WHEN the chips are down, schoolchildren in North Yorkshire are out to help each other.

A new programme launched today and set up by children's charity ChildLine to encourage youngsters to help themselves is being backed by a number of schools in the region.

The ChildLine in Partnership with Schools (CHIPS) scheme aims to improve projects already concerned with children's welfare - like anti-bullying and anti-racism schemes - which exist in many schools, and to help schools without such schemes to help set them up.

Up to 10 schools in North Yorkshire have signed up to the new initiative and at Burnholme Community College in York about 60 students are wanting to introduce a series of different schemes to make life easier for troubled youngsters.

Teacher Sue Williamson, supervisor of the Burnholme CHIPS programme, said: "What's great is the children are realising they can make a difference."

The youngest pupils at Burnholme are keen to set up a 'bully watch', after first carrying out a survey to see if it is a genuine problem.

If the group thinks someone is the victim of bullying they will monitor the situation, offering support and encouragement for the victim to seek help rather than suffering in silence.

Older students at the school want to offer help to children with family problems.

They will undergo training to develop their listening skills so they can counsel youngsters, offer advice and help them to find help.

Gavin Tudor, 13, a member of the children-led committee set up to develop the various schemes, said Burnholme's CHIPS programme will offer youngsters an alternative to ringing the ChildLine help number.

He said youngsters were likely to feel more comfortable in the first instance talking to their peers about problems rather than a stranger on a telephone.

One in 10 children who called ChildLine last year did so because they were worried about another young person.

And in a recent ChildLine survey, youngsters said it was their friends they would turn to first in their hour of need.

ChildLine's CHIPS manager Maggie Turner said: "What makes this project so special is that it is run by young people for young people.

"We believe that the sort of pastoral schemes CHIPS promotes will help young people to grow into stable and socially responsible adults and to get the most out of their education."

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