Schools are extremely busy places – trying to engage with them is notoriously difficult. This was a challenge we faced in our knowledge mobilisation project that aimed to share findings with school staff about our recent research on weight-related bullying.
Weight is the most common reason for bullying, yet our review of school anti-bullying policies showed that less than 7% of policies even mention it. Weight-related bullying has lasting negative effects on people’s physical and mental health, and educational outcomes.
We wanted to talk with school staff about our findings and hear what they thought, but it soon became clear that in-person workshops would be too difficult to organise. So, we arranged online calls and focus groups instead.
We spoke to 18 staff in total, in a range of pastoral, leadership or subject roles, working in state, private and special schools.
So what did we learn? Well, this is a complex area and there’s a lot to unpick – but here are some of the insights we gained from our conversations:
Including weight-related bullying in anti-bullying policies would be helpful
Few of the people we spoke to knew whether weight-related bullying was mentioned in their policies (it wasn’t), but knew other forms of bullying, like racism or homophobia, were.
Policies were useful for setting out the rules in black and white, giving staff confidence to address unacceptable behaviour – if a pupil or parent objects to a sanction, staff can refer to the policy to support their decision.
Everyone we spoke to felt weight-related bullying should be included in anti-bullying policies and several planned to suggest this to their schools. However, they recognised that changing policies alone wouldn’t be enough to reduce this kind of bullying.
Weight-related bullying is probably under-reported
Most schools have electronic systems to record bullying, often with drop-down lists. While there are specific categories for things like racist or homophobic bullying, there usually isn’t one for weight-related bullying, making it much harder to track how common it is.
Bullying can also fall into several categories at once. Weight-related bullying can overlap with bullying about ethnicity, socio-economic status, misogyny, mental health and learning disabilities. So, weight-related comments may get recorded under something else, again making it hard to know how often weight is involved in bullying.
Some staff also felt pupils may be reluctant to report weight-related bullying due to the stigma involved. While society has made progress in condemning racism and homophobia—reflected in pupils’ confidence to report such bullying—weight stigma remains largely accepted, making reporting less likely.
Staff reported that weight-related comments are often brushed off as ‘banter’ – even by the kids on the receiving end. This may be to try and ‘save face’ with their peers bu
t research shows weight-based teasing in childhood has lasting negative effects into adulthood.
Schools want support on this issue
Everyone we spoke to felt staff training on how to address weight-related bullying would be welcome. Several staff mentioned they had received training on issues like racism or transphobia, but none had received anything on weight-stigma.
But more than this, staff wanted a whole-school approach, teaching pupils about the harmful impacts of weight stigma and bullying in PSHE lessons and assemblies. Resources to support this – including lesson plans, videos and scenarios to promote discussion – would be welcomed.
One teacher noted the curriculum promoting healthy lifestyles was sometimes interpreted by pupils as ‘fat is bad’. This made it harder to challenge negative weight-related comments and suggests that messages across the curriculum need to be better aligned.
Staff also requested more research. Having evidence on the prevalence and impacts of weight-related bullying and how to address it would help them feel confident to make changes.
Reflections on the Catalyst Award
Our Catalyst Award helped us share findings with school staff – and created a network of educators keen to stay involved. It also clarified who we need to involve in future research: not only pupils and teachers, but also governors, parents and Academy leaders.
This autumn, we’re building on that momentum with an event for the Economic and Social Research Council’s Festival of Social Sciences to start co-designing ways to tackle weight-related bullying. We hope to involve the schools we’ve already connected with and take the ideas forward in a new collaborative research project.
Finally, a key aim of this award was knowledge exchange. We’ve given a glimpse of the insight we’ve gained from school staff but what did they get from talking with us?
Well, we think one teacher nicely summed this up in an email after our call: “I went home really thinking about the issue in my school and how I can act to make a difference. Sometimes we need to have an opportunity to consider things that can be right there in front of us!”
By Lis Grey and Beki Langford
Dr Lis Grey is a Research Fellow (Qualitative/Mixed Methods) in Bristol Medical School
Dr Beki Langford is a Lecturer in Public Mental Health, Bristol Medical School
Links to our related work:
- Hughes et al. 2025 Weight-related bullying in schools: a review of school anti-bullying policies. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-025-23170-9
- Blog – https://arc-w.nihr.ac.uk/news/i-think-ive-just-found-a-blind-spot-in-school-anti-bullying-policies/
- Infographic: https://arc-w.nihr.ac.uk/publications/do-school-anti-bullying-policies-address-weight/