Growing numbers of children say they are carrying knives and bottles to defend themselves against bullies and are afraid of being stabbed at school, according to a report.

Media coverage of children and young people being shot or stabbed in towns or cities, together with a fear that serious bullying is becoming more common, are creating a climate of fear in some schools, the research by Roger Morgan, the Children’s Rights Director, suggests.

Dr Morgan said that where bullying was once considered to be restricted to the playground, children now felt affected by it outside the school gates and on the street. “Young people tell me they believe there is an increasing number of other young people carrying weapons in order to defend themselves. As a result, many themselves say they have carried a weapon or have considered doing so themselves out of a fear of violence on the streets or at school,” he said.

Dr Morgan was speaking before the publication today of a study of young people’s experiences of bullying.

The report said: “Bullying could develop into rape, attacks on the street, and mugging to steal money for drugs. It could also end up with people being stabbed and shot on the streets, and gangs attacking the families of their victims.

“Whether or not we call these things bullying or crimes, we were told that they are increasing, and that young people are getting more worried about them. One group decided that these crimes can only be called bullying if they are against someone the attacker already knows.”

Kevin Brennan, the Children’s Minister, said that knife incidents in school were very rare. The number of convictions for possession of a knife on school premises rose from 9 to 44 between 1999 and 2005, the last year for which figures are available.

Although he said it was important to listen to the views of children, he said that Dr Morgan’s report was “too anecdotal” to provide evidence of a trend. The report is based on questionnaires and focus groups among more than 300 children from a wide range of backgrounds. Some were in boarding school, others in foster care or children’s homes or residential special schools.

Another serious concern for children questioned for the study was cyber-bullying through mobile phones and websites, which appeared to be increasing and had affected four in ten young people.

Children were particularly concerned about having embarrassing photographs taken of them on mobile phones and then circulated via the internet or mobile phones, and “happy slapping”, in which attacks are filmed.

The most common types of bullying that children experienced were name-calling and being hit.

Two thirds of the 319 children who gave their views for the report said that bullying was getting worse. Children were critical of antibullying projects at school, which involved drama work or producing posters.

Posters often did not work because “young people don’t pay attention to posters”, the report said.

One school introduced a “buddy bench”, where children with no friends could sit and wait for others to join them. “No one wanted to sit on the bench. It was a stupid idea,” one child told researchers.

Overall, however, four out of ten young people never worried about bullying, and about a quarter of those who had been bullied were coping by talking to an adult.

Schools divided

Clever children are monopolising the best comprehensives even though schools are not allowed to select by ability, leading researchers claim today (Nicola Woolcock writes). Failing and successful schools remain as divided by the aptitude of their intake as in 1996.

And faith schools that “cream-skim” the brightest pupils are increasing segregation, according to the report by the London School of Economics’ Centre for Economic Performance.

The average pupil starting at the highest-ranking comprehensives was in the top third of national academic achievement, the research found. However, the average pupil at the worst schools was in the bottom third of ability.

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