Pupils do best to beat the bullies (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Pupils do best to beat the bullies

YOUNGSTERS from north and west Wiltshire stole the show in a countywide anti-bullying competition.

Pupils demonstrated their creative skills by writing poems and designing poetry to mark Wiltshire's annual Walk Tall Week, which raises awareness of how to prevent and deal with bullying effectively.

Primary school pupils were asked to write a poem about bullying in their classes and each school chose a winning entry in each category. The poems demonstrated a range of feelings and ideas about bullying, from where to go if you are being bullied to how bullies feel.

In the Year 2 category the overall winners were Corralene Donovan, from Frogwell Primary School in Chippenham, and Anjumol Thampy, from Melksham's Lowbourne Infants and Nursery School.

Edward Holland, from Christian Malford Primary School, was a Year 4 winner while Lauren Crookall-Fallon (Neston Primary School) and Hannah Ward (By Brook Valley Primary School) won in Year 5.

The six winning entries and 20 runners-up will have their poems published in a book which will be sent to all primary schools in the county.

Secondary school pupils entered a poster competition and were asked to create a thought-provoking design, which would have an impact in a school or the workplace. The winning posters are being reproduced professionally and sent to schools.

In the Year 9 category Rebecca Shepherd, of Stonar School, Atworth, topped the bill.

Graham Paton, Wiltshire County Council's adviser for personal, social and health education, said: "We hope that the competition helped whole school communities to talk about what they feel bullying is, and explore ways of preventing bullying from taking place.

"More and more schools are developing effective strategies for dealing with and preventing bullying and this has really come across in the competition entries that we received."