Sir Bob Geldof has his own unique take on the value of education. "Some old Greek once said only the educated are free, and that's the truth, particularly in the modern age," he tells CYP Now.

Why is there this problem? Firstly, bullying. A 9yr old is school refusing, and instead of dealing with the bullies, the authorities find it easier to threaten court action for truancy. A 12yr old has hanged herself because of bullying; Children's Services are waiting to see if it hits the national headlines. A five year old was raped with a bottle by children not much older. The mixed-race, young, single mother tried first to deal with it through the school instead of the police. The local authority and ed psych helped the school cover up the incident, the dinner lady on duty that day disappeared, pressure was brought to bear on other parents, and she was threatened that her child would be taken into care if she pursued the case. The second reason is that too many bog standard comps are no more than factory farms trying to turn out worker ants, who learn that they are powerless to change the system but that alcohol, retail therapy and violence mask the despair.

I attended an aspirational mentoring course at Newi College and one of the suggestions that we made to Safeguarding Children and Young People Department of Wrexham County Bourough is that bullying should be put on the child protection register. What you have just wrote only reinforces my viewpoint. I do not feel that you should wait for it to hit the National Papers but shold ensure that it does. I also feel that if you have the details of these cases then you have a duty to involve the Childrens Commisioner of your Country. If it is true and there has been a cover up (I know that it happens from personal experience), I have little doubt that these parents will have little in the way of recourse. I do not believe any more that it is down to just pure incompetence but that the managerial structures of our social care services place the reputation of the organisation before the child. Perhaps this will be a benefit of having police officers resedent in school, if we can not entrust our children to the education system then surely there is a need for a huge change. I hope that at some point these individuals and authorities responsible are prosecuted to the full extent of the law and charged with childprotection criminal offences, neglect and obstructing what should of been an investigation by the police. After all they are meant to be responsible. Good luck Anne and respect for speaking out.

We've colected stats on bullying for many years and the stats have not changed. Monitoring finds no answers, it only documents problems, and we already know what these are.  I have only today had the privilege of spending some time in a primary school where bullying is truly absent.   Maybe if we spent more time looking for successes and learning from the recipe mix that has led to such wonderful achievements we might actually move forward.

Name of school gladly supplied on request

 
 

I would be interested in the name of the school and how they have achieved it, methods of best practice should be shared, even if they do not always transfer from one establishment to another it does help others to take note that these issues can be dealt with and children protected from the effects of bullying. I think that any school that has achieved this deserves credit in regard to both staff and students. Nice to hear something so positive. 

I have recently been told that the Venture Playground, Garner Road Wrexham is under threat of closure, as usual it comes down to funding. Councillor Malcolm King has recently recieved an OBE for his commitment and work with young people in the Caia area. The Venture is not just an area that provides an important element of leisure time but is renowened for its work with disadvantaged young people and those struggling in education and a wide array of issues (take a minute to think what issues young people can face, and that is what they do). It is part of the current alternite curriculum provision. Has a strong involvement in youth inclusion iniatives and supportive of all forms of youth engagement etc etc, who or what service can fill this provision if it does go, it would appear that success is no safety net and once again they talk about improving attainment whilst taking away the tools. Society neens to see a psyciatrist as the world has gone mad.