Pupils with SEND can experience bullying differently because prejudice, unequal power and barriers to communication can affect both what happens and whether adults recognise it. A pupil may report harm through their established communication method, disclose it later, or show distress without describing bullying. Schools in England should make reporting accessible, take each account seriously and examine the surrounding context. SEND is never an explanation that allows adults to dismiss harm. Any safeguarding concern needs the school's safeguarding response without delay.
The Anti-Bullying Alliance's Anti-Bullying Week 2026 runs from 16 to 20 November, with the theme Break the Silence. Before the week begins, check whether every pupil can tell a trusted adult what is happening and understand what happens next. This guide is for SENCos, pastoral leaders and DSLs in England.
Why the usual signs can be misleading
The Alliance's SEND and bullying guidance identifies greater exposure to bullying, including online bullying, among disabled pupils and pupils with SEN. That describes a group-level concern. It doesn't mean every pupil with SEND is bullied, has the same communication needs or experiences friendships in the same way.
Keeping children safe in education 2026, paragraphs 249 to 251, warns about assumptions that changes in behaviour, mood or injury relate to a child's condition. It identifies peer isolation, communication barriers and the possibility that bullying has a disproportionate impact without visible signs. Reports of abuse involving children with SEND require close liaison between the DSL or deputy and the SENCo. Appropriate communication support and additional pastoral attention should be considered.
The Alliance's definition centres on repeated intentional harm and an imbalance of power. Look beyond an isolated exchange: who controls access to a group, who can get others to join in, and who can safely say no? Don't require a pupil to use the word bullying before responding. A single serious event can need urgent action even when a repeated pattern hasn't been established.
Begin with the part of the story the record missed
Here is a made-up school record, used only to demonstrate the review. A pupil who uses supported communication has two entries for pushing in the lunch queue. Each entry records the pupil's action. Neither records what happened immediately beforehand. A parent separately reports that the pupil has become distressed before school on lunch-club days.
Staff respond to the immediate incident and share the concern through the school's safeguarding procedure. The SENCo checks the pupil's established communication support with the DSL and the adult who knows it. The pupil describes peers repeatedly blocking their place and copying their speech. Staff preserve that account separately from the parent's observations and their own interpretations.
The first records made the pushing visible. The additional account raises questions about targeted harm, power and access to lunchtime activities. It doesn't establish every detail or settle other pupils' accounts. The school still needs an appropriate response to the pushing, while recognising that this response alone won't address the reported harm.
Make telling possible, without supplying the answer
Ask how the pupil already communicates and which adult, setting and pace help them take part. This might include their established symbols, signing or communication device, processing time or an accessible way to indicate where something happened. Follow their agreed support and seek specialist advice where needed. Don't introduce a new tool and assume it captures the pupil's meaning accurately.
The Alliance's reporting and recording guidance recommends more than one reporting route, identifiable adults who can help, and a discreet response. Test the routes with pupils: knowing a form exists is different from being able to use it privately, explain the concern and receive a response.
Listen calmly. Use open prompts consistent with safeguarding training, allow the pupil time and avoid leading questions. Record their words or communication, the method used, the adult present and any uncertainty. Explain who may need to know and what will happen next in a way the pupil can understand. Don't promise secrecy or repeatedly ask the pupil to retell the account to different adults.
In the example, the adult records the pupil's communication as faithfully as possible. A later clarification is dated and attributed; it doesn't overwrite the original. The child and family voice guide explains how to keep accounts and professional interpretation distinct.
Read reports, support, place and attendance together
The DSL coordinates the safeguarding response. The SENCo contributes communication and SEND context, while pastoral and attendance colleagues check the evidence they are authorised to see. Keep sensitive accounts in the controlled source record. Share the information needed for each person's action through the school's agreed arrangements.
Return to the invented record. The reports cluster around one queue and the same peer group. The pupil's support plan describes an agreed lunchtime check-in, but the school can't yet confirm it happened. Attendance records show two recent missed morning sessions; they don't explain why. The parent's account adds a question about school access that the register alone couldn't answer.
The professional question becomes: what is happening around this pupil, is the agreed support reaching them, and what needs to change so they can participate safely? Check the original reports, dates, location coverage and pupil's account before concluding that records describe the same events. Include transport, online contact or other settings if the information raises those concerns.
A missing location isn't a safe location. No further report may mean harm has stopped, that an adult didn't record it, or that reporting still feels difficult. Unchanged attendance doesn't establish safety; a change in attendance doesn't prove bullying caused it. Don't infer a peer's intention, diagnose a condition or decide a sanction from a graph. These are questions for professional enquiry, with separate accounts and appropriate safeguarding oversight.
Agree protection now, then check the pupil's experience
The Department for Education's Preventing and tackling bullying advice puts immediate safety first and recognises the need for support tailored to the pupil. The school should address the reported bullying and the environment in which it occurs. Don't make the pupil responsible for ending it by becoming more resilient, changing their communication or withdrawing from the activity they want to attend.
For this example, the responsible leaders agree immediate supervision and an accessible check-in, establish who will deliver the existing support, and follow the safeguarding procedure for the reported peer behaviour. The pupil and family are told what can safely be shared about the response. Other children involved also need fair, individual consideration and appropriate support.
Keep three points visible in the authorised response record:
- Protection and delivery: what changes now, who owns each action, and who covers absence? Confirm that the agreed support actually happened.
- The pupil's experience: how will a trusted adult check whether the pupil feels safer and can take part, using their established communication method?
- Review and escalation: set a date proportionate to the concern and record what would prompt earlier action. Continued harm, inaccessible reporting or undelivered support needs follow-up without waiting for that date.
Review reports alongside participation, the pupil's account, family feedback and support delivery. An initial rise in reports can reflect greater confidence in telling adults, as the Alliance's recording guidance explains. A lower count alone can't establish improvement. Record the human decision to continue, change or escalate the response and why.
If a child may be at risk, speak to the DSL or deputy immediately and follow local safeguarding procedures. Contact emergency services where there is immediate danger. Don't wait for a complete dataset, a review meeting or Anti-Bullying Week. The separatepeer conflict and safeguarding guide covers route decisions in more detail.
Where Student Radar fits
Where enabled and authorised, Student Radar's Behaviour Analytics shows recorded incidents by location and time, group comparisons and missing location or time coverage. Staff can open a pupil's behaviour context and review permitted SEND support and attendance records alongside it. The peer-group account still needs checking in its source: the charts don't map bullying relationships or establish who harmed whom.
Access to one view doesn't grant access to safeguarding records. Software can support the review, but it can't substantiate bullying, interpret a child's communication or replace DSL decisions. Before next week, test one reporting route with pupils and agree who checks that each response reaches them. A demonstration can show how the permitted records support that review.
Sources and further reading
- Department for Education, Keeping children safe in education 2026, in force from 1 September 2026; paragraphs 249 to 251.
- Department for Education, Preventing and tackling bullying, July 2017 advice; publication page updated 9 July 2026. The page update didn't replace the pupil-bullying advice.
- Anti-Bullying Alliance, SEN & Disability and Our definition of bullying, undated pages checked 9 November 2026.
- Anti-Bullying Alliance, Reporting and recording bullying, undated page checked 9 November 2026.
- Anti-Bullying Alliance, Anti-Bullying Week 2026, organiser's dates and theme checked 9 November 2026.