The survey (ReachOut Australia) of 1000 young people aged 14-25 also found that 23 per cent of respondents had been bullied in the past 12 months, but only half had sought help.

Staff at Mudgee High School were recently forced to call the police on an accused bully – who was charged and refused bail for an altercation with another student.

The school is not taking the incident lightly, deciding to heighten the awareness around their anti-bullying program.

“The school has had the Pikas method for around 17 years. We now need to re-educate students, parents and staff about what the method looks like and remind everyone what the process is,” anti bullying contact officer, Sue Spinner said.

The Pikas method approach is based on a ‘no blame’ system or method of shared concern. Once it is established that bullying has taken place, no blame is given to the parties involved. It affirms that the behaviour is wrong and the responsibility of the person showing bullying behaviour is then to improve the victim's life at school. Within a short time, by putting the bully in the position of exerting positive power, the issue is resolved.

Mrs Spinner explained how the system works at Mudgee High “the student goes to the front office to pick up the form – the advantage of the front office is that the kids go in and out all the time – so it’s a non threatening place. The fact that the student is going to the front office won’t raise the eyebrows of anybody around.”

“The child fills out the form – they name as many of the kids involved that they can – they nominate a teacher they feel comfortable to talk to – and they drop the form back into the front office.

“A nondescript letter is sent to all of the parents – stating ‘your child is assisting us with a bullying incident at school’. It doesn’t suggest whether the kids are the perpetrators or the victims.

“Each child will have a non threatening interview with questions like  ‘how do you know X’ and ‘how do you think X feels at school?’ not ‘what are you doing to X?’. The kids aren’t being told they are being mean and horrible – they are just asked ‘how do you think X might feel?’

“My experience is that they are often shocked that X feels uncomfortable, saying things like ‘but we’re just mucking about’ or ‘it’s just a joke’. At this point we make suggestions to them about how they might help make X feel better,” she said.

The theory is that bullies have a need to demonstrate a sense of power over others and discipline by a teacher reinforces that behaviour.