A PRUDHOE school is leading the way in showing bullies the door, by becoming a regional champion for anti-bullying.

Highfield Middle School teacher Catherine Haslam has been the school’s anti-bullying co-ordinator for the past decade.

In recognition of her efforts, she has been asked to take on the role of North-East regional staff champion for the national Anti-Bullying Ambassadors’ Programme.

Miss Haslam was inspired to take a strong stance on bullying after suffering childhood bullying herself.

She said: “I was bullied as a child. I still can’t believe I work in a school now because it was such a bad situation.

“I wanted to be able to make sure nobody else had to go through what I did.

“I’m really honoured to be a regional champion. It’s about being a central base up in the North-East and getting other schools and staff on board.”

The school has long been a leading light in this issue, becoming the area’s first school to receive Northumberland County Council’s anti-bullying accreditation in 2007.

Since then, each year a team of year eight pupils have applied to become peer mentors, advising and supporting all pupils experiencing problems. In 2011 the team also became anti-bullying ambassadors under the Diana Award scheme.

Every year the school marks anti-bullying week with a series of workshops.

This November the school has gone all-out with an anti-bullying fortnight when the school’s mascot ‘Aunty Bully’ will be out and about even more around the school.

The event looked at all aspects of bullying with a special focus on cyber bullying with tips and strategies for pupils and parents on how to stay safe online.

All age groups of children took part, from making friendship bracelets and designing their own anti-bullying policy to raising awareness of the inappropriate use of social media.

An evening on e-safety was held last night for parents and guardians of pupils of Highfield Middle School and all first schools in the community.

All pupils have completed a bullying questionnaire and the results will inform an action plan for the future.

Anti-bullying ambassador and peer mentor, Harry Bailey (13) said: “We are there because people don’t always want to talk to a teacher about problems and they might not want to come to school if they’re being bullied.

“It makes it easier to talk about if you have someone your own age group to approach.”