ONE in four children across Hampshire's 540 schools have been bullied, a survey revealed today.

In the biggest poll of its kind in the country about a quarter of the 32,500 youngsters questioned said they had suffered repeated verbal or physical abuse.

Increasingly text messaging is used by bullies against their victims according to the responses from the primary and secondary school-aged children.

Hampshire County Council carried out the survey last summer to gauge children's views of everyday school life and to see how widespread bullying was.

Questions included asking pupils whether they were repeatedly bullied because of their skin colour, religion or the language they spoke at home.

The county council also quizzed youngsters about where the bullying incidents took place, whether in the playground or outside the school gates.

Now education bosses have set up anti-bullying hit squads to offer tips and advice to teachers, support staff, parents and children on tackling bullies.

Together representatives from the police, the youth service, schools, social workers, the education welfare service and education psychology department will help schools develop effective anti-bullying policies.

They will also help youngsters to develop their social skills, assertiveness and self esteem through specially arranged activities organised in school.

Councillor David Kirk, Hampshire County Council's executive member for education said: "Every child really does matter and we take our responsibilities to ensure children feel safe and secure in schools very seriously which is why we have surveyed pupils on this very important subject.

"The results from the survey will enable us to work closely with schools on preventative strategies to ensure all pupils understand that bullying is unacceptable and to ensure that they are all able to enjoy school and gain the most from their education."

All of the pupils, polled as part of the council's annual pupil attitude survey, came from a mixture of Years 2 and 6 in primary schools and Years 7 and 9 in secondary schools across the country.

In some schools no pupils aged between six and 14 felt they had been bullied while in others all the girls felt they had experienced bullying at some time.