DAD Paul King says St Peter’s School in Chippenham needs to do more to tackle bullying after his six-year-old daughter was targeted for over a year.

His daughter, Madison, who lives with her mum in the town, says she’s been repeatedly verbally bullied by a group of girls over the last year, but only told her parents two weeks ago.

Despite approaching the school’s headteacher Mark Everett, Mr King, who lives in Weston-super-Mare says he felt ‘disgusted’ with his response and has since taken the decision to pull his daughter out of the primary school.

The pair are now working on getting the six-year-old back into full-time education at another primary in Chippenham.

“My daughter opened up to us the weekend before last and told us that she had been bullied for the last year,” he said.

“It broke my heart to think that she had kept it completely to herself and was carrying that on her shoulders.

“She must have had a bad day on Friday to tell us about it, so we let it settle over the weekend before approaching the school.

“We then spoke to Mr Everett last Monday but he just shrugged it off.

“I am disgusted with his response - he just didn’t want to know.”

St Peter’s School has an anti-bullying policy which states bullying is ‘unacceptable’ and that the school should have a ‘consistent response to any bullying incidents which occur.’

Under the policy, the headteacher should be informed about any bullying issues, and both parties - including parents- are interviewed before any action against a student or group is taken.

Mr Everett said: “We are unable to comment on individual pupils but we do take any form of bullying very seriously and will investigate situations on a case by case basis.

“My door is always open and I am happy to speak with parents when concerns are raised.”