Ms Ann Piggott:

To begin with, social media companies should monitor their sites. Some bullying instances are obvious because they involve really bad or negative comments that encourage others to join in and jeer at people. There could be a large number of comments. I am sure politicians get these readily. Even adults find it hard to cope with such comments, so it must be devastating for children of 13 or 14 years. As soon as social media companies see such comments, they should remove or take them down or be found responsible and fined. Legislation should be in place to prohibit this, particularly with regard to young people.

In terms of wider society, parents could get involved in helping us. Local businesses that are located close to schools might observe things that we do not see. There is also a major role to be played by the inspectorate. Whole-school evaluations should focus on bullying. Likewise, there should even be special inspections that focus solely on bullying, survey and interview students and work from there. That is how we can go forward.