Hastingsbury Upper School and Community College, Kempston, has been given a cash injection from the force for the Text Someone project.

Launched to coincide with Anti-Bullying Week, the innovative project – which has already been introduced to Stratton Upper School in Biggleswade – will give pupils the power to report incidents of bullying, theft, crime or any unwanted behaviour.

This will be in confidence to their school, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, by text message, email or a local rate phone call..

Charlie Whiteside, community relations and youth issues adviser for Bedfordshire Police, said: "Bedfordshire Police are dedicated to reducing incidents of crime surrounding young people and Text Someone can help us in this provision.
 
"Not only does it encourage children to speak out against bullying, but also about other incidents that may be concerning them.

"Text Someone will help us to spot potential problems fast and enable schools to involve the right personnel to deal with them."
 
Text Someone offers a way of tackling all forms of bullying without the need to invest in new telephone systems, additional phone lines or a new computer.

Although staff at Hastingsbury are keen to point out there are no particular problems at the school, the new initiative will help to encourage those who are being bullied to report incidents more frequently.
 
Whenever a pupil sends a message, it will automatically appear on the Text Someone system in the school, with staff being alerted to this by email or a text message.
 
A member of school staff can securely log onto the system to see all of the messages reported by pupils, reply to the message and enter the appropriate notes next to the message.

This provides details of what happened after an incident was reported.

Stephen Clarke, managing director of Text Someone, added: "It is very encouraging to see a police force take the decision to use technology in the battle against bullying.

"Text Someone will not only benefit the schools and pupils in reducing bullying but will also enable the police to open lines of communication with young people."

Call 0870 046 4246 for more information.