Prime Minister backs anti-bully site

AN anti-bullying web site set up by a 15 year-old schoolboy from Essex has received official backing from the Prime Minister.

Oli Watts, a pupil at the Gilberd School in Colchester, launched Pupiline.Net just over a month ago after being bullied at his previous school. The site has already had over 155,000 hits and has received widespread backing from teachers, parents and other youngsters who have been bullied.

In a personal letter to the youngster, Tony Blair welcomed the initiative and said he was delighted that Oli was exploiting new technology in the process. He added the Department for Education and Employment was planning its own anti-bullying web site as part of a new initiative next term to raise awareness of the problem.

Last week two national teaching organisations endorsed the site. The National Association of Head Teachers and the Secondary Heads Association both described Pupiline.net as an "excellent resource for young people and their parents."  Their backing for the site came as a new report showed that one in three pupils had been bullied at school.

"I am so excited that the Prime Minister has backed my site," said Oli, who lives in Suffolk with his parents, both teachers, and younger brother, Harry. "I feel like I’ve got right through to the top man and that the Government is taking people like me seriously and not just turning a blind eye.  I hope Tony Blair lives up to his word now and really does something that will make a difference for other kids like me."

Oli’s father, David, added: "We are extremely proud of what Oli has achieved and how he has turned an experience that could have really set him back into a sort of force for good. We also think this may be the FIRST website to receive this sort of official backing from the PM."

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He went on to say that Oli is so buoyed up by the support he is receiving, that he is now starting to include other features of interest to young people on the site including things like exam stress, subject and career options and some more light-hearted material too. "What I really want Pupiline to become in the future is THE web site for kids of my age," explained Oli - a sort of e-magazine, which is written by people like me for people like me on things that matter to us. Maybe even the Prime Minister's children will check it out and write a feature for me!"

Notes to editors
1. You can find Pupiline at www.pupiline.net where you can also check out the full contents of Tony Blair's letter to Oli.

2. The following message was posted on Pupiline.net's forum at the weekend by a victim of bullying.

Hi! My name’s Anne. I'd just like to say a really big thank you to you Oli for this web site, and making me feel better. When you get bullied you sometimes feel like you are being ignored by teachers/family and that nobody cares. But since coming here I realise people do care. It's made me feel stronger, knowing I have you guys behind me. And I've realised that instead of being worried about going out in case they're there, I don't care. They can do what they like, because I'm not going to be frightened anymore. I know that bullies will never just go, but there is a lot we can do to stop some of it. I just think that schools should make a bigger stand against it.

- The Pupiline Team