Hi there
Thanks for your letter, and I’m really glad you have decided to get in touch. What I notice most in your letter is that you have taken a lot of courage to talk to people and it sounds like you really have tried to do things to help stop the bullying. Talking to adults can be a really scary thing to do, and something which should help the bullying to stop. I can see that you have already tried a lot of things and you are wondering what your next steps could be.
Nobody has the right to bully anyone else, and you have the right to go to school without worrying about being bullied. Your teachers also have a legal responsibility to make sure that you do not get bullied in school. All schools have an Anti-Bullying policy, and this will tell you and your parents what the school will do to protect you. If your teachers don’t protect you, there are steps that you and your mum can take to make sure something is done to keep you safe.
You did the right thing to talk to your mum and your teachers about the bullying, and sometimes when you have taken that brave step, the teachers might believe that things have improved for you and that you don’t need anymore help. It’s really important that you keep telling the teachers until something is done about it, and your mum can help you with this too. If you and your mum don’t feel that the school is doing enough to help you, your mum can ask to speak to your Head teacher and take this further by sending a letter to the chair of governors and the local authority.
In the meantime, there are some ways that you could try to keep yourself safe when you are in school. One thing that can be really helpful is to keep a bullying diary, recording what happens where and when, this can help you to show your parents and teachers what has been happening. This can also allow you to see if there are any times when you are more likely to get bullied; perhaps it’s in certain lessons or even when certain people are around. If there is a pattern, it could be really helpful for you to know this to help keep you safe.
You could also try to avoid the places the bullies will be, you could try walking a different way to your lessons and sit somewhere else at lunch. It’s also a good idea to try and always make sure you have someone with you, this might make the bullies less likely to do anything and will also mean that there will be witnesses to what happens. You said that you have tried pretending not to care, and this is great, as confidence, self esteem, body language and humour can all deter bullies.
Although it might feel that you are the only person in your school being bullied, I would like to let you know that I speak to lots of people who are being bullied, and there are a lot of posts on the ChildLine bullying message boards from people who have experienced bullying so it would really be worth looking to see what others are saying.
If you feel you would like to talk this through some more with a ChildLine counsellor, there will always be someone to listen, either on the phone, 0800 1111, which is free to phone and wont show up on your bill, or online, either by email or a 1-2-1 chat.
Take care and bye for now,
Sam