NORTH Ayrshire Council have said that incidents of bullying are taken "extremely seriously" at Greenwood Academy.

It comes after a survey of parents, carers and pupils at the school showed there were fears over the handling of bullying at the Irvine school.

Over 1,000 parents and pupils were surveyed by Eduction Scotland earlier this year - as part of the watchdog's inspection report on the academy.

One of the statments on this survey, which pupils were asked to repond to, was "My school deals well with any bullying".

Of the 771 pupils who responded in the survey around 58 per cent said they had experienced this in some way.

Of this 58 per cent, some 28 per cent disagreed or strongly disagreed with the statement and 30 per cent agreed or strongly agreed.

And while this showed that pupils were divided on the issue - parents and carers had a much clearer perspective on this.

As part of their survey parents/carers at the school were asked a similar question: "My child's school deals well with any bullying."

Of the 254 surveyed, around 62 per cent said they had experienced this in some way.

Of this 62 per cent, 39 per cent disagreed or strongly disagreed with the statement and 23 per cent agreed or strongly agreed.

This showed that those with children at the school had serious fears with how bullying was being handled at Greenwood.

North Ayrshire Council have looked to allay these fears, insisting that steps are being taken to address any problems.

A council spokesperson said: “Pre-inspection surveys are one of a range of sources of information for inspectors to draw upon as part of an inspection. We of course note all the findings contained in the final report and will continually strive to make Greenwood Academy the best possible environment for our young people.

“We take incidents of bullying extremely seriously and would encourage young people and their parents/carers to continue to come forward to the school with any specific concerns, to allow issues to be addressed.

“Greenwood Academy did a full consultation with all stakeholders regarding bullying in April 2021 and launched a new anti-bullying policy in May 2021.

“The school committed to reviewing this policy and did so with the help of pupils last November. The school celebrates anti-bullying week and is confident that pupils are very clear about how to report bullying when it does arise."

They added that even more plans are in place to ensure they do not rest on their laurels.

They continued: “The school is always working on improving the situation with regards to perceived bullying behaviours and as part of that ongoing approach, is proud to have introduced the Mentors in Violence Prevention Programme (MVP) this year with S1.

“Greenwood Academy, like all our schools, is fully committed to working together with all members of the school community on an ongoing basis to minimise bullying incidents as far as possible.”