A VICAR has defended a Weymouth secondary school against accusations of bullying.
The Rev Tim West spoke out on behalf of All Saints School in Wyke Regis following the death of pupil Robyn Nixon.
The parents of the 15-year-old, Rob and Sue Nixon, have said their daughter’s death was linked to bullying but urged people not to name and shame those involved.
Since their announcement, dozens of people have contacted the Echo to say that they have been the victims of bullying while they themselves or their children were pupils at the school.
Mr West, who is team rector of St Andrew’s Church in Preston and a former chairman of governors at All Saints, defended the school from rumours that Robyn was a victim of bullying.
He said: “The school has had no allegations of bullying raised by Robyn or her family.
“Clearly there have been allegations of bullying but the school has not been made aware, despite being in touch with the family.
“The school has a full-time counsellor who offered to see Robyn’s mother and there has been ongoing support available to the family and at no point have any allegations of bullying been made.
“This was Robyn’s last year in the school, having been right through the school and we don’t have any bullying allegations made by her.
“The school is strong on bullying and reviews its robust bullying policy regularly.
“In fact the bullying policy was one of the strengths of the Ofsted inspection last autumn.”
Mr West held a special assembly yesterday where he urged pupils to ‘live life to the full as a way of honouring Robyn’s memory’. He also discussed ‘the need to support each other and talk about things so nobody feels isolated’.
Six extra counsellors were employed to assist the school’s full-time counsellor to support grieving students on the first day back after the Easter holidays.
Mr West said: “There was a real sense that this was the first time the school had met since Robyn’s sad death. There was a real sense of sadness and support for all concerned.
“People are knuckling down and getting on with things, they want to live life to the full.”
Mr West said many of the students found tributes at the scene of Robyn’s fall in Lower St Alban Street, where a ‘goodbye’ street party was held on Sunday, ‘moving and helpful’.
He said it was a natural reaction to want to pay respects at the site in town and school representatives had met with police the day after Robyn’s death to put plans in place for a presence from street pastors and police by the multi-storey car park.
He added: “The school is making sure that everyone involved has the support they need.
“There were six additional counsellors just for the first day and there was a reasonable number of students coming forward.”
He appealed for anyone who has been bullied at All Saints to ‘come forward’ and contact the school and added: “If we don’t hear about it we can’t do anything about it.”
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