Pupils take part in biggest-ever bullying survey

So far pupils at 11 schools have been completing the survey which was launched by the county council as part of Anti-Bullying Week towards the end of 2007.

In the next few weeks the survey will be extended to more schools. By the spring term the anti-bullying team at East Sussex County Council hope that as many as 12,000 pupils at 40 schools, including all the county's maintained secondary schools, will have had the chance to take part.

Part of the county council's on-going work supporting schools and colleges in tackling bullying, the survey is to help the council and schools focus anti-bullying resources and assess the effectiveness and impact of anti-bullying initiatives across the county.

The on-line survey is being accessed by the schools taking part via an internal intranet. It asks a wide variety of questions across different areas of bullying including. These cover areas such as how safe the young person feels at their school, their experience of bullying both inside and outside of school, and whether they have been bullied or been a bully. The information gathered will assist schools to focus on specific areas that might be identified.

Councillor Rupert Simmons, county cabinet member for learning and school effectiveness, said: "Bullying is obviously a key concern for young people and, more widely, for society as a whole.

"The East Sussex Youth Cabinet highlighted this as a particular issue and we have worked with them to tackle it.

"Our anti-bullying team really is at the forefront of those efforts to address what is obviously an extremely important issue. This survey will help us understand the issues more fully and how effectively they are being tackled."

The results of the survey are being fed back to schools and are being collated and analysed by the anti-bullying team. But one early conclusion from the feedback from pupils has heartened officers that progress is being made.

Councillor Simmons said: "Obviously it is going to take time to collate all the survey results but I'm told that one positive thing is beginning to emerge and that is that most young people do have confidence that schools are dealing with bullying."

Information for parents and cares and young people on bullying is available from the East Sussex county council website at eastsussex.gov.uk/bullying.