Ofsted: schools failing to stamp out offensive name-calling The report - based on inspections of 56 primary or secondary schools - told how some schools went to extreme lengths to stamp out bullying, particularly insults linked to homophobia. One primary school encouraged pupils to behave in a "non-gender-stereotypical way," with infant boys dressing in girls" clothes from the dressing-up box or wearing their hair in ribbons. A six-year-old at the school chose to wear a "tutu all day without comment from his peers," other boys preferred "cheerleading to football" and all 10- to 11-year-olds learned about gay role models such as actor Sir Ian McKellen and rugby player Gareth Thomas in lessons, it emerged. Another small infants school with large numbers of parents in same-sex relationships attempted to create an "open-minded" atmosphere by appreciating that "a boy may prefer to be known as a girl and have a girl's name and similarly a girl may have a girl's name but wants to dress as and be a boy," said Ofsted. Susan Gregory, Ofsted's director of education and care, said schools had a duty to promote a "positive culture so all pupils learn in a happy and safe environment," adding: "This report shows many examples where action to tackle bullying has been very effective and I hope this best practice can be emulated by other schools." The study - entitled No Place for Bullying - was based on formal discussions with 1,357 pupils and almost 800 staff. It found that pupils in all of the schools "could give a range of examples of disparaging language that they heard in school." The use of the word "gay" was the most common put-down, often taken to mean "rubbish." But Ofsted warned that staff "often said that they did not hear any of this type of language in a typical week," while others dismissed slurs as a joke, even when they were based on racism. "Less frequently, this apparent acceptance that derogatory language was "just banter" was also applied to racist terms or to ones related to disability," inspectors said. "For example, a teacher wrote that they heard "occasional racist remarks but it may be banter between friends.""