Blighted by bullies... how children can escape persecutors in the playground

The child of Anglo-Egyptian parents, her skin colour made her stand out against her predominantly white classmates and in her early years rarely a week went by without her being reduced to tears by bullies.

Once identified as a victim, Elizabeth often struggled to make her own voice heard and as she moved through each new school year, the name calling, intimidation and physical violence became increasingly severe.

"It started in primary school and, like most bullying, at first it was very subtle; a few insults said under the breath," she says "I guess at the time the teachers either didn't notice or ignored it as a bit of rowdy playground behaviour.

"The problem was that because it wasn't nipped in the bud, as the years went on the bullying became more intense.

"I was pushed about, I was spat on and the other children would form gangs and come looking for me. Once bullies find a victim, they don't let them go very easily. I was different and it meant I was vulnerable. From very early on, I was identified as a target and that label is incredibly difficult to remove."

Elizabeth's story will be familiar to many. While her parents and her teachers did become aware of the problem, the situation was allowed to escalate. Somewhat inevitably, as her own frustrations grew, Elizabeth, who lives in Hemsworth, lashed out.

"I didn't deal with it well, but neither did the school," she

says. "There was one instance I still remember vividly. One girl began calling me names and hit me. By this point I was so sick of being picked on, that I exploded.

"It ended in a fight and we were both hauled in front of the head. Even then I hoped that maybe finally someone would listen and take what I was saying seriously. In fact, he made the bullying a whole lot worse.

"We were made to stand up in front of the whole school at an assembly. We had to explain why were fighting and then agree to be friends. He gave us each 18 merits for making up. I guess he thought it would show that good behaviour would be rewarded, but it didn't work that way.

"Quite quickly, another girl told me she wanted a fight so she could get some merits when she apologised.

"Eventually, the bullying did subside, but it never went away completely. For many years, I couldn't believe that my parents hadn't done more to stop it, but now I realise that they simply didn't know what to do. They were worried if they intervened, they would make the situation worse. It was almost like they were being bullied as well as me."

While Elizabeth left school with painful memories, it didn't put her off a life in the classroom. After university, including a masters degree in applied psychology and learning disability, Elizabeth became a teacher herself and, following spells in both the state and private sector, she gradually became determined to put her own difficult experiences to good use.

Now in the final stages of a doctorate in education at the University of Huddersfield, Elizabeth is about to launch the UK's first Bullying Consultancy, the culmination of years of research into young victims.

"I've had a lot of sobering experiences and having seen inside a number of different establishments I quickly learnt that bullying isn't confined to one particular group," she says.

"I worked for a time at a hospital for adults with severe learning difficulties; I watched as staff stole their puddings from their lunch trays and generally treated them as a major inconvenience.

"When I complained about it, I was shut out. They didn't seem to think they were doing anything wrong and it made me realised just how institutionalised bullying can be.

"Suddenly, I realised the problems I had experienced weren't unique to me or even to my school. Yet, despite it being so widespread and so many reports and surveys carried out into the problem, we really don't seem to have got a handle on how to deal with it."

Last month, a bullying prevention charity called for more official data to be compiled to provide a clearer picture on the link between child suicide and bullying. Beatbullying looked at 59 suicide cases of children aged between 10 and 14-years-old and found 44 per cent were linked to intimidating behaviour.

Although most schools do have bullying guidelines, many teachers admit putting the theory into practice is not easy. While once playground tormenters were easily identified, mobile phones and social networking sites mean insults can be traded and victims hounded without anyone opening their mouth or landing a punch.

According to latest Government figures, more than a third of 12 to 15-year-olds have faced some kind of cyber-bullying. Although some schools have now banned mobile phones from the classroom, the kind of bullying which was once confined to the playground no longer stops when the bell sounds for home time.

"As part of my research I have gone into various schools to really take the temperature of what's happening and from what I've seen I think the situation has actually got much worse," says Elizabeth. "Many teachers seem so worried about intervening that it's only when bullying gets out of control that something is done. Small level bullying like name calling seems to be ignored or accepted and many children are waking up each day dreading going to school."

The Bullying Consultancy, which is being backed by the University of Huddersfield's Business Mine, will enable schools to tap into Elizabeth's hard-won experience and will act as a one-stop advisory centre on the best way of eradicating the culture of bullying.

"In many schools, the first reaction is to place a bully in detention and in very serious cases exclude them completely from the classroom," she says.

"Unfortunately, this doesn't solve the problem. Children involved in bullying need to face up to the reasons why they are doing it and be shown the real impact it has on their victims. Keeping them behind after school to write a few lines doesn't do that and it can, in fact, breed resentment.

"There's a tendency to think of bullies as being at the low end of the spectrum academically, but actually many of them are high functioning and very bright. They know how to get round the system and the last thing schools need is for bullying to be driven underground.

"The real key is preventing bullying before it starts. Children have to know it won't be tolerated and teachers need to be aware of who is a potential victim so they can work at how to include them in lessons. Really simple things like getting pupils to share equipment and work together at any early age can have a dramatic effect at reducing bullying.

"We all know that teachers already have a lot on their plates and the idea of the consultancy is to relieve some of that pressure and to create an environment where everyone looks forward to going to school.

"I realise that you can't eradicate bullying overnight, but I really believe we can do a lot better than we are now."