The children's commissioner: bullying

Newsround spoke to the children's commissioner for England about bullying.

The commissioner, Al Aynsley-Green, spoke out about bullying this week, saying that almost every child in the country is affected by bullying at some stage and that schools need to do more to stamp it out.

We put a selection of YOUR questions about bullying to him as part of the interview.

Lizo: Bullying is a huge problem, how can you change that?

Al Aynsley-Green: Three things: first of all by making sure people are talking about bullying, secondly to encourage all schools to realise how serious it is, and third to encourage children to be involved in telling children and schools what is happening and what can be done about it.

Lizo: One of the things you suggested was to get all pupils to fill in a questionnaire every term. How do you think that will stop someone from bullying you?

Al Aynsley-Green: This is what children are asking me to ask for. They tell me that schools very often don't really understand what's going on and they're the experts. One way of getting schools to understand is to get them to give out an anonymous questionnaire regularly so they do understand the size and scale of problem.

Adele, 15, Kilmarnock: Were you ever bullied?

Al Aynsley-Green: Yes I was. I was born in Newcastle and moved to London when I was 10 with my family and no one could understand a word I said and I was bullied. I survived because I found some friends who helped me.

Molly, 13, Belfast: Teachers don't have much control of the bullies at my school. What can you do to change that?

Al Aynsley-Green: Make sure that teachers understand that bullying is a serious issue for children and to listen to children at schools and get children engaged in the solution to the problem.

Ronan, 12, Hull: What do you do and what powers do you have?

Al Aynsley-Green: I'm the independent commissioner I report to Parliament and tell Parliament exactly what children are thinking and the concerns in their lives.

Lizo: You've said that any child can come up to you and talk to you about anything that's bothering them. Can you tell our viewers how they can contact you?

Al Aynsley-Green: They can e-mail me at [e-mail]. We'll have our new interactive website up soon, they can write to me, and above all I want to talk to them when I'm walking around their schools around the country too.

You can get more info about the Children's Commissioner by clicking on the web link on the right of this page