A NEW international interactive promoting anti-bullying has been rolled out at Worle Community School.

The two-year project, commissioned by the Grundtvig European funding programme aims to engage students in building a virtual anti-bullying village.

Year Eight pupils have joined forces with kids from Germany, Italy, Bulgaria, Israel, Poland and Norway to explore how best to eradicate and deal with bullying

The school is one of only two in the country with the scheme where pupils create a virtual island community.

The pupils create their own online characters – called avatars – which are responsible for governing the island through its own virtual parliament.

Pupil, Ellie Reddington said: “The Virtual Island is really interesting. You can talk to people from other countries and join in activities. We have been making a forest and will start on the buildings next.

“I am looking forward to the parliament meetings where we get to discuss our ideas.”

The students talk to other children through a computer messaging service and hold monthly transnational meetings.

A spokesman for the school said it gave the schoolchildren a chance to tackle the issue of bullying and see how it is dealt with in other countries.