Introduction
This mixed comprehensive school has some 450 11-16 year-old pupils taught by 30 teachers. It serves a disadvantaged city district. 63% of the pupils are eligible for free school meals; 60% are from single parent families; 40% are on the school's special educational needs register.

Details
The school has a well-articulated code of conduct and an equal opportunities policy which specify its expectations about pupils' behaviour, including bullying. Copies of these documents are given to all pupils when they join the school, and to their parents. The school's Anti-Bullying Campaign (ABC) peer support system is an integral part of the way in which the code of conduct and the equal opportunities policy are implemented in practice. The anti-bullying work in the school was established after careful planning and consultation with all interested groups. It has strong support from the school's governors, senior managers, and the majority of the teachers, parents and pupils who are all well informed about the system.

ABC involves pupil peer supporters trained to offer help to other pupils who are being bullied. Some of the peer supporters visit the school's feeder primaries where they speak to prospective pupils and their parents about the school's ABC scheme. These visits are reinforced early in the school year when all new pupils (Year 7) have a series of PSHE lessons on the code of conduct including the school's anti-bullying stance and what victims can do if they are bullied. Bullying and the ABC system are also frequent topics of assemblies for all year groups of pupils.

This peer support system was established because of concern that bullying was going unreported, despite appeals to speak up- and pupils had thought adults would not understand. However, it is not intended to replace any of the people to whom victims might report their bullying problems; it is simply another avenue that they may use.

Consultation meetings with the school's senior managers, teachers, ancillary staff and some of the pupils were positive and the system was established in 1996. A teacher has day-to-day responsibility for managing, administering and monitoring it under the oversight of the other teacher, a deputy head.

Prospective peer supporters from Year 8 and above are invited to complete an application form. The short-listed applicants are interviewed by the educational psychologist, the counsellor and existing peer supporters, on the basis of how convincingly the forms have been completed. A history of bad behaviour is not in itself a reason for excluding a pupil from consideration. "I'm clear in my own mind that you're aiming to recruit the kids. ..who've got big 'cred', are shiny, attractive and who people will think that if they're doing it then it must be a good thing. ..Often they'll be a bit naughty but you need the 'cred' that they bring with them" (Educational psychologist).Unusually, for many mixed-sex schools which have a peer support system, this school has succeeded in achieving a gender balance amongst the peer supporters. Successful interviewees are invited to attend extensive training sessions run by the school counsellor and the educational psychologist. Only on the successful completion of this training are individual interviewees appointed as peer supporters.

Lunchtime group supervision meetings, lasting for 30 minutes, are run every week by at least two of the adults. Unnamed individual cases are discussed, during which supporters occasionally seek advice and disseminate ideas on, for example, appropriate or successful approaches.

Outcomes
The teacher in charge of the ABC system conducts an annual anonymous questionnaire survey of all of the pupils and teachers in the school. In 1997 39% of pupil respondents said they had ever 'been a bully in this school'. For 1998 and 1999 the corresponding figures were 41 and 30% respectively. There has also been a decline in the number of pupil respondents who report having ever 'been bullied in this school'. In 1997 58% did so, whilst the corresponding figures for 1998 and 1999 were 53 and 42 % respectively.

At the end of the 1997 autumn term, unnamed records showed the system had dealt with forty-seven cases involving sixty-two pupil victims since the service began in mid-1996. Apparently, the anti-bullying work has encouraged pupils to tell someone they are being bullied, as well as reducing the numbers of bullies and victims.

Summary
	Well integrated peer support system with wide support.
	System managed by a co-operative team of adults with clearly defined roles and who are careful in the selection, training and supervision of the peer supporters.
	System has a clearly defined function, understood by peer supporters and users.
	Regular evaluation through questionnaire surveys and analysis of records.
	Progress in encouraging use of the peer support service and in reducing bullying.