The National Bullying Survey 2006, carried out by the charity Bullying UK under its former name of Bullying Online, revealed pupils in UK schools were suffering extreme misery at the hands of classroom bullies.

And teachers across the UK said they wanted more training to deal with the problem.

Bullying UK surveyed 8,574 children, parents, teachers and adults in the first six months of 2006 in the largest ever investigation into school bullying in the UK. The survey was widely publicised on national TV, radio and in newspapers as well as in young people's magazines and on youth, charity, police and council websites.

Scandalous situation

"We reply to thousands of emails a year so we knew the problem was a big one, but even so we were shocked by what we found out," said director Liz Carnell. "This is a scandalous situation and it needs tough measures to sort it out.

"If assaults were happening in the workplace the attackers would be prosecuted but in many cases the bullies are getting off scot-free without any punishment at all," she said.

The charity believes there should be urgent research to find out why so many children are being bullied repeatedly, despite their parents making numerous complaints to schools.

"There have never been so many trendy methods of dealing with school bullying but the results of our survey are shocking and it's time to find out which methods work and ditch the rest," said Liz Carnell.

"Parents will be shocked to learn that bullying is big business but that none of the anti-bullying methods being used in schools have been evaluated in independent long term trials."

Other pages in this sectionSchool projects / Bullies have taken my friends away / Bullying - Have your say! / Dangerous websites
How to help someone being bullied / Mobile phone problems / School bus bullies / Gay bullying
Weapons can KILL / Racist bullying / National Bullying Survey 2006 / Introduction to bullying
Cyberbullying - What is Cyberbullying / Happy slapping / Internet abuse / Bullying outside school
Are you a bully? / Problems young people suffer / Adults' survey results / Pupils' survey results
Parents' survey results / Tips from pupils / Moving school / Internet scams
Body language / Cyber safety tips / Teachers' survey results / Bullying in sport
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