A YouGov survey has shown that almost half of adults were bullied at school

Celebrities have spoken out on being bullied at school, as a new survey revealed that around half of adults were picked on.

A YouGov survey – commissioned by The Diana Award’s Back2School Campaign – has shown that 47% of adults were bullied at school.

Tom Daley, Cathy Newman and Rio Ferdinand have spoken of being picked on in the classroom as part of the campaign to end school bullying.

Olympic diver Daley said: “When I came back from Beijing, that’s when everything changed. They took the mick out of what I was wearing on the diving board, they would throw stuff at me at lunchtime, it became a thing that diving was becoming a burden.”

Channel 4 News presenter Newman said: “Some of the things that happened to me would definitely be described now as sexual harassment... If you were a girl and wore a white t-shirt, the girls would get a fire hose and spray you down so they could see your underwear.”

Former England footballer Ferdinand said: “I got racist abuse growing up... It got me upset, I was angry... I’ve got young kids now – nine, seven and five – I don’t want to see them being bullied, but I also stress to them I don’t want to see you bullying anyone.”

The survey, of more than 2,000 adults and 500 young people in the UK, revealed that 64% of young people, aged eight to 15, say at least one of their friends has been bullied at school.

Nearly a quarter (24%) of 15-year-olds said their friends were worried about going back to school because of bullying.

Alex Holmes, head of The Diana Award Anti-Bullying Campaign, said: “Young people spend 11,000 hours of their lives in full education. School should be safe and free from bullying.

“We’re urging everyone to get behind our campaign by helping us to train anti-bullying ambassadors in schools. We know this peer to peer campaign works.”