Practical Law Public Sector addresses the questions that schools may ask local authorities regarding day-to-day school management and sets out the legal issues to consider when responding:
This FAQ looks at schools’ obligations where one pupil is bullying another outside school. For details of all our school hotline queries, please see Practice note, Schools hotline FAQs.
Q: Chloe, aged 8, has come to one of the teachers to say she is being badly bullied outside school by another pupil at the school. We have spoken to the other girl, but wondered, what is the school’s responsibility and what else can we do about it?
A: Schools have a duty to protect their pupils from harm while at school. If staff fail in this duty of care the school can be vicariously liable in negligence for the harm caused to the pupil. The general principle is that the duty ceases at the school gates. However, schools should take all reasonable steps to protect pupils to the extent that they can: they may impose disciplinary penalties for a pupil’s conduct when the pupil is off the school premises and not under the charge of a member of school staff, although “only to the extent that it is reasonable for the school imposing the penalty to regulate the pupil’s conduct at such a time” (sections 90 and 91, Education and Inspections Act 2006).
The school can therefore take disciplinary action against the bullying pupil, including exclusion, even though the action took place outside school, provided there is a clear link between that behaviour and maintaining good behaviour and discipline among the pupil body as a whole. However, it is important to ensure there is sufficient evidence to justify such an extreme sanction (see Practice notes, Pupil exclusion: England and School employees: discipline, dismissals and claims).
The Equality Act 2010 may also impose some responsibilities on the school. It does not specifically deal with the relationship between pupils and bullying, but a school may be in breach of its provisions if it treats bullying relating to a protected characteristic (such as race or sexual orientation) less seriously than other forms of bullying (for example, dismissing complaints of homophobic bullying) (Department for Education guidance on the Equality Act 2010: advice for school leaders, school staff, governing bodies and local authorities (November 2012)).
The Department for Education has produced guidance for schools on tackling bullying: see DfE: Preventing and tackling bullying (March 2014).