A perceived rise in girls bullying girls is not a significant problem at Wakatipu High School and neither is bullying in general, says principal Lyn Cooper.
Ms Cooper said two pupils had been suspended this year over bullying but it was not seen as a "major issue" at the school.
"As a community we have to collectively take action to take a stand against power and control behaviour and to build resilience in our youth so they become bully-proof and not victims."
Senior pupil leaders were "active in preventing issues escalating and work with staff to instil values", Ms Cooper said.
Depending on severity, different strategies were used, including non-violence contracts, mediation, restorative practice, stand downs and suspensions.
"The main issue facing a victim is having the harm repaired.
"The main issues facing perpetrators are understanding the effect they have on others," she said.
There were many types of bullying, such as texting and on social networking sites.
"We have a cyber safety policy and expectation for personal responsibility and - along with our contributing primary schools - have a commitment to restorative practice, and in doing so increasing the capacity of our whole school community to maintain respectful relationships with others. This also supports the bystander to take action and report any wrongdoing," Ms Cooper said.
The school has 12 trained facilitators and is training staff using the same professional organisation as Arrowtown Primary School and Queenstown Primary School.
School board of trustees member Greg Turner said disciplinary data showed the incidence of bullying had been gradually decreasing.
"We've had fewer stand downs and suspensions and that's been improving. We're pretty active with our restorative practice. There hasn't been any discernible upswing in discipline. I don't know if that's down to more vigilance ... ," Mr Turner said.
Although citing communication problems between teachers and management, a recent Education Review Office report found the school had a good standard of pastoral care.
Meanwhile, Queenstown youth workers had not been alerted to any increase in bullying in the district recently.
Wakatipu Youth Trust worker Fi Sawers said bullying had "gone on for centuries. It's just that the methodology constantly changes. Text or email bullying obviously didn't exist 30 years ago".
• For more information. - www.netsafe.org.nz, www.bullyonline.co.uk. 0508 NETSAFE 0508-638-723, Youth Line 0800 376-633 or txt 234 or email/MSN talk@youthline.co.nz.
