Don't let the bullies win

Fear, misery and even thoughts of suicide mar their youth - and the cause is bullying.

The government estimates that one in three children are bullied at some point while at secondary school.

This week has seen stars such as Kelly Holmes and Vernon Kay join government ministers and charities to launch the first national Anti-Bullying Week.

The stars feature in a new video screened on national TV, reading lines from a poem written by a victim of bullying.

The film has been part of a series of events to encourage children, parents and schools to work together to beat bullying.

Children are being encouraged to wear a wristband, obtainable from the Radio 1 website, as a sign of their determination to beat bullying and to support victims.

The week has been organised by the Anti-Bullying Alliance. TV presenter Esther Rantzen is president.

"The alliance is a group of about 50 organisations, charities like ChildLine, Kidscape and NSPCC, local education authorities and other groups, all of which are dedicated to trying to alert schools to the problem of bullying," said Esther.

"Bullying is not an easily solved problem. But once you accept that it exists in your school there are quite simple structures you can put in place to help to tackle it

"One of the things that I think works well is if a school conducts an anonymous questionnaire of all the pupils once a term.

"A questionnaire about bullying. If it is happening? Where it is happening? When it is happening? And how long it has been going on?

"If it is anonymous you can rely on most of the children answering honestly. Then the teachers can map the problem.

"But if you don't know where and when and how much is going on then you are at a real disadvantage and don't know the scale of the problem.

"There are lots of schools that do this on a regular basis. It has proved to be very effective."

Esther believes that the way schools can take information like this forward is by introducing a peer mentoring scheme.

She said: "Peer mentoring is where young people look after each other. If a kid has a problem they can go to somebody who knows how to draw it to the attention of a teacher or find other ways of befriending the young person.

"At least once a term school assemblies should discuss the problem.

"Every school has an anti-bullying policy but it is not always effective and the children don't always know exactly how to make it work.

"You've got to take that policy off the shelf and make it part of the school's everyday culture.

"Anti-bullying Week lifts the profile of the problem so that it can't be swept under the carpet.

"Bullies understand that this is something we are not prepared to tolerate in our schools.

"It is a way of drawing attention to the fact that this is serious and can be tackled effectively."

"Bullying has to be the responsibility of all those people who are running the school - teachers, governors and parents who are involved with governors. Parents on their own are pretty helpless.

"The government has appointed nine regional officers with a particular responsibility for tackling bullying and supporting schools in anti-bullying policies.

"It has put quite a lot of money behind this because it knows that it is the only way to get the best out of the schools, the pupils and parents."

She went on: "Bullying costs lives. Fifteen young people commit suicide every year because of bullying. You hear from countless adults that their school life was blighted by it.

"People like Diane Thompson who runs Camelot, was bullied for years when she was at school but has created a very successful business.

"She has remained dedicated to making sure that other young people don't suffer in the way she did."

Esther agrees that bullying has taken a more insidious twist with text messaging

"I think the obvious way to tackle this is to get the child to change their telephone SIM card so no one knows his or her number," she said.

"We've got to create attitudes in our society and in our schools where the whole idea of bullying is cowardly and ridiculous and everybody understands that it is a sign of weakness on the part of the bully.

"Then, with all the other structures in place, we are well on our way."

So how do we deal with the bullies?

"It depends on a variety of factors," said Esther.

"Sometimes they are bullied in their own home life, or they have no concept of the pain they cause and it becomes a game which gets out of hand.

"People need to tackle it on a case by case basis. Sometimes we are talking about criminals when they are extorting money out of children on the way home with threats and violence and that should be dealt with as a criminal act.

"We had more than 30,000 calls to ChildLine last year with relation to bullying.

There are certain kinds of bullying which are on the increase but I also think that children understand that they are not supposed to put up with it or tackle it by themselves and that they are allowed to ask for help. That's a good sign of progress."

HOW SCHOOLS HANDLE THE PROBLEM:

A Hampshire County Council spokesman said: "All issues of bullying are managed by individual schools. They are required to determine their own anti-bullying policies and indicate how they will manage any allegations.

"It is up to an individual school whether to take part in wider national initiatives.

"Hampshire County Council may visit schools to provide advice about policy or practice matters and at times we may recommend certain actions or activities but schools do not have to keep us informed of what they elect to do.

"The council encourages all schools to work towards the National Healthy School Standard. One aspect of this is to enhance the emotional health and wellbeing of all pupils and those who work in schools. This would mean paying attention to issues such as bullying."

If you are being bullied call ChildLine on 0800 1111 or Bullywatch on 01454 318753

If you would like one of the stop bullying wristbands log onto www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/onelife