I’m pleased you’ve written to me as it sounds like you’ve been having a tough time since starting high school.
I want you to know that bullying is wrong and you have a right to feel safe in school. Your school should have an anti-bullying policy. This means they should take any bullying really seriously. It’s important that you talk to someone at school to help make it stop. Can you think of a member of staff at your school that you feel you could talk to about what’s happening?
If your school tries to help but the bullying keeps happening, then it’s important to let the school know this. Otherwise they might think that the bullying has stopped. Often schools have a special approach to bullying but can only move it on to the next step if you keep them up to date about what’s happening. If school don’t take you seriously then it can usually help if you ask an adult, maybe one of your parents, to speak to them.
It might help if you start to keep a log of what’s happening that you can show people as it can be really difficult to remember everything that’s happened. A diary or log can really help to show what’s going on. It can be as simple as a piece of paper you carry around with you so you can make a note as soon as you’re able to of what happened, when, who it was and how you felt.
Coping with this kind of constant name calling from anyone, never mind people who used to be your friends, can be very difficult to deal with. As well as getting support from school, you can also talk to the counsellors at ChildLine who can support you and help you stop the bullying.
You can ring for free on 0800 1111 or log on for a 1-2-1 chat. You can also get support through emails but it can take up to 24 hours for the counsellors to respond to these. Just so you know, calls won’t show up on phone bills and if you use a mobile you can delete our number from your call history if you want to.
Take a look at our bullying advice in the Explore section for more information and advice on bullying. You could also take a look at the bullying message boards where young people help and support each other – you can just read what others have posted or you could try posting a message yourself – it’s up to you.