A total of 323 teachers took part in the survey. 43% worked in secondary schools while 33% worked in primary/infants schools, 6% in middle schools, 5% at sixth form college, 4% in special schools and 4% in nursery schools. 44% of them had been a teacher for more than 10 years and 69% were heads of year.

73% reported complaints from parents and pupils and where teachers took the issue up with the bully's parents 19% found them unpleasant. 38% of teachers taking the survey said they had been assaulted by a pupil.

Peer support was the most used anti-bullying method 21% followed by counselling 17%, circle time 16%, no particular method 13%, restorative justice 8% and no-blame 8%.

43% of teachers thought their school's anti-bullying method was effective but 68% said that it didn't cover cyber bullying like abuse on the internet, by text and camera phone.

Were teachers confident about tackling bullying?

Only 40% of teachers were confident they had all the skills they needed to tackle bullying while 82% thought that trainee teachers should get more advice on tackling the problem and 78% thought there should be more in-school training. 85% thought that lunch supervisors and ancillary staff should have more training.

Only 46% of teachers said their schools took part in Anti-Bullying Week 2005.

A worrying 53% said they were not made aware of new anti-bullying advice or initiatives by the government while 22% were made aware by their headteacher and 24% through staff training days.

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