Prince William visited Hammersmith Academy to give his backing to a campaign cracking down on bullying.
The Duke of Cambridge met 50 young people from the school in Cathnor Road last week and took part in a training session about support networks, cyber-bullying and LGBT bullying. He urged by young people to speak out and not suffer in silence if they were being bullied. The royal visit was organised by the Diana Award’s Anti bullying Ambassadors’ #Back2School campaign. The campaign comes after 35 per cent of young people said they didn’t feel comfortable telling anyone about bullying and 59 per cent said bullying made them think about skipping school in an online survey by the charity answered by 2,000 young people.
Prince William met some of the charity’s Anti-Bullying Ambassadors who are taught to recognise signs of bullying and learned how they can encourage victims to seek help and speak out about their concerns.
There are currently over 16,000 Anti-Bullying Ambassadors trained by The Diana Award in 3,000 schools across the UK and Ireland.