If you are experiencing any form of bullying in school you, as a pupil, have rights to ensure the bullying is dealt with. Schools have a legal responsibility to promote a culture of anti-bullying and if you go to a teacher, to tell them you are being bullied, they must take you seriously.

The best way to deal with bullying is to ensure you talk about the problems you are having with someone you trust; it sounds stupid, but this can often point to a solution. Often the best idea is to inform the school; it may be good for you to meet your form or class teacher with your parents to discuss what has been going on and how best to combat it.

When having this discussion bear in mind that the school have a legal obligation to help you when you are being bullied. If they refuse to act make sure that you continue your complaint up to the chairman of governors until someone listens!

If you are being bullied it is very important to remember:

• You are never ever alone; there is always someone out there who is experiencing the same thing as you!!
• It is never your fault; it is the bully who has the problem
• Stand up for yourself; never ever provoke or start a fight, but if you are being hit or started on make sure you defend yourself.

The majority of bullying goes on inside the school’s gates; it can go on in the playground, in the classroom or even in the school toilets. As long as the incident occurs in school premises they have a legal obligation to act. Sometimes the school can be a bit slow in acting on a complaint, they even refuse to act; but if you remind them of their legal obligations I am sure they’ll be more than happy to help!!!

In all cases remember that bullying is wrong, and you do not have to stand for it. If you tell your school and they refuse to do anything then take your complaint up the tree, even to the Local Government or Houses of Parliament – in most cases this is not necessary and should be avoided at all costs but should be used as a last resort.

Bullying can be defined as many different things, but in reality it's anything that makes you feel uncomfortable or unhappy. Most people’s perceptions of bullying are that it is ‘someone getting beaten up by a bigger kid for your dinner money’; in most cases this couldn’t be further from the truth. The majority of bullying that goes on is ‘psychological’ (name calling, spreading rumours and ignoring people) – the truth is this kind of bullying can be a lot more damaging than being beaten up. If you take the analogy that if you get beaten up you can go to the doctors to be healed, but if you get damaged psychologically where can you go to be cured??

No matter what kind of bullying you receive it’s bound to be extremely nasty, and will make you feel unhappy and bad about yourself. It’s always important to remember that the fact you are being bullied is never ever your fault and you should never seek to change yourself to fit in with your bullies; being an individual is something to be extremely proud of – remember if everyone was the same life would be boring.

The best advice I can give is to keep an open dialogue with your school and parents and keep them informed as to what’s happening so they can be as up to date as possible.