Edinburgh is the first Scottish council to publish figures on bullying. They showed that 375 incidents were reported in primary schools last year, an average of four incidents per school throughout the sessions, and 298 cases of bullying were recorded in secondary schools.
No incidents were reported by nursery schools. Eighteen per cent of the bullying incidents recorded occurred among five-to seven-year-olds, but bullying peaked in the higher stages of primary school and lower secondary school years.
In primary schools most of the reported incidents were not considered to be discriminatory in nature, but nine incidents involved pupils being bullied because of a disability, seven because of gender and six because of pupils' perceived sexual orientation. A child's weight, size, body shape, hair, glasses, family background, accent or religion were also given as triggers for bullying, as was being new to the school.
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