One in four school pupils in Brighton and Hove have been bullied

4:43pm Friday 15th February 2008

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One in four school pupils in Brighton and Hove have been victims of bullying.

Of those, one in three believes their sexual orientation is an aggravating factor, new figures have revealed.

Despite a year-long anti-bullying campaign by Brighton and Hove City Council, bullying in secondary schools remains as rife as ever.

The Equalities Forum revealed the statistics in the city's schools.

The figures showed that despite the local authority's work to reduce bullying and harassment in schools, secondary school figures have remained the same.

Homophobic bullying was the fourth highest type of bullying in secondary schools - behind only appearance, ability and class, and ahead of religion, gender, race and disability.

A total of 34 per cent of bullying victims said sexual orientation and homophobia played a part in the bullying.

Green city councillor Rachel Fryer said: "The Conservatives introduced Section 28, outlawing the 'promotion' of homosexuality in schools.

"The result of this was that many teachers were scared to mention homosexuality at all and homophobic bullying was rarely challenged.

"'Gay' is frequently banded about as an insult in schools without being challenged by teachers or pupils."

The latest council survey was carried out in November, and incorporated an anti-bullying week, focusing on homophobic bullying.

The results showing more than one in four secondary school pupils has been the victim of bullying is the same as in 2005.

In primary schools bullying was even higher, with 27 per cent of pupils saying they had been bullied.

More pupils than last year said their school was good at dealing with bullying while 24 per cent disagreed.

Patcham High School headteacher Paula Sargent said bullying was decreasing at her school thanks to mediation work where the bully and the victim sit down with staff to discuss the issues, and high visibility behaviour assistants.

She said: "In our school incidences of bullying are decreasing.

"For us racial and homophobic bullying are the rarest kinds we have. We deal with all bullying seriously, but those particularly are dealt with particularly seriously."

Campaign group Stonewall believes almost two thirds of young gay people have experienced homophobic bullying, and that 97 per cent of gay pupils regularly heard homophobic insults at school.

Studies by Stonewall, which campaigns for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rights, show that less than one quarter of young people have been told that homophobic bullying is wrong.

Two weeks ago the Government, in conjunction with Stonewall and Education Action Challenging Homophobia, launched guidance to help schools tackle the problem.

Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, Ed Balls said: "Bullying of any form is unacceptable - we must uphold every child's right to learn in a safe and secure environment.

"Just as any form of racist bullying is unacceptable so too is homophobic bullying.

"Even casual use of homophobic language in schools can create an atmosphere that isolates young people and can be the forerunner of more serious forms of bullying."

Last year more than 37,000 children and young people called ChildLine.

NSPCC spokesman Isabel Kelly said: "It's vital children feel able to speak out about all kinds of bullying and know who to turn to when they need help.

"We want all schools to be able to offer pupils on-site counselling, including setting up schemes where children are trained to help each other."

Has your child been bullied at school? Tell us how the school dealt with it below.