ALMOST half of children have worried about returning to class after school holidays because of bullying, according to a poll.
It also suggests that youngsters feel that being the victim of bullying has an impact on their academic life - affecting their grades, attendance and whether they put their hand up in class.
The survey, published by the Diana Award, questioned 1,003 secondary-age children.
It found that three fifths (60 per cent) said they have been bullied at school at some point.
Of all of the youngsters questioned, 46 per cent said they have worried about going back to school after a holiday or half term because of bullying.
Of the children who had been bullied, 40 per cent said it was because of their academic ability.
It also found that of all the children who said they had been bullied, 39 per cent said it affected their school grades, and 38 per cent said it affected their attendance at school.
Just more than half (51 per cent) said it made them less likely to put their hand up in class.
The Diana Award has launched a campaign to highlight the issue of bullying.
Alex Holmes, deputy CEO of The Diana Award, says: "Young people spend 11,000 hours of their lives in full education. School should be safe and free from bullying. We're urging everyone to get behind our campaign by helping us to train anti-bullying ambassadors in every schools.
"We know this peer to peer approach works and these young ambassadors are already changing behaviours and shaping attitudes by sending a clear message that bullying isn't acceptable."
Nick Gibb, UK minister for schools standards, said: "No child should worry about returning to school out of fear of being bullied.
"Schools are required by law to have a behaviour policy in place to prevent all forms of bullying and from next year they will have new guidance on how to teach Relationships Education to their pupils, which includes teaching pupils about respect, tolerance and addresses issues such as online safety."
