Bullying UK gets many requests from pupils wanting help with bullying projects. We get many others from students, teachers and academics carrying out research. We try to help with these where we can. Most of the information you need is probably already on the website, if you can't find it then let us know and we'll explain where it is.

If you want help with a written project for school/college, you can use any information off the site for background information, but please don't copy it word for word and please credit Bullying UK as the place you got it.
Unfortunately, we cannot give permission for our copyright content to be used on any other websites or in any other electronic media or printed form.

Statistics

There are no official statistics for the number of pupils being bullied at any one time in the UK. The only type of bullying which has to be recorded in the UK is racist bullying.

Neither are there any statistics for the number of young people who kill themselves due to distress over bullying. These figures do not have to be officially recorded but it is believed that around 16-20 pupils in the UK commit suicide every year. Some deaths are recorded at inquests as an 'open verdict' meaning there isn't enough evidence for the coroner to decide exactly what happened.
Carry out a survey Bullying UK carried out The National Bullying Survey 2006 and you can find a copy of the comprehensive results in a pdf on our home page.

If you want to find out the extent of bullying in your school, a survey is a good place to start. Ask your school if you can get together with other pupils to come up with some questions about the things you feel are important at your own school. For instance, you might want to ask if particular areas of school are unsafe.

Questions you can ask

• Have you been bullied in the last year?
• Are you being bullied now?
• Are you being bullied by one person or several people?
  
• Was the bullying name-calling?
• Was the bullying excluding you from friendships?
• Was the bullying violent (hitting, kicking, punching, pushing)?
• Was the bully threatening to harm you?
• Was this bullying because of your colour, race or religion?
• Was the bullying about being gay?
• Are you being bullied out of school?
• Are you being bullied on the internet or by mobile phone?
• Are you being bullied on the way to school
  
• Was the bullying by pupils the same age or by those older or younger?
• Did you tell your parents/carer?
• Did you tell a friend?
• Did you tell a teacher?
• Did you hit back?
  
• Did you stay at home?
  
• Did the bullying stop?
• How many days have you taken off school due to bullying?
• Have you kept a diary about the problem?
  
• If it got better why do you think this was?
• If it got worse, why do you think this was?
• Where did bullying happen?
• Are some areas of school unsafe?
• Where in school is bullying most likely to happen?
• Have you seen anyone else being bullied?
• Have you ever bullied anyone?
• Why did you bully someone?
• Do you know if the school has an anti-bullying policy?
• Do you know what you are supposed to do at school if someone is bullying you?

If you want to publicise your project you could make a prominent display with pupils' pictures, poems and quotes. Perhaps you could put on a play.

If you do a survey and collate the results with the idea of updating your school bullying policy, then think about doing another survey after a year, to see how effective any changes to the policy have been.

Differences between girl and boy bullying

Bullying UK is often asked what are the most common forms of bullying in secondary schools.

Our experience has shown that boys and girls tend to bully in different ways. Teenage girls are more likely to use exclusion from friendships, rumour spreading, gossip and name calling while boys - although they do indulge in these things - are more likely to punch and kick their victims than girls and to use intimidation.

Girls are the main perpetrators of mobile phone abuse and also on the receiving end of most text message abuse and silent calls.

Girls who are good friends often tell each other their big secrets and when they fall out this sometimes means that the ex-friend posts really embarrassing things about the other girl on the internet. This can be very upsetting but anyone who does this can easily be traced by the police because nothing you do on the internet is secret, your digital fingerprints are all over it, even if you create a name using an account like hotmail or yahoo.

Posting nasty stuff on the internet about someone else, or altering photos of them to make them obscene, can be harassment which is against the law. It's also against the law to use the phone system, which includes the internet, to cause alarm or distress.

If you need help from Bullying UK email us here