The Rise of Teenage Girls Feeling Unsafe at School

The Rise of Teenage Girls Feeling Unsafe at School

All children have a fundamental right to education. Equally important is their right to feel safe in the school environment. A new study, out today, which draws from the TIMSS dataset and cites ImpactEd Group and TEP research, suggests that this basic expectation is no longer being met for many students in England, particularly teenage girls.

In Professor John Jerrim’s new academic paper published today by UCL, he draws on data from the TIMSS study (https://www.iea.nl/studies/iea/timss/timss2023) and examines emotional engagement trends before and after the pandemic, as well as changes between Year 5 and Year 9 students.

Percentage of pupils who feel safe in school

Since 2011 the percentage of 14-year-olds (Year 9s)in England who strongly agree they feel safe at school has changed dramatically. Prior to the pandemic – from 2011 to 2019 – approximately 85% of teenagers reported feeling safe at school. However, by 2023, this figure has dropped to just 70%.

One advantage of international comparative datalike TIMSS is the ability to contextualise England's decline within a broader international framework. The below chart presents these comparative results.

Figure 2. The decline in 14-year-olds feelings of safety at school between 2019 and 2023. England compared to other countries.

The horizontal axis shows the percentage of teenagers strongly agreeing they felt safe at school in 2019, with corresponding 2023 figures on the vertical axis. The diagonal 45-degree line represents where these values would be equal.

Notably, most countries fall below this diagonal line, indicating a widespread post-pandemic decline in teenagers' feelings of school safety. However, England's decline appears more severe than in most other countries with available data.

Most critically, this decline in feelings of safety has been particularly pronounced among young girls in England. Between 2019 and2023, girls in England were 22 percentage points less likely to strongly agree that they feel safe at school.

This far exceeds both the 13-percentage point decline observed across the average country and the 10-percentage point decline among English boys.

The analysis also explores changes in children's feelings of safety between primary school (Year 5) and mid-secondary school(Year 9).

The results reveal that in England, there is a 31-percentagepoint drop in pupils strongly agreeing they feel safe at school between Year 5 and Year 9 – among the steepest declines in any country with available data. This exceeds both the OECD countries' average (23 percentage point decline) and the overall average across all countries with data (20 percentage point decline). This marries with the picture that we in the ImpactEd datasets, with our 2024 Understanding Attendance report showing a decline in sense of school safety in the same groups.

Again, this appears to disproportionately affect girls in England. Among Year 5 students, girls in England report feeling slightly safer at school than boys, with results similar to international averages (girls three percentage points more likely to feel safe than boys).However, by Year 9, boys in England are 10 percentage points more likely to feel very safe at school than girls, compared to only a four-percentage point difference on average across countries.

Table 1. Percentage point decline in children strongly agreeing they feel safe at school between Year 5and Year 9

Country

Percentage point decline

Portugal -37%

England -31%

Chile -29%

Australia -27%

Italy -26%

Hong Kong -26%

Ireland -24%

OECD average -23%

All country average -20%

Abu Dhabi -12%

Saudi Arabia -12%

Singapore -6%

England faces a significant problem with young people reporting they don't feel safe at school.

Speaking about the report Professor John Jerrim said, “This is something that needs immediate attention. A minimum expectation amongst most parents is that their child feels safe while that they are at school. Unfortunately, for many, this is no longer the case.”

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