"If any of my staff had stood by while seeing a pupil being picked on and assaulted while waiting at the same bus stop, s/he would not have remained in the job for another 5 minutes."

At the boys' grammar school I went to from 1960-67 it was the masters who led the bullying, aided and abetted by prefects and senior boys. While I was there one boy hung himself at school because of the way he was treated (including persistent beatings) by a certain master. To my knowledge no action was taken and the master certainly still behaved in the same way afterwards.

Today schools are expected to have a proper programme of pastoral care. Any school found by OFSTED not to have a suitable programme will be put into special measures no matter how good it might be in other aspects. At my daughter's school there is a Pastoral Department with a dedicated Pastoral Care Manager. Any problems (not just bullying) can be brought to Pastoral by pupils, teachers or parents. These are then investigated, all parties are talked to, and a solution is instigated, overseen by the Pastoral Manager. Ifthe problem continues, further steps can be taken including the exclusion of any persitent offender.