I was bullied at both my primary and secondary schools. It all started in Reception and didn’t end until Year 10. Not long after my first day at Argyle primary school a girl in my class named Tanisha took a dislike to me. She didn’t call me names or hit me but she did everything she could stop other people from talking to me. And if I was ever sat near her she would tell me to move away.

I couldn’t understand it. I hadn’t done anything wrong so I didn’t know why she felt she had the right to be nasty to me. Maybe it was because I was shy and quiet. I don’t know.

I felt all alone with my problem because no one seemed able to help me with it. My friends were too scared of Tanisha to tell her stop and even the teachers couldn’t stop her. They said they’d talk to her but they didn’t take no actions and nothing got done. And I didn’t tell my parents because I knew they’d just ask me tonnes of questions.

I remember she once said: I’m going to make sure nobody in the class talks to you or sits next to you.

When I started at Elizabeth Garrett Anderson school I thought I’d left the bullying behind me and was starting afresh. Sadly, another girl, named Shantelle, bullied me there too. Funnily enough, she behaved in a similar way to Tanisha, doing everything she could to isolate me. I remember she once said: “I’m going to make sure nobody in the class talks to you or sits next to you.”

In the end though, I got her kicked out. I’d been telling my teachers for years that Shantelle was bullying me and she was given lots of warnings, but she just wouldn’t stop it. In Year 10 my form tutor drew a line in the sand and had her expelled.

I don’t know what happened to either of Tanisha or Shantelle and I don’t think about them. The good thing about all of this is that I although I was bullied almost every year I was in school, it doesn’t affect me now. It’s all in the past.

NOTE: the names in the story have been changed to protect people’s identities.