutes a day. MTC had previously been told to improve. The House of Commons justice committee said the Government should act by June 2020 if conditions tantamount to solitary confinement are not addressed. MP Sir Bob Neill said, ‘The experience of the inspectors over the past year has shown that some of the promises made by MTC are worth less than the paper they are written on. The ministry of justice has failed in its oversight of this private contractor.’ The centre holds 87 boys and girls convicted or awaiting trial for serious offences. They have complex behavioural problems or other vulnerabilities, such as self-harming.

Thousands of children started school for the first time this week and most settle well into a new routine, but there will be some who do not. Instead, probably on Mondays there will be tears, tummy-aches and tantrums because they are not adjusting well. Children need to feel safe and connected to an adult. Pray for teachers working with reception class children to notice those who are not settling in and make a special effort to reach out to them. Every year thousands of students enrol in higher institutions (universities / colleges) for the first time. Pray for students enrolled far from homes, being independent for the first time without parents or guardians around to assist. Pray that they will be wise in their choice of companions and friends, quickly forming constructive relationships that take them on the paths that God has prepared for them.

In January Ofsted reported that the Meadows Primary School in Bristol was ‘inadequate’ and that ‘racism and bullying have not been dealt with quickly enough.’ This is just one of many incidents where teachers have been found to use bullying techniques and language. Bullying also occurs in school playgrounds. Kind, loving, and funny 12-year-old Matthew was found hanged after being bullied at school. He is just one of many youngsters suffering bullying at school. A BBC File on 4 investigation found that more than 20,000 allegations of abuse by care home workers against the elderly and vulnerable have been made in the last three years. Of the claims 12,000 were of neglect, more than 3,000 were physical abuse, 2,400 were psychological abuse, 400 were sexual abuse. The vast majority related to the care of elderly people in their homes, most aged over 80. See and

The mother of an 11-year-old transgender girl who was bullied at school claims that the school has not done enough to stop the bullying. She said that five months of escalating bullying has had a ‘terrible effect’ on her daughter, who had been physically attacked several times and was regularly abused and insulted. A statement from the school confirmed that a ball-bearing (BB) gun had been fired at a pupil. It added: ‘The matter has been treated very seriously, and the pupil who fired the gun has been permanently excluded. We wish to send a message out to our community that this behaviour is completely unacceptable and will result in removal from our school. We have enlisted the support of a national organisation to help us further with our training of staff and pupils and support for our transgender pupils. We have met with the parents of the pupil to apologise and to see what we can do further as a school.’

Social studies textbooks for grades 1-4 were recalled after an outcry from concerned parents over a page illustrating two Christian churches. The books had been introduced by the new management at Gateway International School, without official approval from the appropriate Maldivian ministry. A local news website accused the school of being ‘a gateway to turning Maldivians into Christians’. Thomas Muller, persecution analyst at World Watch Research, commented, ‘That the mere picture of a church is seen as promoting Christianity and potential proselytism shows how deeply ingrained the fear of the Muslim majority is. The appointment of a radical cleric to the highest Islamic Council (reported last month) also fits this pattern and will lead expatriate Christians to exercise even more caution, and indigenous Christians to take the utmost care in remaining undiscovered.’